After a day's work in an Iraq public sector job, Azhar offers legal support to women who are victims of domestic abuse, something she knows well given her experience with a brutal husband.

After she was forced into marriage by family pressure, Azhar, 56, battled in court for almost a decade to divorce the man who would beat her up.

"I believed I was going to die," she said, recalling one attack and showing pictures of purple bruises on her arms and legs.

"That was the moment when I decided to break my chains."

She eventually won her freedom, and the ordeal prompted her to study law.

"I felt I was weak in the face of the justice system," recalled Azhar, who heads a non-government organisation that offers legal support to victims of violence and is part of the Iraqi Women's Network coalition.

"I help any woman who is a victim of violence or in need of legal aid, so that these women become aware of their rights and can defend themselves," she said.