WHO (World Health Organization) defined Quality of Life (QOL) as “an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. It is a broad ranging concept affected in a complex way by the person's physical health, psychological state, personal beliefs, social relationships and their relationship to salient features of their environment” [1].
Women suffer more severely from the damage to the health and other infrastructure and the wider economic damage as well as from displacement and dislocation during and after conflict [2].
Quality of life research increase knowledge related to the individual for clinical management, develop an epidemiological perspective to the problems, provide data to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of various permutations in the balance between the three levels of prevention, and the 'human effectiveness' of health care system restructuring. Therefore QOL data have significant implications for social and public policy [3].
During the last 100 years ago, Iraq generally, and Kurdistan region particularly underwent wars and conflicts which led to massive loss of men from families. Those people died for the principal slogans of the revolution: freedom, social and economic justice and democracy. According to documented statistics of the Erbil General Directorate of Martyrs and the Anfal Affairs, there are 20000 martyr (veteran) families and each family may have one to five martyrs in Erbil governorate. In the majority of them the women assume the responsibility of family support and even custodial family support. Wars and armed struggles pushed Kurdish women to play multiple and various roles which made changes in gender relations and social position. In results they experienced pains and problems, and according their racial, class, religious, rural and urban status, women’s multiple social identities were intertwined by activism and resistance in different parts of Kurdistan [4].
The Director of the Medical Center of Martyr Families of Erbil City stated that since establishment of the center in 2000, many of the patients are female of middle age and older. The majority, although visiting doctors for treatment of physical or mental health, clearly exhibited the need of psychological and economic support because of the loss of the family leader and breadwinner (husbands, father and brothers). As the sole adult, they are forced to assume all roles in the family structure. There are a number of females who are still in their productive age and want to remarry or change their lifestyle but cannot because of the traditional and social obstacles of single parenthood. (BQ Saleem, Personal communication, 15 February 2018).
The general purpose of the present study is to provide evidence on need assessment of Kurdish women, specifically from martyr families because of their challenges in health needs and their role in supporting family members. Therefore this study aimed to find out the QOL of Kurdish women from martyr families and find out its association with their sociodemographic characteristics.