A Cognitive Linguistic Study of Battered Woman in Selected Iraqi Caricatures

The present paper is a qualitative descriptive study. It aims to examine the macro-cultural schemata addressing the concept of violence against women in Iraq from a cognitive linguistic point of view. To meet this objective, a number of Iraqi social caricatures have been selected from two popular and active Iraqi caricaturists, Odeh Al-Fahdawi and Nasser Ibrahim. The selection and the analysis of data have been achieved following the validity and reliability procedures and the ethical considerations. To meet this objective, Sharifian’s Model (2011) of Cultural Schemata has been adopted in data analysis. The study has concluded that the macro-cultural schemata regarding the concept of violence in the selected panels reveals that violence against women does exist in the Iraqi society, and that woman and children are the major victims of that phenomenon. Moreover, the major cause of such a phenomenon is due to the patriarchal nature of the society that leads to have an unbalanced power between the two parties man vs. woman/children; in addition to other reasons related to the unfair social traditions and customs. The mismatch in power has been conceptualized creatively and differently by these two caricaturists. Speaking from the cognitive linguistic point of view, the researchers have also found that the panels are symbolic rather than iconic, they involve culture-proper figures. Finally, both caricaturists invested the conceptual metaphors and figurative devices when depicting the concept of violence against women; that is, the concept of violence against women is universal in their panels; however, the way it is depicted is subjective and cultural-proper at the micro-cultural level.


Introduction
The present work is dedicated to examine the concept of violence against women from a cognitive linguistic point of view using visual language. Why cognitively? This is because cognition is implicit and abstract and reflects individual and societal differences. In this regard, Cohn (2013) elaborated, visual language implies a number of abstract and concrete figures that are culture-proper. Having belonged to the same culture, does not entail conceptualizing the same thing exactly in a similar way. In this vein, Geeraerts (2006) stated, "cultural schemas are a culturally constructed subclass of the so-called "cognitive schemas" (p. 11). Similarly, Sharifian (2017) assumed that "cultural schemas" are only a sub-class of what is so called as "cognitive schemas" (p. 11). Sharifian further adopted Taylor and Crocker's (1981) view in that these individual cognitive schemas are developed through the interactions between cognition and culture. In other words, culture as a concept and as Sharifian (2011) maintained, is of two types macro and micro. That is why, one might encounter differences when conceptualizing a given cultural phenomenon, reflecting as a result the individual differences within the same culture.
The present work, thus, is to examine the macro-cultural schemata regarding the concept of violence against women in the Iraqi culture from a cognitive linguistic point of view. To meet this objective, a number of Iraqi social caricatures have been selected to this effect. Using visual language represented by caricatures helps clarify the shared cultural schemata when conceptualizing a given cultural phenomenon. It, at the same time, sheds light on the individual differences, i.e., mental images highlighted when depicting this phenomenon. Accordingly, and following this cognitive linguistic track, the researchers are to adopt Sharifian's model of cultural schemata (2011) when analyzing the data of the study. To derive the conclusions, the researchers are to answer the following research question: What are the macro-cultural schemata involved when conceptualizing the concept of violence against women in the Iraqi society as portrayed by the two popular Iraqi caricaturists, Al-Fahdawi and Ibrahim?

The Concept of Violence
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights (2009) stated that 'violence against woman' as a term is interchangeable with the technical term gender-based violence. It further shed light on the types of violence that exist in the Kurdistan Regional Government, which are: domestic violence, sexual assault, rape, sex trafficking or forced prostitution, female genital mutilation, coerced suicide, forced marriage, inability to choose marriage partner, dowry related violence, polygamy, threatened honor killing, honor killing, murder (killing that is not specifically tied to honor related reasons) and burning women.
Abdul-Hameed (2011) maintained that violence is any harmful act directed against women on the basis of gender, causing them physical or psychological harm and violating their safety, security or freedom. Such an act might be committed by an individual, man or even woman, or by a group of women or men against a woman or a group of women, or women in general, in public or private places. Tyyskä and Saran (2013) maintained that violence "is widely applied to all forms of abuse that occur in familial relationships, whether .. physical, sexual, financial/economic, emotional/psychological, verbal, spiritual, or involves the neglect of someone's needs" (p. 2). In this regard, Wallace, Roberson and Globokar (2019) further defined it as an act that implies experiencing a bad physical or emotional behavior or treatment that leads to devastate the victims. The doer of the battering is usually done by the male member of the family and sometimes from the authority female as well; that is, 'an intimate partner abuse' or 'an elder abuse'. The experienced are majorly women or children. Recently, the concept of violence has been a global issue that took various dimensions: legal, social, or medical ones. However, all of these dimensions flow in the river of domestic violence and aggression.
Wallace, Roberson and Globokar (2019) also pinpointed the forms of violence, stating that it can be violence, aggressions and isolation, where the latter can be considered as "a common characteristic of intimate partner abuse" (p. 22). They also added that any of these types involves power, which is in return defined as "the ability to control the behavior of others, with or without their consent" (p. 25). Any of these acts has ultimately various consequences. For instance, it can be a physical injury, i.e., "trace visible scars, unknown long-term physical injuries, and longterm catastrophic injuries, immediate injuries, ..[such as] bruises, contusions, cuts, and broken bones" (Wallace, Roberson and Globokar, 2019, p. 31). Or, it can involve passing through psychological and emotional problems before and after the act of abuse. As it is seen, such a concept can be categorized differently based on different dimensions. However, the most important type of violence is that of violence against women. This type was defined by United Nations General (1993) as: Any act of violence that is motivated by gender bias and that results in, or is likely to result in, harm or suffering to women, whether physical, sexual or psychological, including threats of acts by such, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. (as cited in Mohammed & Jassim, 2022, p. 66) United Nations Human Rights Committee (2020, pp. 7-8) shed light on a type of violence against women, which is called honor killings that involve gender and sex-based violence. The committee maintained that recently in Iraq, such a type of violence has gone viral; women are either kidnapped and trafficked into prostitution, and so be killed in the name of "dishonor".

Previous Studies
The literature review will be divided into two parts: studies on violence and studies on caricatures and images. Speaking of the studies on violence, the researchers have noticed that a number of scholars examined the concept of violence from different angles. For instance, Mohammed and Jassim (2022) examined the violence experienced against rural women in Baghdad. Based on their descriptive studies, they found that women experienced different types of violence: psychological (i.e., making women feel inferior and not being interested, or receiving threats from the family or society), sexual (i.e., any sexual expression or act that leads to a harm whether psychological or physical), physical (i.e., beating, suffocating, burning, destructing the personal and public property in the home, and the psychological effects which follow), and verbal. They also noticed that the highly dangerous type of violence is called domestic violence that is usually practiced following the customs and traditions. Another type of violence is termed 'family violence', which is: A controversial social issue in which it is difficult to reach a specific agreed concept, due to the cultural difference between societies and also within one society, so it can be described as violence or mistreatment in a particular society while it is seen as familiar and acceptable upbringing in another society. (p. 66) The study further revealed that rural women are totally subordinate to the men, and are usually beaten by their husbands and parents for chastisement and precision reasons. Maeawshi (2021) investigated the different patterns of battered women in the ancient Iraqi society. For her, violence against women referred to any action or behavior that was directed to women in general, including mothers, sisters, wives, or daughters, daughterin-law, widows and the divorced. Such a kind of violence leads ultimately to aggression, persecution and oppression. Maeawshi also noticed that anciently, women suffered from three types of violence: Sexual violence, which involves forcing a woman to have a sexual relationship, leading her as a result to suffer from a psychological and physical violence. It can be in the form of rape or sexual harassment. Another type was the physical violence, which implies the force used against women by means of hands, or any tool that would leave physical wounds on the body of the aggressor. Such a type takes several forms; it may be in the form of beating, slapping, burning, wounding and others. It also had different types such as beating, mortgage, and kidnapping. The third type was verbal violence, which degrades women and their reputation via "insulting, cursing, using mean nicknames, slandering, suspecting, mistrusting, and threatening" them (p. 79). Such a type works on undermining women's self-confidence and making them feel unwanted.
In (2020), Mansour conducted a study titled "Violence against women in times of conflict: A textual analysis of media representations of Yazidi women during ISIS conflict in Iraq and Syria". The researchers focused on a special type of violence, sexual violence, that Yazidi women were subjected to in Iraq and Syria during ISIS war. Thus, the researchers aimed to examine the ideology and agendas in the Arab and Western media that cover the sexual violence to see "how Yazidi women were portrayed by the Western media? And whether the Yazidi women were portrayed by the western media as Congolese women or Libyan women, and whether or not they were approached differently?" (p. 12). The data collected involved the representation of Yazidi women in selected Arab channels (CNN, BBC, DW, France 24, The Guardian, Al Aan TV, Al Arabia, Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabia, Annahar) in different western media. The study was qualitative in nature; the researchers used CDA on verbal and non-verbal media, together with sixty-four online interviews with Yazidi women. The interviews were published online as written or videoed sources after taken a consent letter from the women being examined. Results showed that in the Arab media, Yazidi women were portrayed as survivors, and had a special agenda and ideologies to justify the action and Islam of ISIS. In the Western media, the Yazidi women were portrayed as victims, by putting "Yazidi women in the box of being the other" (p. 2). It was further noticed that the two media did not address sexual violence against Yazidi women as a 'rape discourse'.
Delcambre (2016) conducted a qualitative study entitled, "Domestic violence in mass media: An analysis of messages, images, and meanings in motion pictures" to investigate the way domestic violence/abuse was depicted in motion picture movies, and to examine the effect it conveys on the ethics, behavior and moral of the audience. The researcher adopted Foss' (2009) generative criticism to analyze the four movies: "All Good Things" (2010), "Safe Haven" (2013), "Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor" (2013), and "Fifty Shades of Grey" (2015). All of these movies portrayed different types of domestic violence, such as physical, psychological and sexual. The researcher concluded that the fictional victim was a woman, whereas the fictional abuser was a man. Besides, the fictional abuse took the following sequence: emotional, psychological, and physical violence. Regarding the impact of the movie on the viewers, the study found that the movie managed to push the viewers to create or give more complex meanings. They further gave them the opportunity to discuss and see the hidden things in different cultures.
Mohammed (2014) conducted a descriptive and analytical study entitled "Family violence: Causes and its effects- analytical social study". The study aimed to investigate the main causes of family violence and its social effects. The study revealed that the main causes of violence were the interaction between multi-factors.
The study further showed that poverty, low educational level, crowded house, large family size were casual variables of violence, which led to family disorganization and juvenile delinquency. Results also revealed that there were different interacted reasons behind domestic violence, such as: the weight of the social and economic pressure along with their effects upon the psychology of the members of a family. Besides, in unstable families, violence exists among the parents, sisters, brothers; and this affects both the abused and the child-if any. Moreover, small dwellings, big families, polygamy that shows no fairness among them, divorce and the bad economic situation can also be among the reasons that affect children and divorced mother(s). The father's alcoholic and gambling addiction can worsen the domestic violence for they can worsen the economic situation, leading the child to quite school, and then get misdemeanor.
Speaking of violence that is resulted from the unfair traditions and treatment of the society, Al-Hasnawi (2013) pinpointed that social violence is the most practiced type against women in a society. It involves imposing a social siege on them, a high restriction on their communications, interactions, involvements, exercising roles, and movements in a society, an interference in their affairs, in visiting their friends, relatives and family, and preventing them from making decisions.
The Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit (2010) claimed that inside the Iraqi homes, women underwent various types of violence. For instance, domestic violence, which implied preventing women from participating in the society, or being physically abused by their husbands. The latter obtained a percentage of (21%), and the ages of the women ranged from (15 to 49 %). Another type of violence was the emotional one, which entailed the women being controlled by their husbands. The percentage of this type reached (83%). Early marriage was another type of violence against women. To marry before the age of 15 is considered illegal and violates the rights of the girls. Trafficking was another type of woman violence, where women were being kidnapped or sold into prostitution whether inside and outside Iraq, such as Syria and the Gulf. There was also female genital mutilation, which majorly existed in the north of Iraq.
Speaking of the second part of the previous studies and away from the sense of violence, there are several studies that were conducted in Iraq on images and caricatures tackling different social issues. For instance, Dweich, Ghabra and Al-Bahrani in (2022) conducted a qualitative-descriptive semiotic analysis to examine the negative and positive signs invested and to investigate the deciphering of the non-verbal signs in two selected episodes of "Tom and Jerry". The researchers adopted Peirce's theory (1931), "Trichotomy of signs" that categorizes the signs into icons, indexes, and symbols. The study arrived at the conclusions that an image has more interpretations; it considered a symbol rather than an icon. The study further revealed that cartoon in general and 'Tom and Jerry' in particular can be considered a negative dominant aspect in media.
Waad and Al-Bahrani (2020) examined the persuasive role of a number of images taken from a selection of tourism brochures. Results showed that what affects the persuasive sense of an image was the angel that the image was taken from. Besides, there were various content techniques that need to be used when highlighting the associative and conceptual images in the tourists' mind to ultimately push them to get persuaded and visit the place.
Al-Fatlawi and Al-Bahrani (2019) conducted a study on a selection of Iraqi caricatures to see the impact of the number and type of figures on accessing the intended meaning. Results revealed that to fully identify the figures of an image was an important issue. However, what was more important was the type and the way these figures were mentally linked to access the intended meaning.
Azeez and Al-Bahrani (2019) studied the satirical sense of caricatures in a selection of Iraqi caricatures. The first objective of their study was to examine first the way Iraqi caricaturists create or produce satirical humor. Second, they wanted to see as well the way receivers respond (i.e., appreciate) to such a type of humor. To meet these objectives, Koestler's theory of bisociation was adopted in the analysis of (20) satiric caricatures drawn by four popular Iraqi caricaturists, namely, Maitham Radhee, Ali Aatib, Dheaa Al-Hajjar, and Hamoudi Athab. To achieve the first objective, the researchers examined the metonymy, metaphor, metaphtonymy, icons, gestures and symbolism, and the invested satirical humorous devices and relations, as in: irony, puns, sarcasm and teasing. In the second objective, (5) caricatures were submitted to randomly selected students to examine the sort of appreciation being experienced to them whether cognitively, behaviorally or emotionally. The study concluded that satirical humor was emotionally highlighted and that its appreciation depended on the receiver's personality and the content of the message.
Al-Bahrani, Al-Saadi, and Yousif (2016) conducted a quantitative and qualitative study under the title "A cognitive semantic study of detextualised social caricatures" to investigate whether the deciphering of images is universal or culture-proper at the individual level. To meet the objective of the study, Barthes' model of "Mythologies" (1957) together with Langacker's (1987) cognitive semantic model of Domain Analysis were adopted. The researchers chose five caricatures; four of them were social and the last one addressed violence against women. The study concluded that a great number of the participates could partially identify the figures of the images in question. However, their identification was meager; a matter which highly affected their process of deciphering the images in a proper way. Besides, the deciphering was individuallybased, reflecting as a result their creativity and background knowledge when deciphering the images. Furthermore, it was proved that images do not have a universal language around the world.
In what has been mentioned so far, no study has been conducted in Iraq on the concept of violence against women from the cognitive linguistic point of view. Most of the studies addressed many points as creativity, the impact of number and type of figures identified on accessing the intended meaning, mental maps, persuasive aspects, social issues as employment, bribery, etc. Besides, the studies that were conducted in Iraq or outside Iraq on the concept of violence, tackled this concept from sociological, psychological and social perspectives. Thus, the present study is to address the concept of violence from the cognitive linguistic point of view using Sharifian's model (2011) of Cultural Schemata.

Cultural Schemata as an Adopted Model
In ( that schema is developed based on the cognitive process of conceptualization, where the latter is divided in return into schematization and categorization. He stated that the interactions among the members that belong to the same speech community, i.e., 'cultural group' are usually facilitated due to the existence of many common points that are culture-proper. Having been belonged to the same culture gives the opportunity to develop a quite similar cultural cognition. That is, the interactions or communications are derived based on the combinations between "the cultural level of cognition, meaning and conceptualizations" (p. 5).
In cognitive linguistics, cultural groups are said to conceptualize things in the world differently, as they belong to different cultures, resulting in generating what is called "cultural schemas". In this respect, Sharifian (2011) added that "an individual's cognitive repertoire often includes elements from cultural conceptualizations of different cultural groups, depending on the nature of the person's social interactions" (p. 38). This means that within the same culture, one might see individuals who haves different or quite different cultural cognitions, as their levels of experience in the world are different. From the cognitive linguistic point of view, a lexical item embeds a cultural meaning, or what is called a cultural schema. The latter entails taking into account the cultural, social, pragmatic and personal cultural meaning. Besides, the relationship between the concept of cultural schema and cultural categories is called "cultural conceptualization" (p. 5). Thus, these cultural conceptualizations may lead to have one mind/cognition or different minds or cognitions, reflecting as a result the individual differences. In each culture, people construct different schemas and different categories. In other words, cultural schema is categorized at a macro-level (global level) and cognitive, idiosyncratic, micro-level (local level). At the macrolevel, "the unit of analysis is the group", whereas at the micro-level, "the unit of analysis is the individual" (p. 39). The two conceptualization levels facilitate the relationship between language, culture, and cognition. This entails that the cultural cognition system is an open, dynamic, and "negotiated and renegotiated" system (p. 37); consider Figure 1:

Methodology of the Study
To meet the objective of the study, represented by: examining the macro-cultural schemata regarding the concept of violence against women in selected Iraqi caricatures, the researchers have adopted part of Sharifian's model that is concerned with the cultural schemata at the global/macro-level. The data have been taken from two Iraqi Popular caricaturists, Odeh Al-Fahdawi and Nasser Ibrahim after taking their written consent to choose from their caricature panels. Moreover, after skimming all panels drawn by these two caricaturists, the researchers prepared a cover letter and submitted it to a number of jury members. The letter contained the objective of the study, the panels chosen by these two caricaturists, and the model used in the analysis. The final choice of the panels was set by the jury members -Prof. Dr. Shatha K. Al-Saadi, Asst. Prof. Iman Muwafaq Muslim, Asst. Prof. Jinan Ahmed, Asst. Prof. Maysaa Rashid, Asst. Prof. Dr. Shaima Mahdi Saalh (all specialists in Applied linguistics)taking into account the different type of violence being depicted by both of them. Such a step helped maintain face validity. To achieve the reliability of the study, the researchers submitted the analysis to the same jury members to reduce the sense of subjectivity though the deciphering of the panels has been based on the concepts highlighted by the caricaturists themselves. That is, their mental ideas highlighted have been adopted as threshold to check the analysis done by the researchers. Based on the decision of the jury members, a number of four panels have been selected from each of the two caricaturists, taking into account the different ideas or angles highlighted regarding the concept of violence against women. The researchers have followed the following steps in the process of analysis:

Pinpointing the figurative devices invested by
Nasser when depicting the concept of violence against women.

Identifying the figurative devices used by Al-
Fahdawi to highlight the concept of violence against women. 3. Comparing between the figurative devices used by both caricaturists. 4. Determining the cultural schemata adopted in Iraq regarding the depiction of violence against women.

Analysis of Al-Fahdawi's Panels 3.1.1.1 Panel 1
In the first panel, Al-Fahdawi used a written sign to contextualize and restrict the highlighted conceptual meaning. Here, the word "Shngal" activates the schema of Sinjar city that is located west of Nineveh in the northern part of Iraq. This city is characterized by being mountainous and touristic. This is apparent in the topography of the earth. This verbal sign activates the schema that this woman is Yazidi, who escaped from her house and became homeless due to the barbarian attack of the ISIS to their city. This panel accordingly talks about the Yazidi women's suffering from the ISIS physical and sexual abuse to them. It seems that the ground is embracing the poor woman and is merciful to her. The bubble says that "Do not panic, I am a stone not a human being". This allegory depicts the level of humanity that the stone has in comparison to human beings, particularly to men. This metaphorical sense reflects the level of brutality that exists in this life and of the woman's suffering. The red spots metonymically indicate blood that the woman is bleeding. The track of bleeding entails that the woman has come from Sinjar. That is, this panel depicts a sort of woman abuse in Iraq that is due to political reasons. It depicts an image where non-Muslim women have been treated as a commodity and have no right to say or do anything. They do not have the right to live as a normal human being or enjoy their family members and gatherings. They are tools to entertain others.

Panel 2
This panel conceptualizes another type of violence that Iraqi women suffer from, which is verbal abuse or violence. Here, the woman is depicted as being terrified from the people who are metaphorically conceptualized as sharks of different sizes, i.e., different levels of dangers, personification. Generally speaking, women in Iraq lack that educated sense of freedom on the part of their male partners; they might be provoked when walking or working or doing some sports in the public; specifically, in places where the sense of censorship or protection is absent. Such a type of violence or abuse might be encountered at work, at home, in the street, when doing shopping, etc. The blue eye symbolically highlights the sense of evil, as in the Iraqi culture there is a proverb which says, no one envies, except those who have got blue eyes and separated teeth. Thus, the blue color symbolically represents the highest level of evil. The hair of the woman metaphorically highlights the concept of fire; it is burning because of their gaze and eyes. Thus, this type of violence is called verbal abuse, which might ultimately be developed into physical, leading to have psychological consequences on the part of the woman.

Panel 3
In This panel, Al-Fahdawi depicted a new type of violence that Iraqi women suffer from, which is domestic or family violence. Here, the wrestling stage metaphorically conceptualizes the house where these family members live. It seems that their house is a place of fight and quarreling, dispute and disrespect, where the survival is for the fittest. The two half-circled lines metonymically indicate the speed and strength the man uses when boxing his wife. The differences in size as well metonymically reflects the physical and psychological states of both parties, the man/husband and the woman/wife together with her child. The bubble above the woman's head conceptualizes her mental image. The fire metaphorically means that the woman is between two difficult situations; if she stayed with her husband and bore his bad temper, she would live her lifelong miserable. If she left the house, she would be prevented from seeing her child and both her child and she would have a miserable life, too. The snakes outside metaphorically mean the bad people in the society; specifically, the people who are close to the family. The different colors of the snakes symbolically indicate the different levels of evilness. In the Iraqi culture, the yellow color if collocated with snake symbolically entails highly poisonous snakes; i.e., highly dangers people. Such a snake might appear smaller in size and hidden, yet its impact is grave.

Panel 4
This panel depicts a new type of violence, which is also domestic violence; however, it is concerned with unmarried women. Here, one can find that the shark metaphorically conceptualizes one of the family members, who can be male or female, who has the authority on the unmarried women. Here, the water is blue, which symbolically indicates the depth of hidden things or problems, or that the woman is drawn in problems. The pure and clear window ironically reflects the mental image that everything is quiet and peaceful while in fact the house is boiling with problems. The red sky symbolically and metonymically highlights the sense of agitation and anger, and reflects the problems inside the house or the woman's psychological state. Finally, the ring metonymically indicates marriage. It seems that the woman is suffering from violence from her family members to the extent she wants to get married to get rid of all sorts of problems. Marriage is an outlet for her though she does not know about. The facial expressions of the woman metonymically reflect her inner psychological state due to the bad treatment of the family members to her.

Analysis of Ibrahim's Panels 3.1.2.1 Panel 5
In this panel, Ibrahim used allegory to reflect the sense of being afraid or terrified or worried about something. Here, the house as an inanimate object feels what the woman and her child are feeling. The facial expressions of the house metonymically reflect the psychological states of the weak people represented by both the woman and her child. The house is about to fall and demolish as there is no balance between the two parties' powers. The man/husband is depicted as being physically abusing his wife and child using the whip, and the woman and her child are seen helpless and terrified. The absence of balance in the two parties' authority is what makes the house gets devastated and accordingly the familial relations get broken. This type of violence is majorly apparent in the Iraqi society and has led the wives to commit suicide or escape or simply stay and bear the unfair treatment and get ultimately psychologically disturbed.

Panel 6
In this panel, Ibrahim highlighted a new sort of violence, which also lies within the type of domestic or family violence, that is, honor crime. Generally speaking, the woman is depicted as being killed by a man, who might be her father, brother, husband or a male relative. Recently, it has been noticed that in Iraq, the woman is usually the scapegoat and the victim for whatever is the reason. If she is attacked, raped, provoked, blackmailed, directly she will be killed by her family to avoid any kind of honor problems. Such a phenomenon exists in the tribal and poor families who are greatly attached to their unfair old-fashioned customs and traditions. Such families believe in the proverb, which says, "shame can only be got rid of via blood". Many women have been killed for no reason. The man here is depicted as having no eyes. This metaphorically entails that the man is behaving blindly following his unfair traditions and beliefs. His moustache metaphorically represents swords or knives. In the Iraqi culture, the moustache of a man metonymically indicates his manhood. They usually swear by it, and usually touch it if they want somebody to trust them. If they swear to do something and touch their moustache or literally say take it from this moustache, it means they will do what they promised. If they did not do what they promised, it means that they are not real men, as they do not keep their words. Here, it seems that the moustache is as sharp as a knife and this metaphorically means they are strong and real men in the Iraqi cultural sense, as they do what they say whether or not what is done or said is fair or unfair. This panel accordingly depicts physical violence that is resulted from the unfair tribal traditions.

Panel 7
This panel depicts a sort of family or domestic violence that exists in some poor and tribal communities in Iraq. The word "Nahwa" is portrayed in a way that is similar to guillotine. This word in the Iraqi society entails that the future of a woman in such families is bide by their cousins. If her cousin wants to marry her, then, she has no right to say no; otherwise, she will be killed. As it is seen, the word is written in red, which symbolically indicates blood. This is because such a word metonymically means putting an end to a woman's life, specifically if that woman does not want her cousin. She is by that treated as a commodity and has no right to do or say anything. If the cousin has a good personality and is educated, she will be lucky; if not, she will live her long life in misery. Thus, this panel reflects a kind of domestic violence that has psychological and/or physical consequences on the woman's personality.

Panel 8
This panel depict another line of violence which might cause psychological or physical consequences on the woman's personality, that is, electronic blackmailing. Due to ignorance about the secured procedures to be followed when using electronics, many women become victims to ill-minded people who exploit women's weakness, ignorance, innocence, or even the weak points of their personality and start controlling them and blackmailing them accordingly. The posture of the woman metonymically indicates that she is afraid, helpless, and in a surrendering state. The man is depicted as shooting her electronically using her words, pictures, and whatever she has done virtually. The mobile metonymically indicates an electronic device, and the mobile together with the gun-like fist metaphorically entails the process of blackmailing. Such a type of abuse has destroyed many women psychologically and made them a tool to be played with, or even be sexually abused if she refused to do what they want from her. This type of violence is societal violence against women, which leads to have psychological, physical or even sexual abuses.
Based on the analysis, results have revealed that: 1. both caricaturists used figurative language of its various types to depict the different types and reasons of violence against women in Iraq. Al-Fahdawi, for instance, focused on highlighting the violence that Yazidi Women experienced under ISIS attack, that women in general experience when practicing their simple rights in the public, the husbands practice against their women, and finally, that family members practice against the weak female members. As for Ibrahim, he highlighted family violence, honor crime, killing traditions, and electronic blackmailing crimes. 2. Speaking of Al-Fahdawi, his panels evoke cultural schemata that cannot be easily and comprehensively deciphered by anyone who has not lived in Iraq and kept pace with its recent events. The word "shngal", the blue color of the eyes, the yellow color of the snake, and the red color of the sky are all symbols that add a lot to build up the cultural schema at the macro level. Similarly, the moustache and the word "Nahwa" in Ibrahim's' panels are culture-proper words. 3. Both caricaturists portrayed a phenomenon that exists in the Iraqi culture, which is violence against women. They even shed light on the reasons that have led to such a phenomenon, where the male represents the common denominator among all these reasons.

Conclusions
To answer the following research question, which reads, "what are the macro-cultural schemata regarding the concept of violence against women in selected Iraqi caricatures?, the researchers have concluded the following common cultural schemata:

Al-Fahdawi's panel 4 is in line with what
Abdul-Hameed (2011), Delcambre (2016), and Wallace, Roberson and Globokar (2019) stated in that violence might be caused by male partners or female as well who have authority or control on the weak personality or poor women. That is, the first cultural schemata highlighted in these selected panels is the female's exposure to violence from their male or authority female. The patriarchal nature prevailing in the Iraqi culture put restrictions on women of various degrees.