'Honour killings' reach epidemic porportions with one woman killed every two days
The latest case in recent days, a 30-year-old woman killed by her husband for wanting to leave over constant domestic violence. Another young woman shot by her father and brother while she was holding her small child in her arms. According to some studies, more than 130 women have been killed since last March. At least 74,000 reports of abuse and violence have been filed, but the real number could be 100 times higher.
Tehran (AsiaNews) - The killing of a 30-year-old woman by her husband in the northern province of Golestan, in a marriage characterised by abuse and violence, is just the latest episode in a long trail of blood.
The numbers are dramatic: every two days in the Islamic Republic a femicide, or an ‘honour killing’ as it is called in the family environment, is recorded, with such an incidence as to force Iranian activists and pro-human rights groups to speak of a real ‘epidemic’ that most of the time goes unpunished.
According to IranWire, the latest victim was called Fatemeh Badali, a mother of two, who was murdered when she returned to the marital home - which she had recently left - to collect some personal belongings.
Her husband, currently on the run and wanted by the police, attacked her several times with an axe before delivering the final blow to her head with a brick. A cruel murder, committed in front of their children who witnessed the scene helplessly.
Some acquaintances described his wife as a ‘kind and hard-working woman’ who had endured years of domestic violence in silence in order to stay close to her children. However, she had recently decided to return to her parents' house and had filed for divorce.
Independent studies report that at least 136 women have been killed by family members since March 2024 and, although official data is lacking, the trend is increasing.
At the end of January, in two separate incidents, two 17-year-old girls named Kani Abdollahi and Atefeh Zaghibi were killed - one by stabbing and the other by gunshots - by their father and brother. In the second case, the girl was killed while holding her young son in her arms.
According to a report by Radio Farda (RFE/RL), at least 133 women and girls have been killed in the last year for reasons of ‘honour’ or other motives by their husbands, fathers and brothers, while in only three cases were the perpetrators people from outside the family, in cases of theft or sexual violence. And only one case involved a foreign citizen.
In most cases the victim is targeted for acts that ‘are contrary to the traditions of society, religious requirements or the family's reputation’. In the case of Abdollahi, the girl was killed on 25th January because of her ‘friendship’ with a young man. The Iranian media reported that the death of Zaghibi, who was killed on 29th January by her father and brother, occurred after the girl had fled her home two years ago.
There are no official statistics on domestic homicides in Iran and, according to the group Iran Human Rights, the murders of women often go unreported or are falsely reported as ‘suicides’ or ‘accidents’. The Iranian newspaper Shargh reported that at least 165 women were killed by male relatives between 2021 and 2023; a figure which, when compared to the 136 for 2024 (0 133 for Farda), shows a decidedly increasing trend.
In addition to the killings, there are also over 74,000 cases in which women - according to official statistics - have gone to clinics or health centres for physical examinations following abuse or violence by their spouse.
In reality, according to estimates by researchers and rights activists, the actual number of cases of domestic violence in the Islamic Republic is much higher.
Independent analyses suggest an overall figure up to 100 times higher than the government figures related to complaints made by the victims.
Furthermore, a breakdown of the 133 cases of domestic homicide in 2024 shows that 51 are classified as ‘family disputes’, the result of a broader trend in Iran, in which the authorities try to hide honour killings from official statistics by misreporting them. A similar approach is used for rapes, which are often classified as ‘molestation’ in state media and police reports.
Iranian law is based on the dictates and practices of shari'a, Islamic law. These rules often give fathers and husbands the power to decide if and how people who kill the women in their family should pay for the crime committed, allowing lenient sentences if those who decide the punishment are involved in the murder or have condoned it.
After all, article 630 of the Iranian Penal Code states that ‘if a man sees his wife committing adultery with a man and knows that his wife is consenting, he can kill them both at the same time; if the woman is innocent, he can only kill the man’.
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17/11/2021 09:54
