Rising Femicide in Iran: Women Killed for "Honor" Fuels a Growing Crisis

Iran is grappling with an alarming rise in femicide, with two more tragic cases coming to light in late January. A 17-year-old girl, Kani Abdollahi, was fatally stabbed by her father in the country's northwest, while another 17-year-old, Atefeh Zaghibi, was shot by her father and brother while holding her infant. These incidents are the latest in a disturbing trend of rising violence against women, often perpetrated by their own family members.

In the Iranian calendar year, which consists of 318 days, at least 133 women lost their lives to family violence, often dismissed as "honor" killings or familial disputes. Only a small fraction of these murders—three—were committed by people outside the family. Additionally, a concerning trend shows that femicide cases are often misreported or ignored in official statistics, further downplaying the scale of the problem.

Rights groups such as Stop Femicide Iran point out that a large majority of these deaths are committed by husbands, fathers, or brothers who act out of perceived familial honor.

Despite the growing body count, Iranian law fails to provide adequate protection for women. Article 630 of Iran's Penal Code even allows men to kill their wives under certain circumstances, such as in cases of adultery.

Human rights experts have criticized the Iranian judiciary for handing down light sentences in honor-killing cases. In recent notorious cases, the killers—fathers, husbands, and brothers—have been given sentences of less than 10 years, despite the severity of their crimes.

However, the murders of young girls like Mona Heydari and Romina Ashrafi have sparked public outcry in Iran, and as the international community watches, the women of Iran continue to demand justice.