Iran: Between March 20 to June 21, at least 35 women were
murdered by their male relatives, usually their husbands
In the Qur’an, a mysterious figure, known as Khidr in Islamic tradition, kills a boy in an apparently random and gratuitous attack. He then explains: “And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy.” (18:80-81)
And according to Islamic law, “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (Reliance of the Traveller o1.1-2).
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.’” And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.”
This article makes clear that honor killing is not just a Sunni problem.
Femicide rates in Iran up by 60% in two years, report says
by Azadeh Akbari, Iran International, July 23, 2024:
A new report has highlighted an alarming trend of increasing femicide cases amid an ongoing pattern of violence against women and girls in Iran.
According to the report by Etemad Daily, in the first three months of the Iranian calendar in 2024 alone (March 20 to June 21), at least 35 women and girls were murdered by their close male relatives, particularly their husbands.
The number is a 25 percent increase from the 28 recorded during the same period in 2023 and a 59% rise from the 22 deaths in 2022.
A massive 85 percent of the murders were committed by the victims’ husbands and cases were spread across the country. In 2022, 16 women were killed by their husbands, followed by 15 in 2023, with a sharp increase to 27 in 2024 amid the climate of state crackdowns on women and girls.
Rights activists point to Iran’s laws and patriarchal society based on Islamic law as the primary cause of femicide which has worsened since 2022.
Conditions for women have become so bad that the United Nations branded Iran’s policy as “gender apartheid” as state policy legitimizes violence against women.
Honor killings can be carried out for as little as not wearing the mandatory hijab, bringing shame on the family.
Pride is much more powerful than love in Islam.
UN Women says these gender-related killings are the “most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls. According to the latest UN Women report, globally on average, more than 133 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their own family….
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