In less than a week, seven women have been murdered and one woman has been the victim of an acid attack in Iran, according to reports from official media and human rights groups. The victims were killed in various cities including Bojnurd, Miandoab, Paveh, Sanandaj, Talesh, and Mashhad. Six of the women were killed by their husbands, while the seventh was a homeless woman murdered out of jealousy. The acid attack took place in Tehran.
The first reported case was in Bojnurd, where a man shot his wife and fled the scene. The police later arrested the man and recovered a Colt pistol from him. The man cited “family disputes” as his motive for the murder. This term is often used by Iranian authorities and media to downplay deadly violence against women and avoid using terms like domestic violence or gender-based violence.
In Miandoab, a 25-year-old woman named Samira Kashian was stabbed to death by her husband. The man’s name has not been released, and it is unclear whether he has been arrested. The motive for the murder was not explained in the report.
Acid Attack in Tehran
In addition to the murders, a man was arrested in Tehran for throwing acid on a woman and her two children. The man claimed that the woman had an extramarital affair with him and that he attacked her out of jealousy after seeing messages from another man on her phone. The woman, identified only as “Farnaz,” wanted to end the relationship, which led the man to seek “revenge.”
Rokna news agency in Iran wrote, quoting the man:
“For a while, she didn’t talk to me and intended to end her relationship with me, which really bothered me. I couldn’t forget about it. She didn’t answer my calls for a few days, so I decided to take revenge on her. I wasn’t feeling well and was constantly brooding. I went to the Naser Khosrow market and bought a one-liter bottle of acid. On the day of the incident, around 8 PM, I knew that Farnaz would be bringing her children back from their language class. Nearby, there was a mobile phone store that we had visited together several times. She was in the store with her daughter and son. I called out to her to talk and resolve our problem, but we ended up arguing. I took the acid bottle out of my pocket, intending only to scare her, but she hit the bottom of the bottle with her hand, and some acid splashed onto Farnaz, her daughter, and me. As I was leaving the scene, her son attacked me, and I threw some of the acid at him as well.”
Despite his claims, the police arrested him on charges of throwing acid on Farnaz and her children. The condition of the victims after the attack was not mentioned in the report.
The Bigger Picture
Every year, an unknown number of women across Iran are murdered by men close to them. According to official news reports, from about March 2023 to the end of December 2023, at least 100 women and girls were murdered by male family members for various reasons. From the March to May 2024, at least 23 women and girls were murdered by their “husband, father, brother, and former suitor.”
Most of these murders revolve around male or family honor and are often reactions to women rebelling against patriarchal violence. The names and images of the killers are often not reported.
Iranian laws play a significant role in the alarming rates of femicide in the country by imposing lenient punishments for men who murder women, including cases of filicide and so-called “honor killings.” Authorities and official media often use the term “family disputes” to cover up gender discrimination against women and normalize violence against women in the family and home environment.
This is a summary of original Radio Zamaneh content crafted with the help of AI, edited by a Radio Zamaneh editor. To read the original article, click here.
