Iranian women’s rights activists have scored a victory by keeping a local tradition from being enshrined in Iran’s National Heritage registry list — a tradition that involves ending blood feuds between families by forcing a woman from one family to marry into the other.
The tradition of Khoon Bas, literally translated as “enough blood”, is a local custom in Iran’s Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.
The Mehr News Agency reported today, September 19, that the deputy head of National Heritage announced: “'Khon Bas' was not registered because we had other priorities… however the file will be reviewed at a later time.”
Provincial officials had proposed the registration of “khoon bas” as an ancient custom in the region; however, National Heritage announced that sufficient documents for its inclusion in the list were not provided for their consideration.
Opponents of the move, including women’s and human rights activists, had called the practice an “anti-woman” custom that in many cases does not even resolve the family disputes for which it is prescribed.
In widespread protest statements, activists pointed out that women forced to marry for the purposes of “khoon bas” lead lives like that of a slave with no rights, which often leads to “depression, escape, suicide and self-immolation.”
