By: Rezvan Moghaddam<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the morning of Friday, May 23, 2025, in one of the most horrifying recent cases of
domestic killing, Ashkan Hemmati, a 29-year-old man, stormed into his father-in-law\u2019s
house in Karach\u012b Township of Kermanshah with a handgun and opened fire on his wife
and her two sisters. Samira Farhadi, a 25-year-old young woman, was killed instantly.
Her 17-year-old sister Somayeh died two days later in the hospital, and her other sister,
Zahra Farhadi, was severely wounded in the eye and lost her vision following surgery.
Her condition has been reported as critical.
According to eyewitnesses, Ashkan first shot Somayeh as she tearfully pleaded with
him not to kill his wife for the sake of their children. But the killer immediately turned the
gun on Samira and then shot the third sister. The killing was premeditated. Ashkan, who
held a bachelor\u2019s degree in law, had previously threatened to kill everyone and had
even sold his belongings to, in his own words, \u201ckill them all.\u201d He eventually took his own
life after the killings and died in the hospital.
Samira and Ashkan had two young children aged three and five. Nine months prior to
the crime, Samira had left her husband due to his violence, aggression, and paranoid
behavior, returning to her father\u2019s home. This brutal crime not only claimed the lives of
three women but also left two children orphaned.
This tragedy is a clear example of structural violence against women in Iran. A
combination of factors \u2014 including the lack of effective legal protection, a patriarchal
culture, societal tolerance toward domestic violence, and easy access to firearms \u2014
creates an environment where such killings can occur. The Iranian legal system still
does not provide a clear and independent definition of \u201cdomestic violence,\u201d and its
mechanisms for protecting women at risk are inadequate and limited. The killing of
Samira and her sisters, like the cases of hundreds of other women, exemplifies gender
apartheid in practice \u2014 a reality where women are not even safe in their own father\u2019s
home.
This incident also raises serious questions about men\u2019s mental health, the responsibility
of judicial institutions, and the police\u2019s failure to prevent domestic crimes. The killer\u2019s
explicit threats toward his wife and her family had been known for some time, but no
action was taken to protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cStop honor Killings Campaign\u201d Demands:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\uf0b7 Official recognition of \u201chonor killings\u201d as a distinct crime under Iranian law;
\uf0b7 Passage of a comprehensive law prohibiting violence against women and
provision of real support services;
\uf0b7 Public education about the impacts and consequences of domestic violence;
\uf0b7 Accountability from law enforcement and judicial institutions for preventive
intervention;
\uf0b7 Immediate protection and support for the two surviving children of this crime.
No excuse, no culture, and no so-called \u201chonor\u201d can justify the killing of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Follow news in the Stop honor Killings Campaign Telegram group:
https:\/\/t.me\/stophonorkilling
Support the Stop Honor Killings Campaign with Your Donations via PayPal:
https:\/\/paypal.me\/stophonorkillings?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stop honor Killings Campaign<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Rezvan Moghaddam On the morning of Friday, May 23, 2025, in one of the most horrifying recent cases ofdomestic killing, Ashkan Hemmati, a 29-year-old man, stormed into his father-in-law\u2019shouse in Karach\u012b Township of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[21,305,284,416,408,441,172,199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1424,"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/1424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}