The anniversary of the Campaign to Stop honor killing in Iran

A brief report

The Campaign to Stop Honor Killings was launched on 21 May 2020 which coincided with the brutal murder of a young girl, Roomina Ashrafi by her father. A group of women decided to launch the campaign to stop such a catastrophe which is on the increase.

A number of women volunteered to form the first executive committee with a mandate to attract women and men around the issue and raise the consciousness of the society so to put an end to this old age practice in various parts of the country.

The Executive committee proposed the setting up of 7 groups comprising of volunteers who are specialized in the relative fields.

1- Education and research and working group to oversee the calendars of events such as

• International Day to fight against sexual violence.
• Eight of March International Women’s Day.
• 7 April, International Day of Hygiene

Apart from providing programs for each day, the group introduced two books for reading and discussion: The Naked Face of the Arab Woman, written by Naval Al-Saadavi, and The Silent Catastrophe by Nargess Mohammadi.

AS a major task, gathering news, and information about the honor-based murders, making educational bruchures and short messages to distribute to the public to grasp the importance of fighting against this brutal practice became the center of the campaign activities.

In the research section, an article on child marriage and honor killing was published.

Dr Rezvan Moghadam, the Campaign’s speaker, and major contributor carried out research on child marriage and honor-based murders in the past 20 years. This piece of important work will be published on the Campaign’s site upon completion.

2- Legal Group

This group is comprised of lawyers who document the abuse of women’s rights in the law and practice.

A panel in this group spoke and provided the legal bases of honor killings in the Kurdestan, Khusestan and Azarbaijan provinces.

Answering legal questions was also provided by this group.

3- Public Relations

The mandate of this group is to create and expand relations among women’s groups. To contact other similar groups and organizations and invite them to participate in talks and round table discussions.

4- International relations

To connect with similar organizations throughout the world and introduce the Campaign and its work.

To connect with women in the neighboring countries such as Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraqi Kurdestan and obtain information and exchange ideas to stop the murder of women.

5- Translation of texts into English and German by members of this group.

5- Media and Publicity

To create pages on social media which began in March 2021 including Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter where all Campaign activities are published. In the first year the Campaign produced 30 Youtube programes with around 600 viewres. The Media group is actively trying to attract people to the aims of the Campaign and seek their support.

6- Finance Group

Members in this group managed to seek doners from among friends and organisations that support the Campaign by which the Campaign website was designed and launched in 3 languages. Brochures were also produced in Iran with the financial support of doners. A bank account and PayPal account will shortly be launched for the supporters to directly donate to the Campaign,

7- The Art & Producation Group

This very active and creative produced its first short film “Guilty of Being a Woman” for the 25 November; International Day Against Violence. Further more and in the past year it has produced 30 [programes on Youtube, 8 clips of talks, A clip of Nargess Mohamadi talk with English subtitles, 2 clips to introduce the Campaign in English and Farsi, 3 videos on the book, The silent catostroph written by the late Parvin Bakhtiar Nejad, a video clip on the 8 March, 5 videos of the Collective Action of Women, a video to celebrate the Iranian New Year (NowRooz) and some other production for the anniversary of the Campaign.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the Campaign the Art Group produced a video of variuos messages sent by artists. It also produced a puppet show on the honor killings. The Art group has been one of the most active among the 7 groups. This is thanks to the presence of the young artists and producers who spend time to introduce the Campaign to the public through art and publicity.