On Tuesday, February 17, 2025, a 23-year-old divorced woman in Kermanshah was
killed by her father after he refused to accept her divorce.
According to Hamshahri Online, Behzad Shahbazi, director of Kermanshah’s Welfare
Organization, confirmed: “The girl who was killed by her father was about 23 years old
and divorced. Her 17-year-old sister returned from school to find that their father had
murdered her sister.”
The younger sister, who is reportedly in a very fragile psychological state, was initially
taken to a welfare center but later hospitalized due to severe emotional trauma.
Family members stated that the father committed the killing because he could not
accept his daughter’s decision to separate from her husband. Ali Karami, head of
Kermanshah’s Criminal Investigation Department, confirmed that the perpetrator was
arrested by police within four hours of the crime.
This is not the first time a woman has been killed over divorce. While divorce rates in
Iran are rising due to numerous economic and social crises, in many families and
traditional communities, divorce remains taboo and is seen as a source of shame rather
than a legitimate choice or path toward liberation from abuse.
This tragedy is yet another reminder that many women in Iran are denied the right to
make independent decisions about their lives. Cultural stigma and the threat of violence
often block women from escaping harmful marriages.
The lack of sufficient safe houses for women at risk of domestic violence is another
contributing factor to such irreversible tragedies. Not only does the Islamic regime fail to
support the creation of these shelters, it actively obstructs the efforts of civil society
groups trying to establish private safe spaces for women in danger.
The killing of this 23-year-old woman by her own father—simply for having sought a
divorce—is not merely a personal crime. It reflects a broader societal structure in which
women are stripped of their autonomy and punished for making choices about their own
lives. The secondary trauma of her 17-year-old sister, who was hospitalized after
discovering the body, shows just how deeply these acts of violence tear through entire
families.
As economic and social pressures continue to rise and outdated cultural beliefs persist,
divorce is still not recognized as a right or an acceptable escape from abuse for many

Iranian women—leaving them more vulnerable than ever. The lack of effective
protective systems only deepens the crisis.
This report is a call for urgent reform of legal and social frameworks to guarantee the
safety and dignity of women and to prevent future bloodshed. The state must support
both public and private shelters, implement meaningful protections, and end the cultural
stigmatization of women’s autonomy.

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