On Wednesday, April 9, 2025, a young woman in the Baladeh district of Nur County,
Mazandaran Province, was strangled with a rope by her husband. According to the
IRNA news agency, the murderer has been arrested and cited “family disputes” as the
motive for killing his wife.
The phrase “family disputes” is a vague term often used by state-affiliated media to
portray the murder of women as private and personal, obscuring its social and structural
dimensions. The identities of both the victim and the perpetrator remain undisclosed in
the media.
The killing of this young woman in Baladeh is yet another link in the chain of domestic
violence against women in Iran—violence wrapped in the familiar euphemism of “family
disputes.” This empty phrase has been repeatedly used by state media to downplay the
crisis of gender-based violence and reduce it to a private matter, devoid of broader
societal and structural significance.
Official state media reports, despite having access to information, mention neither the
name of the killed woman nor the name of the killer. There is no reference to any history
of abuse that may have kept this woman confined and silenced for years. The only
detail reported is “the rope”—a cold, silent, yet precise instrument that may indicate
premeditation and intent. Rather than being a wake-up call for the public, society, or
responsible institutions, this killing is reduced to a short, ineffective news item.
Such media coverage not only shifts responsibility away from the government and
support institutions, but it also leaves women even more unprotected in their own
homes. As long as the killing of women is described merely as a “family dispute,” there
will be no serious effort to reform legal, cultural, or support structures. While this murder
may be a minor report for official media, for social movements it is another voice
breaking the long silence—one that must be heard.

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