By:Rezvan Moghaddam

On March 24, 2025, a woman in Minushahr, located in the southwest of Khuzestan
Province, was brutally killed and dismembered by her husband using a knife. What
makes this crime even more shocking is not only the savage method of killing, but also
the declared motive: “carrying out a family tradition if the wife disobeys her husband.”
This phrasing clearly reflects the cultural and traditional roots of violence against women
and its institutionalization in the value system of a segment of society that still sees
women as the private property of men.
The killer in this case had previously been arrested and imprisoned for armed conflict
and possession of military weapons. Despite this dangerous criminal record, he was
released again and ultimately committed the killing. This cycle of violence, release, and
repeated crime has been seen repeatedly in Khuzestan and other provinces, showing
that the judicial and security structure of the Islamic Republic not only fails to protect
women but actively enables the recurrence of such crimes through leniency and
reliance on “family consent” and “retribution-centered” justice.
Similar killings in past years—such as the killing of Ghazal (Mona) Heydari, among
many other women in Ahvaz, Abadan, and border towns—demonstrate that “honor
killings” in Khuzestan are no longer rare, but have become a recurring trend. Killers are
often released after obtaining consent from the victim’s family or exploiting legal
loopholes, and they are never held accountable for their crimes. This cycle of injustice is
the result of discriminatory laws, a weak judiciary, and the dominance of a patriarchal
culture that still considers “honor” more valuable than “life.”
Details published by the state-affiliated site Rokna reveal the full horror of the tragedy.
According to the report, after killing his wife, the killer sat beside her dismembered body
and calmly ate lunch. He had even intended to kill his children as well, and only the
timely alert by neighbors to the police prevented a larger disaster.
In his initial confession, the man claimed, “When a wife disobeys her husband, her body
should be used as a food vessel”—a statement that not only reveals the depth of
violence and deep-rooted cultural distortion, but also signals an alarming reproduction
of violence within patriarchal traditions. He also stated clearly that his father had killed
his mother in the same way years ago and was eventually released due to a lack of
complaints from the victim’s family.

This explicit admission of intergenerational violence and exemption of killers from
punishment clearly demonstrates the failure of the Islamic Republic’s legal system to
protect women’s lives. When there is no law criminalizing domestic violence, and the
judiciary still prioritizes family consent letters, it sends a clear message to society: the
killing of women, especially in the name of honor and tradition, is tolerable.
The killing of this woman in Minushahr is not an isolated incident but part of a chain of
repeated violence that the Islamic Republic enables and facilitates through silence,
complacency, and discriminatory laws. Until protective laws for women—including the
criminalization of domestic and honor-based violence—are passed and enforced in Iran,
and until the judiciary imposes real punishment on perpetrators, women in
Iran—especially in deprived and border regions—will continue to live in a state of total
insecurity.

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