On April 30, 2025, Mahrou (Faranoosh) Tondpour, a 25-year-old woman from the village
of Chahartal in the province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, was shot and killed by her
suitor—who was also a relative (her maternal cousin’s grandson).
Mahrou was a student of Educational Sciences at Payam Noor University in Yasouj and
also worked at a veterinary pharmacy in the city. According to local sources, the killing
occurred after Mahrou and her family rejected the marriage proposal, citing reasons
such as the suitor’s lack of appropriate employment. This horrific killing was committed
solely because she declined a marriage proposal.
This crime, like many other femicides in Iran, reveals the depth of a catastrophe rooted
in a cultural, social, and legal structure that is fundamentally misogynistic. In the Islamic
Republic, laws addressing gender-based violence are not only ineffective and
discriminatory, but by denying women the right to make autonomous decisions about
their lives, they enable and legitimize such crimes.
Moreover, the lack of serious judicial prosecution and effective punishment for
perpetrators of femicide sends a clear message to society: within this system, women’s
lives and dignity are considered expendable. When a man killing a woman for rejecting
him, and the legal system excuses it with phrases like “family disputes” or “wounded
emotions,” the responsibility lies not just with the individual, but with a larger, systemic
structure.
We condemn this killing not merely as an individual crime, but as a structurally-enabled
act of femicide, taking place under the discriminatory laws of the Islamic Republic.
Femicides and so-called “honor killings”—whether in the street, at home, or by the
hands of a close relative—are the direct product of a culture that treats women as male
property and subjects their lives to male approval. Until protective laws for women’s
rights are enacted and enforced, until the culture of violence and ownership over
women is dismantled, and until patriarchal power structures are held accountable,
similar tragedies will continue.

StopHonorKillingsCampaign

SafetyForWomen

Yasouj

WomenHaveTheRightToLive

IslamicRepublicIsResponsibleForWomensDeaths

NoToViolenceAgainstWomen

MahrouTondpour

NoToMisogynisticCulture

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

Stop honor Killings Campaign