By: Rezvan Moghaddam

On Saturday, May 3, 2025, a 50-year-old woman was killed by her 62-year-old husband in
Golbahar, Mashhad, after being struck with a mace. Initially, the killer attempted to stage the
incident as a robbery, even superficially injuring himself to make the lie more believable.
However, after being taken to the hospital and questioned further, he confessed to killing his
wife.
Local media outlets such as Khorasan Daily cited “family and financial disputes” as the motive
behind the killing—a vague and cliché phrase that effectively downplays the violent, structural,
and gender-based nature of the crime.
This killing clearly exemplifies how domestic violence is normalized in public and media
discourse. Labels like “family dispute” not only conceal the severity of the tragedy, but also
shield perpetrators behind ambiguous terminology. A woman being killed by her husband is a
blatant case of femicide, rooted in male entitlement, patriarchal structures, and the lack of
serious legal protections. The staged robbery further proves that the killer was fully aware of
committing a crime and attempted to conceal it—an important rebuttal to those who dismiss
such killings as “temporary loss of control” or “mental pressure.”
It is essential to call these crimes by their real name: femicide. Only by identifying the roots and
structural causes of such violence, we can take effective steps to break this deadly cycle. Isn’t it
time for the judicial system and the media in Iran to abandon euphemisms and report these
realities as they are?

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