Statement of the Stop Honor Killings Campaign on the Occasion of November 25 The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 2025
Statement of the Stop Honor Killings Campaign on the Occasion of November 25 The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
On the eve of November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we at the Stop Honor Killings Campaign once again reaffirm our commitment to resist all forms of gender-based and sexual violence and to defend women’s right to life and human dignity.
This day, established in memory of the Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic who were murdered for resisting dictatorship stands as a global symbol of defiance against political and structural violence against women. Today, it resonates profoundly with the ongoing struggles of women in Iran.
In Iran, violence against women is embedded in the logic of survival and control that defines the ruling political system. Over the past 47 years, a regime founded on religious discrimination, control over women’s bodies, and the erasure of women’s agency has institutionalized violence from within the family to the highest levels of government transforming it into an instrument of domination. Law, the state religion, the judiciary, the morality police, and cultural apparatuses together form the machinery of repression. Within this structure, so-called honor killings, domestic violence, compulsory hijab, the repression, arrest, and sometimes execution of LGBTQ+ individuals, legal discrimination, and the execution of women are all direct outcomes of the Islamic Republic’s politics of obedience and control.
Moreover, misogynistic laws within Iran’s legal system serve as direct sources of violence. Article 630 of the Islamic Penal Code, for instance, permits a man who “sees his wife with another man and knows that she consented” to kill her on the spot without facing punishment. Such laws, instead of protecting women, have legalized and legitimized femicide, rewarding the perpetrators rather than prosecuting them.
In 2024 (1403( in the Iranian calendar alone, the Stop Honor Killings Campaign documented more than 180 cases of so-called honor killings. These numbers represent only the traceable portion of violence. Due to judicial impunity, many perpetrators receive light sentences or full pardons, while women who act in self-defense or attempt to escape abusive relationships face severe punishment and even execution. This vicious cycle perpetuates murder and multiplies violence.
Execution is one of the starkest forms of state violence. Iran continues to have the highest rate of executions of women in the world. Women political prisoners face not only the deprivation of liberty but also the systematic threat of physical elimination. The issuance of death sentences for justice-seeking activists such as Verishe Moradi, Pakhshan Azizi, and Zahra Shahbazi shows that the regime has criminalized the very act of defending life and human dignity. In solidarity with the campaign “Tuesdays Against Execution,” we affirm our unwavering defense of women’s right to life and dignity..
The revolutionary movement “Woman, Life, Freedom” marks a historic rupture with the patriarchal order of the Islamic Republic, continuing the long struggle of women and justice-seeking activists. This movement has shown that the collective power of women can challenge the foundations of domination and transform the state-imposed narrative of “obedience” into a people-centered narrative of “life.”
The struggle against violence toward women is a collective responsibility that concerns all of society. As long as gender-based violence remains a political tool to preserve power, neither freedom nor justice can be secured for any social group. As long as executions, discrimination, and structural exclusion persist, the struggle must and will continue.
The Stop Honor Killings Campaign stands as part of this collective and historical struggle. We work toward abolishing discriminatory laws, exposing honor killings, empowering women, documenting violence, and uniting the voices of resistance. We believe that ending violence against women is possible only through sustained organizing, awareness-raising, and social pressure and we will continue this path with solidarity and collective determination.
Stop Honor Killings Campaign
November 2025
#WomanLifeFreedom
