On Saturday, October 11, 2025, news of the killing of Zahra Ghaemi, an employee of
the University of Tehran, circulated widely on social media. Initial reports indicate that
she was strangled to death by her husband in their home in Tehran.
Zahra Ghaemi, 38, worked in the University of Tehran’s “Faculty of Family and Women’s
Studies”
and was scheduled to be transferred soon to the “Faculty of Social Sciences.” She had
previously served as an administrative expert in the Faculty of Family Law and had
more than ten years of professional experience at the university.
According to her colleagues, Zahra was the mother of a 12-year-old daughter from a
previous marriage, and her child was not at home at the time of the incident. University
sources say that on the night of the killing, Zahra and her second husband had an
argument, after which he allegedly strangled her while she was asleep.
Although faculty members and professors at the University of Tehran have confirmed
her killing, the Tehran Criminal Investigation Department and the Tehran Prosecutor’s
Office have not issued any official statements regarding the case. An officer from the
Tenth Division of the Tehran Police Criminal Department told the Ham-Mihan
newspaper:
“So far, no case with these specifications has been referred to us. If such a murder had
occurred, they would have informed us.”
By contrast, university professors, including Shiva Alineghian and Azam Ravadrad,
have publicly confirmed the killing on social media and criticized the silence of both
academic and judicial institutions. Despite these confirmations, the University of Tehran
has yet to release any official statement or explanation.
The killing of Zahra Ghaemi is the latest in a continuous chain of femicides that occur
every week across Iran, killings that demonstrate that domestic violence against women
is not an exception, but has become a grim part of everyday life.
This time, the victim was not someone living on the margins of society, but an employee
at one of the country’s most prominent universities, a place that should symbolize
knowledge, equality, and safety. Yet even in such an environment, gender-based
violence and structural inequality continue to deprive women of security.
The hesitation and silence of the police and prosecutor’s office in acknowledging or
investigating the case highlight a deep crisis of public trust in law-enforcement

institutions. When authorities refuse even to register a woman’s murder, they send a
clear message to society.
The absence of comprehensive legal protections for women, institutional indifference,
and a lack of transparency in handling such cases all contribute to the continuation of
these tragedies. In the Islamic Republic, a woman is not only subjected to patriarchal
violence during her lifetime, she is also victimized after death through silence,
concealment, and institutional injustice.
As long as violence against women remains consequence-free within the country’s
laws, culture, and governmental institutions, no woman at home, at work, or at
university can be safe.

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