On Sunday, March 9, 2025, in the city of Chermahin in Lenjan County, Isfahan Province,
a woman named Zahra Rafiei, 30 years old, was shot and killed by her former suitor,
Hamidreza Jafarian, 35, known as Salman, using a handgun equipped with a
suppressor. The attack was reportedly motivated by Zahra\u2019s rejection of his marriage
proposal and the cancellation of their engagement. Jafarian then shot and killed Zahra\u2019s
mother, Shahin Ebn-Ali, with the same weapon. After committing the killings, he turned
the gun on himself and ended his own life.
According to a reliable source, Hamidreza had proposed to Zahra 15 years earlier, but
her family rejected the proposal. Seven years ago, Zahra married another man, but the
marriage ended in divorce, reportedly due to infertility. The source said: \u201cAfter her
divorce, Salman, who remained single, once again asked Zahra\u2019s parents for her hand
in marriage. Mr. Rafiei, Zahra\u2019s father\u2014a simple, religious, and kind man\u2014agreed after
consulting his daughter. However, shortly into the engagement, Zahra told her family
that Salman was mentally unstable, aggressive, and frightening. She called off the
engagement.\u201d
On the day of the incident, Jafarian (Salman) visited the Rafiei family home. After initial
hospitality, an argument broke out during which he demanded an explanation for the
broken engagement. Zahra\u2019s older sister and her two young children were also present.
When the situation escalated, Mr. Rafiei took the sister and her children to their home
nearby. Upon his return, he found that his daughter Zahra and wife Shahin had been
shot dead, and Salman had committed suicide.
The killing of Zahra Rafiei and her mother by a rejected suitor is a horrifying example of
patriarchal, ownership-based violence against women in Iran. The crime underscores
the deeply entrenched structures of gender discrimination and a culture of violence that
punishes women for exercising autonomy\u2014especially when that autonomy conflicts
with a man\u2019s perceived entitlement.
Iran\u2019s current legal system lacks effective protections for women facing threats from
suitors, husbands, or ex-partners. Notably, the use of a handgun with a suppressor in
this crime highlights the alarming ease with which individuals can access deadly
weapons and military-grade equipment in Iran\u2014an issue seen frequently in so-called
\u201chonor killings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Follow news in the Stop honor Killings Campaign Telegram group:
https:\/\/t.me\/stophonorkilling
Stop honor Killings Campaign<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday, March 9, 2025, in the city of Chermahin in Lenjan County, Isfahan Province,a woman named Zahra Rafiei, 30 years old, was shot and killed by her former suitor,Hamidreza Jafarian, 35, known as...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[21,305,284,172,199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1292,"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions\/1292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stophonorkillings.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}