Within a short span of time, the city of Shadegan in Khuzestan witnessed two shocking
crimes committed against teenage girls.
On 14 September 2025, a young girl was shot and killed by her cousin while she was
visiting a counseling center with her fianc\u00e9 for pre-marital consultation. State-controlled
media, without mentioning her name or identity, reduced the case to a vague \u201cfamily
homicide.\u201d
In another crime, Mehdi, a young man, lured his 16-year-old niece to a remote area in
Abadan and killed her by slashing her throat. The killer claimed \u201chonor-related issues\u201d
as the motive. The tragedy deepened when it became clear that the girl\u2019s father had
ordered his own brother to kill his daughter, and then went to the police station to waive
the right to qisas (retributive justice), clearing the path for the killer\u2019s release.
When \u201chonor\u201d and \u201cfamily reputation\u201d are defined through control of the bodies and
relationships of girls and women, violence is reproduced systematically. Moreover, laws
that designate fathers as the wali-e-dam (guardian of the victim\u2019s blood) effectively hand
fathers and male relatives the power to commit killing and escape punishment. In such
a system, the killer can be freed with a single signature.
Reducing these atrocities to \u201cfamily homicide\u201d in state-run media is part of an ongoing
policy of erasing the reality of honor killings. This denial creates the conditions for
violence to be repeated. The killing of the 16-year-old girl by her uncle and the killing of
another young woman by her cousin in Shadegan are part of a structural cycle, a cycle
fueled by patriarchy and misogynistic culture, and upheld by the discriminatory laws of
the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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