An unnamed young man beheaded his 17-year-old wife, Mona Heydari, and paraded her head around the streets in another case of ‘honor killing’ in Iran.

The murder occurred on Saturday in the southern city of Ahvaz, when the young wife was brought back from Turkey, where she had been for unclear reasons.

Her father assisted the woman’s spouse, who is his nephew, in returning to the nation.

The husband and his brother, who are believed to have carried out the murder together, have been apprehended.

Iran’s media watchdog reacted fast, banning the Rokna news agency, which was the first to publish the video of the killer carrying her wife’s head.

In some parts of Iran, honor killings are common, owing to social beliefs and the Islamic Republic’s lenient laws and short sentencing, which encourage the practice.

A husband is protected from penalty if he kills while witnessing adultery, according to Article 630 of the Constitution.

According to a women’s rights NGO in Ahvaz, honor killings has claimed the lives of over 60 women in the last two years, including some as young as 10 or 15 years old. Because most of the families haven’t even filed a case, none of the offenders has been brought to justice.

In October 2020, the medical journal the Lancet released an article claiming that between 2010 and 2014, at least 8,000 honor killings occurred in Iran, but only a few were registered.

According to Sharia law, only the “blood owners” (the immediate family members) are entitled to demand execution for the murder of their loved one; thus, most honor killings go unpunished because families do not demand harsh punishment for another family member.

Image Credit: shots from the clip

You were reading: “Honor Killing”: Man Beheads 17-Year-Old Wife