A video of a man showing the head of his young wife that he had just beheaded on the street caused shock and outrage in Iran on Tuesday (8).
Suspected adultery, Mona Heidari, 17, was murdered on Sunday by her husband and his brother-in-law in Ahvaz, capital of Khuzestan province, in the southwest of the country, according to information from Isna (Iranian Students News Agency). ).
The video of the husband parading in the street smiling with the head of his victim appeared, soon after, on the Iranian network, shocking the country. The two men were detained by police on Monday “during a raid on their hideout”, local police announced, quoted by the official agency.
“A human being was beheaded, his head was displayed in the streets and the murderer was proud of it. How can we accept such a tragedy? We must act so that femicides do not happen again,” stated the reformist newspaper Sazandegi.
“Mona was the victim of devastating ignorance, we are all responsible for this crime,” protested feminist filmmaker Tahmineh Milani on her Instagram account after the video went viral.
children’s wedding
Responding to the tragedy, several human rights advocates urged the authorities to reform the law protecting women from domestic violence and to raise the minimum age for marriage for Iranian girls, currently set at 13.
According to local media, the victim was only 12 years old when he got married. She left a three-year-old son.
For lawyer Ali Mojtahedzadeh, quoted by the reformist newspaper Shargh, the law has “gaps” when it comes to protecting women, as it does not grant them independence and fails to “rationally determine the legal age of marriage to end child marriage.” . All of this “paves the way for easier murders,” he laments.
“There are no concrete measures to ensure the application of laws aimed at preventing violence against women,” said MP Elham Nadaf.
“Women ask Parliament to take urgent measures to close some legal loopholes. At the same time, the authorities must strive to raise the level of awareness of the population,” said on Twitter the director of affairs related to women and family of the Iranian government. , Ensieh Khazali.
