photo credit: Blair Fraser auf Unsplash
Report: Private and State Sponsored Femicide in Iran 2023
StopFemicideIran
Resource
Key findings
In 2023, approximately one woman was killed every other day in Iran - simply for being a woman.
Femicides happen in the privacy of the home, remote public spaces, purportedly to restore the family honor or resolve domestic disputes. Femicides in Iran, however, are not confined to the private sphere; they are also carried out by the state through the implementation of the death penalty or other state-sponsored violence.
Excerpt from page 3 and 4:
"Based on the analysis of 149 recorded femicide cases in 2023, the report identifies the following patterns and stories of femicides:
Femicides are still prevalent
• The 149 recorded femicide incidents represent an average of approximately one killing every other day, or nearly 13 killings per month.
• This figure reflects a decrease of roughly 18% compared to the incidents documented in 2022. The decline may be attributed to factors inhibiting reporting such as heightened government censorship, particularly online, and reduced public reporting by affected families due to diminished trust in the government system.
Most victims are young, and their names are buried with them
• Analysis of the age distribution among victims reveals that at least 80% (120 unique cases) of women and girls who were murdered were under the age of 50. Among them, at least 20 cases were girls under the age of 20.
• The youngest documented victim is a mere 9 years old, while the oldest victim is recorded as 66 years old, representing a broad spectrum of age groups affected by femicide. The 9-year-old girls was shot by her father when he killed his wife for alleged honor reasons; the 66-year-old woman was found dead in the outskirts of Tehran, and initial investigations revealed that she was killed in a brutal manner, and the perpetrator had previously killed another woman with the same brutality.
• For another 30% of the victims, their age remains unknown.
• More than half of the recorded femicide victims, totaling 85 individuals, remain unnamed in publicly available records, underscoring the significant anonymity surrounding these incidents."
