IRAN – The Iranian judiciary has sentenced a man to eight years in prison for beheading his 17-year-old wife.
Last year, pictures of Sajjad Heydari carrying Mona’s severed head through Ahvaz after the so-called “honor killing” made people angry.
A spokesman for the court said that Mona’s parents “pardoned” him for the murder instead of trying to get revenge.
Her father previously stated that he did not consent to the murder.
Mona had been married to her abuser since she was 12, and their son was born when she was only 14 years old.
Local news reports say that she ran away to Turkey because her husband beat her and wouldn’t let her get a divorce.
She Thought She Would Be Safe
She reportedly returned to Iran a few days before her murder in February after receiving assurances from her family that she would be safe.
According to Judiciary spokesman Massoud Setayeshi, Sajjad Heydari was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for murder and an additional eight months for assault on Wednesday.
He said that the verdict was correct because it was based on Iranian law, which says that murder is punishable by death unless the family of the victim forgives the killer.
Mona’s brother-in-law was sentenced to 45 months in prison for his involvement in the murder, he said.
Iran Under Fire Again For High Domestic Abuse Numbers
Iran has heard more calls for a law to stop domestic violence and protect victims since the murder.
There were also calls for a minimum marriage age for raising children. It is 13 for girls, though girls younger than that can marry legally with judicial and parental consent.
In 2020, when 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi was killed by her father for allegedly running away with her boyfriend, the same kind of anger broke out. Before killing his daughter, the father went to a lawyer for advice. He was given nine years in prison, which is one year less than the maximum allowed by law.
Honor Killings Are Still Happening
After that, the government passed a draft law that made it illegal to hurt women in different ways. However, parliament has yet to pass it, and a UN independent expert has stated that it does not go far enough.
Iran is currently being overrun by anti-government protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman detained by morality police in September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.
Four people have been executed in connection with the protests, while 18 others have been sentenced to death. According to human rights organizations, they were convicted following grossly unfair sham trials.
SOURCE – (BBC)
