Mother-of-two shot to death by husband who sold her jewellery to buy drugs
A teenage boy was forced to watch his mother being shot to death by his father after he sold her jewellery to buy drugs in Iran, it was reported.
Zahra Shahbazi, who worked at Ilam University, was killed with a revolver during a dispute with her husband on Tuesday last week.
The man, who had previously made unsuccessful attempts to fight his drug addiction, fled the scene and currently remains at large, according to the the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights.
Zahra leaves behind her two children, her 14-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter.
The murder of the 28-year-old, who is understood to have been forced into child marriage at the age of 14, is the latest case of femicide in the Islamic Republic.
In the first week of 2025, there have been several reports of young women who have fallen victims of femicide – and the Iranian regime is doing little to put a stop to it.
In the western city of Kermanshah, Kosar Darabi was shot and killed by her husband on January 1.
Hengaw reported that the 18-year-old was forced into marriage earlier in 2024 and had endured severe physical abuse before her death.
Sara Karami, a mother of a six-year-old boy who was in the process of divorce, was found dead in her home in the city of Saqqez.
Her body showed signs of strangulation and head trauma, with bruising around her neck and blood from her ears. The identity of her attacker is still not known.
A report by Stop Femicide in Iran (SFI) says there were 93 known acts of femicide in Iran in just the first half of 2024, a near 60% increase over the same period in 2023.
Husbands and ex- partners were the primary perpetrators in these attacks, Iran International reported
The methods they used were brutal – running their victim over with a car, setting them on fire, throwing them out a window, strangling, poisoning, shooting and decapitation.
What is an 'honour killing'?
So-called honour killing is, most often, the murder of a woman or girl by men in her family.
They justify their crime by claiming that she brought dishonor upon the family.
Types of honour-based abuse include threats to kill, forced marriage, domestic abuse, pressure to go or move abroad, being kept at home with no freedom and not allowed to use the telephone, internet, or have access to important documents like your passport or birth certificate.
Women’s rights activists point to Iran’s patriarchal society based on Islamic law as the primary cause of femicide.
For example, so-called honour killings – the murder of a woman accused of bringing shame upon her family – are carried out for as little as not wearing the mandatory hijab.
Women were also murdered for requesting divorce, rejecting proposals for marriage or refusing second marriages.
Marjan Keypour, the founder of SFI and longtime human rights activist said: ”We must collectively condemn and combat the alarming rates of femicide in Iran and strive for greater protection of women’s human rights.
‘It is imperative that we stand together to raise awareness, advocate for justice, and ultimately end the cycle of violence against women and girls.
‘Every life lost to femicide is a tragedy that must not go unnoticed or unaddressed.’
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