A man who beheaded his wife and walked through the streets holding her severed head was handed a sentence of just eight years in an Iranian prison. He avoided a harsher punishment after her parents reportedly decided against invoking Iran's Islamic law of retribution.
Murder in Ahvaz
Mona Heydari, a mother of one, was only 17 when she was pulled from a car outside her family home and killed in February 2022, according to court documents. Her husband Sajjad Heydari, along with his brother Heydar, committed the brutal murder in Ahvaz, the capital of the south-western Khuzestan Province.
A judiciary spokesman revealed that the lenient sentence was handed down because Mona's parents had "pardoned" him for the killing rather than seeking retribution, reports the Express. Mona, who had been forced into marriage at just 12, had initially fled her abusive husband and escaped to Turkey with another man, the court was told. Heydari had reportedly rejected Mona's requests for a divorce.
Family's Role
Her father, identified as Javid in local reports, eventually traced her whereabouts and convinced her to return to Iran. According to the BBC, her father allegedly used Interpol to find his daughter and returned her to her violent husband, where her spouse - who is also her cousin - murdered her, claiming she had brought dishonour upon him.
Disturbing video footage, which The Star has chosen not to publish, emerged showing the killer husband clutching his wife's head in one hand and a large knife in the other after her murder. Court spokesperson Massud Setayeshi confirmed that Heydari received a seven and a half year prison sentence for murder, along with an extra eight months for intentional assault. His brother, who disposed of his sister-in-law's decapitated body, was handed a 45-month jail term for complicity in intentional homicide.
Father's Defence
The court heard how the victim's father defended marrying her off aged 12 to a relative, insisting that the violence she suffered during the marriage was normal. Mona was just 14 when she gave birth to their son. Her father lauded the husband they chose for her as a good partner, emphasising his strong work ethic and provision of the 'best life' for his daughter.
Javid told the court: "She was not forced to marry, and in fact, the husband provided her with the very best of lives. It's true, there was fighting between them, and sometimes there was violence, and she would return home, but she only stayed for two or three days, and then he would pick her up, and life would return to normal. These fights between husband and wife are completely normal, and I don't think there was a problem as she did not ask for a divorce."
Mona's father admitted, in hindsight, she may have been too young for marriage, but insisted: "We got a certificate of confirmation that she was physically old enough to marry, and there was no physical problem in the relationship." The family claimed the husband suffered shame and humiliation after his wife fled to Turkey with another man.
Honour Killings in Iran
The Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said the victim was forced to marry her cousin at just 12. They also revealed the young girl allegedly suffered domestic abuse, and whenever she expressed a wish to leave her husband, her family pressured her to return home for the sake of their child, who was born when she was only 14. Local media reported that the husband's brother wrapped the girl's body in a blanket and removed it from the scene, while the husband publicly displayed his wife's severed head. In the footage, the suspect can be seen grinning as he carries the teenager's head past nearby residents.
State-run news outlet Rokna was subsequently reportedly shut down after publishing the story and the video at the time of the incident. The NCRI's Women's Committee said: "Not a week goes by without some form of honour killing making headlines. The clerical regime's failure to criminalise these murders has led to a catastrophic rise in honour killings. In a report published in 2019, the state-run Sharq daily newspaper wrote that an annual average of 375 to 450 honour killings are recorded in Iran. The murders are more prevalent [the areas of] in Khuzestan, Kurdistan, Ilam, and Sistan and Baluchestan."
Some women's rights activists believe that honour killings in Iran are officially justified as 'family differences'. "The catastrophic rise in honour killings in Iran is rooted in misogyny and the patriarchal culture institutionalised in the laws and society. Although the father, brother, or husband holds the knife, sickle, or rifle, the murders are rooted in the medieval outlook of the ruling regime. The clerical regime's laws officially denote that women are second-degree citizens owned by men."
