Justice Undermined and State-Sanctioned Impunity for Honor Killings in Iran
The sentencing of Fatemeh Soltani’s father to just eight years in prison for murdering his daughter has highlighted what critics describe as deep-rooted injustice and discriminatory laws against women in Iran’s judicial system.
According to the state-run newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad, July 26, 2026, the father, who fatally stabbed his 17-year-old daughter multiple times outside her workplace in Eslamshahr in 2024, was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and ordered to pay blood money (diya). This is while under the clerical regime’s law, murder is punished by execution.
The relatively lenient sentence once again demonstrates that under Iran’s system of governance, so-called honor killings are not only inadequately criminalized but are effectively facilitated through legal protections and judicial leniency, creating conditions that may encourage similar crimes in the future.
The central question, they argue, is why Iran’s judiciary closes some of the deadliest cases of violence against women with sentences of only a few years in prison. The answer lies in the nature and legal structure of a system that is founded on discrimination against and repression of women.
Inverted Justice: From Fatemeh Soltani to Mona Heydari and Romina Ashrafi
The eight-year prison sentence handed to Fatemeh Soltani‘s father is not an isolated case but reflects a systematic pattern within Iran’s judiciary. Similar outcomes have been seen in several other high-profile cases.
Mona Heydari, who was forced into marriage at the age of 12, was killed by her husband when she was 17. The perpetrator, who was also her cousin, publicly carried her severed head through the streets with a smile after the killing. He was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment, but was released shortly after, with the content of the victim’s father (his uncle).
In another widely reported case, the father of 14-year-old Romina Ashrafi, from Talesh, who killed his daughter by beheading her with a sickle, was sentenced to nine years in prison.
The contrast between these relatively light sentences and the punishments imposed on protesters and women’s rights activists illustrates what is described as “inverted justice” in Iran. While perpetrators of so-called honor killings are released after serving only a few years in prison, women arrested during the January 2026 protests have received death sentences, lengthy prison sentences and have been subjected to torture. At the same time, hundreds of women and girls have faced severe security-related charges and long prison terms for violating the mullahs’ mandatory hijab regulations.
Meanwhile, many women executed on murder convictions were themselves victims of forced child marriage and were sentenced to death after being accused of killing their husbands in self-defense.
In an interview with the state-run newspaper Shargh published on October 11, 2025, Zahra Eftekharzadeh, the founder of one of Tehran’s safe houses for women, acknowledged that the law lacks a deterrent effect. “When the punishment is not proportionate to the crime, perpetrators of violence see that they have little to fear,” she said. “In many of these cases, the sentences handed down by the judiciary are not only ineffective as a deterrent but, in a way, encourage offenders.” Referring to the Romina Ashrafi case, she added: “Her father openly said that if he killed his daughter, he would receive, at most, a 10-year prison sentence.”
Misogynistic Laws Give Killers a Green Light
The root causes of these crimes cannot be reduced solely to individual or family prejudices. The clerical regime’s Civil Code and Islamic Penal Code effectively grant men broad authority over the lives of women. Under the regime’s law, a father, as the victim’s legal heir (wali al-dam), is exempt from qisas (retributive punishment) for killing his child.
Provisions of the Civil Code reinforce male authority within the family. Article 1105 designates the husband as the head of the household, Article 1108 makes a wife’s entitlement to financial maintenance conditional on her obedience to her husband, and Article 1114 gives the husband the authority to determine the family’s place of residence.
Within this legal framework, the testimony of two women is considered equivalent to that of one man in certain legal proceedings. Also noteworthy is the fact that women subjected to severe domestic violence must prove that their lives are in danger in order to obtain a divorce—a burden of proof that, they argue, is often disregarded by judges until after a woman has been killed. This legal structure encourages some men to believe they can resort to violence against women with limited legal consequences.
These laws have contributed to a steady rise in so-called honor killings in Iran. Estimates in 2020 indicated that at least eight such killings occur each day across the country and that, on average, about 450 women are killed each year by male relatives or their husbands.
According to data compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) from reports published in Iranian state media—which the committee says represent only a minimum estimate because of extensive censorship and families’ reluctance to report such cases—the number of reported killings of women rose from 105 in 2023 to 160 in 2024. During 2025, at least 192 women were reported killed.
The Political Roots of the Crisis and the Proposed Solution
The social tragedies unfolding in Iran have deeply political roots. Iran is among the few countries that have refused to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and that the country’s ruling system has built its power on the structural subordination of women.
In a system where violating the mandatory hijab law is treated as a threat to national security, and where thousands of women are detained and humiliated each day because of their clothing, violence against women in both the home and society is allowed to flourish.
The father of Fatemeh Soltani, Mona Heydari’s husband, and Romina Ashrafi’s father are products of a legal system whose laws and judicial institutions treat women as second-class citizens. The lenient sentences imposed on such offenders not only fail to address the problem but also help sustain a broader system of violence and repression.
Many Iranians see the country’s governing system and its legal framework as the principal cause of these tragedies. The issue extends beyond individual prejudice to a political system that has institutionalized violence against women. As long as the current legal and political structure remains in place, women and girls in Iran will continue to face insecurity.
