In yet another tragic case of femicide in Iran, Mahboubeh Delavari, a 42-year-old teacher residing in the city of Abdanan in Ilam Province, was killed by her husband on Sunday, June 22, 2025.
The murder occurred during a domestic dispute over financial matters and Delavari’s decision to purchase a home in the city of Sarbandar—an idea her husband opposed. In the course of the altercation, her 47-year-old husband struck her fatally on the skull with a flowerpot, leading to her death.
Following the murder, Mahboubeh Delavari’s body was wrapped in a blanket and left inside their home for nearly 24 hours while the perpetrator remained on the premises.
The crime came to light when a concerned friend, alarmed by Delavari’s lack of response to repeated calls and the deactivation of her phone, visited the house. Neighbors reported hearing a violent argument the night before, prompting the visitor to alert the police. The State Security forces arrived shortly after and arrested the husband at the scene.
The Root Cause of the Problem
Social catastrophes have political roots. In the final analysis, the root cause must be attributed to the inhuman and misogynist clerical regime, which is the primary origin of the complexes of this period of Iranian history. Women and girls are the prime victims of the regime’s inhuman ideology and policy.
On April 30, 2025, a teacher residing in Sabzevar, Fatemeh Barkhordari, was murdered by her husband, also a teacher, in broad daylight and public view. Fatemeh Soltani was stabbed and killed in the street next to a water canal by her father, on April 17.
On November 9, 2025, Mansoureh Ghadiri, a journalist, was also murdered by her husband, who was a lawyer.
These killings, more than being acts committed by fathers or husbands, are the result of explicit and implicit legal permissions shaped by the reactionary ideology of Iran’s ruling regime—a regime that executes one person every three hours, does not criminalize violence against women, and provides no legal protection for vulnerable women.
In conclusion, the root cause of the alarming rate of so-called honor killings in Iran lies in the misogyny and entrenched patriarchy institutionalized in the laws of the clerical regime—a regime that will soon be overthrown by the Iranian people.
