Girls beheaded in Iran – the honor killing that could make legal history

Moritz Baumstieger

Updated 4 hours ago—

Romina Ashrafi’s killer came at night when she was sleeping, and she knew him well: he was her father. When the man stood at a police station in Northern Iran after his act last Thursday, he was still holding the bloody sickle with which he had beheaded his daughter in his sleep. This is how local media report it.

Romina Ashrafi turned 13, according to other sources 14 years old. She died because her father thought that this was the way to restore his family’s honor and that he had to do it. Romina had fled, a twenty-year-old man from her village had spoken of love and marriage, but Ashrafi’s family was against the connection. When the Iranian police picked up the couple after five days on the run, Romina Ashrafi begged not to be taken home to the father, who was afraid of his violent reaction. With good reason.

A lot of things go wrong in the legal system

The fate of the girl no longer affects only the residents of Talesh, the town on the Caspian Sea about 420 kilometers from Tehran, where the family comes from. National Iranian media took up the case this week and printed a picture of the teenager on the front pages, using Photoshop to slightly extend the cheeky veil on the back of the girl’s forehead and the jeans over her ankles. International media soon reported that the name of Romina Ashrafi has become a much-quoted catchphrase on the Farsi and English-language Internet. Because their fate unites a lot that, even in the opinion of conservative Iranians, goes wrong in the legal system of the Islamic Republic.

The 35-year-old, who persuaded Romina Ashrafi to burn out, does not have to fear any consequences: Marriage to a girl or adolescent is the exception in Iran – the average age of marriage is 23 – but legal from the age of 13. Not only did she suspect that Romina as a woman had to fear consequences from her family, the officials could also have known it: Although there are no reliable statistics on murder cases in Iran, through which apparently injured family honors are to be restored.

Offenders are mildly punished

Some Arab media (which, however, follow a clearly anti-Iranian line) cite the statement made by a senior police officer in 2014 that one fifth of all homicides in the country are so-called honor killings. The perpetrators – which now also contributes to the shock – are usually mildly punished: Romina’s father Reza Ashrafi, who is now in pre-trial detention, is expected to be imprisoned between three and ten years. The principle of retaliation, which imposes the death penalty or a large sum of blood on murderers in Iran, does not apply in this case – because the perpetrators and victims belong to the same family.

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the Shah of Persia who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979, used the case to attack the religious character of the Iranian state order. “Laws that allow domestic violence, honor killings, child abuse and marriage have no place in the 21st century,” he wrote on Twitter. “The solution is a return to secular law.”

The president intervenes

But not only the exile opposition, even the political-religious establishment of the Islamic Republic now sees a need for action: President Hassan Rohani, who is not only a lawyer but also a Shiite legal scholar, instructed his cabinet on Wednesday to finally bring about legal reforms that deal with the acts of violence Sanction the names of the supposed family honor more strongly.

Drafts have been circulating in Parliament’s ministries and committees for years, but their implementation has been delayed until today – perhaps out of indifference, perhaps by some conservatives for political reasons.

Vice President Masumeh Ebtekar, responsible for women and families, now said she hoped that harsher punishments could come into force soon. And announced that the judiciary would investigate the current case in a special court – the name of Romina Ashrafi could thus become a much-cited catchphrase in the country’s legal history.

Posted at 4:51 PM today-