A father killed his daughter in Isfahan- Another father buried his daughter alive in Tehran

Iran Human Rights, May 12: A man identified as Ahmad (53) has killed his 17 years old daughter, identified as Farzaneh, Wednesday morning May 7., in Isfahan, reported several Iranian newspapers such as Etemaad.

Ahmad told the reporters that "Farzaneh had been kidnapped and held by Saeed, the former husband of his other daughter, for ten days. In order to save my family’s honour I had either to commit suicide or kill Farzaneh. After talking to Farzaneh she said that she would rather die. Thats why I killed her".

htm#71975" class='spip_out' rel='external'>The daily newspaper Etemaad reported a more detail version of the story on May 11. According to this report, the 53 years old father Ahmad tells his story in this way: "Seven months ago, Saeed got married to my older daughter. After a while he started showing lack of interest towards my daughter. He wanted to divorce her and wanted to marry my younger daughter Farzaneh. I didn’t accept that. After divorcing my older daughter Saeed continued showing interest for Farzaneh. Finally he kidnapped her and stayed with her for 10 days. We tried to solve the problem without involving the authorities, but had to contact the police who arrested Saeed and Farzaneh. On Tuesday (May 6.) we brought Farzaneh home from custody. First I beat her up. She just cried and apologized for what had happened. I felt pity for her but couldn’t liberate myself from thoughts that hurt my honour. Tuesday night I sat by Farzaneh and told her that one of us had to die in order to solve this issue and save our honour. She kissed my forehead and said if someone had to die it must be her. On my request, that night Farzaneh slept in another room downstairs. I had decided to put an end to her life and everyone in the family knew what was going to happen. During the night I sat several times by her bed and looked at her innocent face. At the time of the morning prayer I went to her and waked her and her sister up. We talked for the last time and I repeated to her that just one of us could live. She laid down and volunteered to die. She kissed my face for the last time and I said good bye to her. I put her hands into her sister’s hands and put a pre-prepared plastic bag on her face. She didn’t show any resistance. We had decided to show it as a suicide. But later we contacted the police and told them the story".

Ahmad (the father), Saeed (the former son in law) and Farzaneh’s older sister are at the custody of the police.

Honour killings are occurrng in Iran with a much higher incidence than before. These phenomena are not only occurring in the remote villages, but higher incidence of honour killings are being observed in the bigger Iranian cities.

Human rights advocates believe the increasing incidence of honour killings is due to the laws inserted in the Iranian constitution after 1980.

For instance Article 220 of the Iranian Criminal Code states, “If a father – or his male ancestors – kills his child, he will not be condemned for a murder". Likewise, article 1179 of the Civil Code states, “Parents have the right to punish their children within the limits prescribed by law.”

On May 6, the state run Iranian news agency Fars reported about a girl who had been buried alive by her father in Tehran. It was because she was a drug addict. The father has first beaten her up and then buried her while she was still alive in a grave. The girl was saved by the people passing by and transferred to the hospital.