Susan Rezaeipour Executed in Domestic Violence Murder Case

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a woman was executed in Qazvin Central Prison on the morning of October 27. Her identity has been established as 31-year-old Susan Rezaeipour and she was sentenced to qisas for the murder of her husband who was also her cousin.

An informed source told Iran Human Rights: “Susan Rezaeipour had been in prison for six years and the victim’s next-of-kin, who was her maternal uncle, refused to forgive her and forgo retribution.”

“Susan was forced to marry and didn’t love her cousin but her family forced her to marry him because he was rich. In her confessions, Susan had said that ‘my husband was drunk from 3 in the afternoon and would beat me till the end of the night and I couldn’t stand it anymore,’” the source added.

At the time of writing, her execution has not been reported by reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

According to Iran Human Rights’ recent report on Women and Death Penalty in Iran on the occasion of World Day Against the Death Penalty, at least 164 women were executed between 2010-October 2021. Of those, six were child brides and one woman (Safieh Ghafouri), was an aroose-khoon-bas, a bride offered by one tribe to the opposing tribe to stop the bloodshed.

Within the marriage itself, a woman does not have the right to divorce, even in cases of domestic violence and abuse, which are hidden in cultural codes and language. In 66% of the known murder cases, the women were convicted of killing their husband or partner.