An Iranian man has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison after beheading his wife and publicly displaying her head in 2022, sending shockwaves across the country, the judiciary said on Wednesday.
Mona Heidari, 17, suspected of adultery, was murdered in February 2022 by her husband and brother-in-law in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province in the south-west of the country.
The video of the man smiling and marching with his victim’s head in the street caused shock and outrage in Iran.
heartbreaking. Today in Iran; This man holds his 17-year-old wife’s head after beheading her. She had fled to Turkey for security reasons, but was pushed back.
In Iran, a father who beheaded his 14-year-old daughter got 8 years in prison, but a woman who removed her hijab got 24 years.#Let’s talk pic.twitter.com/oPy5gIY2Gn– Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 5, 2022
On Wednesday, the spokesman for the judiciary, Massoud Setayechi, told the press that the victim’s parents “pardoned the murderer Sajjad Heidarnava”.
“Indeed, the man was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for the premeditated murder of a Muslim woman and eight months for assault,” the official said.
“The defendant has no right to appeal the verdict and the decision is final,” Mr Setayechi added.
#MonaHeydaria victim of honor killings and forced child marriages
Read the sad fate of another victim of honor killings in Iran, rooted in the misogynist/patriarchal culture institutionalized in the Iranian regime’s laws and society. https://t.co/VGH8z8VhvQ
– NCRI Women’s Committee (@womenncri) February 7, 2022
“The second defendant in the case, Heidar Heidarnava, was sentenced to 45 months in prison for being an accessory to first degree murder,” the spokesman said.
At the time, local media reported that the victim was only 12 when she married and was a mother to a 3-year-old son when she died.
After the tragedy, several human rights defenders called on the authorities to reform the law protecting women from domestic violence and to raise the minimum age for girls to marry, which is currently set at 13.
Iran has been rocked by protests that erupted following the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s women’s dress code.