50 honor killings in the last 7 months in Iran

Iran Human Rights, November 29: A high ranking official in the Iranian police, said in an interview with the daily newspaper Etemaad that there have been 50 "honor killings" in the last 7 months. He didn’t mention whether this number is for teh whole country or not.

According to this official, number of this year’s honor killings is the same as last year.

Honor killing has been increasing in Iran in the past years. From a phenomen being limited to smaller towns in the outskirts of the country, honor killings are being observed increasingly also in the bigger cities:

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

A man hanged his own sister because she wanted to marry a man she loved

A father strangled his 14 years old daughter because of her suspicious behaviour

A 14 years old girl stoned to death by her father

Human rights defenders believe that the laws included in the Iranian constitution after 1980s are partly responsible for this increase.

We have also been observing an increasing number of parents killing their children.

According to the paragraph 220 of the Iranian penal law, if a father or grandfather (on father’s side) kill his child og grandchild, he will not be convicted and punished for murder.