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Iran, beheads his 17-year-old wife: for him only eight years in prison

Lightning trials lead young people to be sentenced to death for taking to the streets to protest Iran, are lightning jobs that always end in an execution. The same did not happen to Sajjad Heidarnava, the man who in Ahvaz, in southwestern Iran, beheaded his wife, Mona Heidari, child bride, related to him, when she was 17 years old. They had married when she was 12 and by 14 she had a son. After beheading her, he walked out laughing with her head in his hand. This man will spend only eight years in prison.

The murder took place in February 2022. Only later was the video made public on social media. This case had shocked the country and made human rights groups ask a squeeze on marriages to raise the minimum age for marriagenow set at 13 for girls.

The woman was killed by her husband and brother, who was also convicted. For both of them it is a sentence without appeal because the family of the child bride has granted forgiveness and has given up asking for a more severe sentence after a trial that lasted 11 months.

For the man the killing of his wife was a reparation to one’s honour, injured by his wife’s flight to Turkey. Her parents had convinced her to return to Iran, where she found her dead.

The measures applied to the protesters took to the streets after the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish girl arrested for an alleged violation of wearing the veil and died following beatings by the police. Since September, 19,000 people have been arrested, there have been 4 executions and another 20 sentenced to death are waiting to be hanged. All the convictions came with summary trials, without basic legal protections, and coerced confessions and for much less serious facts such as burning a dumpster or simply participating in demonstrations. Those not sentenced to death remain in prison much longer than the man who killed his wife: human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

More stories from Vanity Fair that might interest you:

– Let’s not draw a veil: this is who is behind the protests in Iran

– The viral video of Taraneh Ahmadi: “I too was arrested for wearing a bad hijab”

– «No, it is not easy being a woman in Iran»

Source: Vanity Fair

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