Three cases of femicide were reported in Iran last week, with the women brutally murdered by their husbands following what regime-affiliated media described as “family disputes,” according to Iranian media reports.
Nour News, a media company affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported that a mother of two was murdered in Tehran’s Bisim neighborhood. The 35-year-old was attacked by her husband with a knife and hammer while she slept.
Detectives from the 10th Division of the Tehran Major Crimes Police arrested the husband, who was reported to have confessed to the killing during preliminary investigations.
“For a few days, due to work conditions and the fact that I was a laborer working in different places, I had disputes with my wife. On the night of the incident, we argued before going to bed. I waited until she fell asleep, but in a moment of anger, I killed her with blows. Then I called the police and reported the incident,” the husband reportedly told investigators.
The couple’s two sons, aged eight and 10, were said to have been asleep in their bedroom during the murder.
A 46-year-old woman was also reported as murdered by her husband in Lahijan, after initially being reported as missing, according to the regional news site Nimrokh Gilan.
The woman’s 66-year-old husband was said to have reported his wife missing before eventually confessing to police that he killed her and left her body in the Astaneh-ye Ashrafiyeh area. It was reported that the only motive he gave police was “family dispute.”
Police are still searching for the woman’s body, according to the most recent reports.
A 38-year-old woman was also reportedly murdered by her 41-year-old husband in a village near Aqqala. Police found the husband in a hideout, arresting him “in the shortest possible time.”
Economic hardship’s impact on domestic violence
Iran’s Institute for Management and Planning Studies (IMPS), a prominent academic and research arm under the presidency in Iran, reported last week on the significant impact economic hardship has on the likelihood of a woman experiencing domestic violence, claiming that one-in-every-two women murdered is killed by a close relative.
“Rainfall shock” is often used to describe the impact that agricultural issues, which by extension lead to economic issues, can have on a woman’s safety.
Iran, notably, has been suffering from water scarcity for a number of years. In 2021, water shortages sparked violent protests in the southern Khuzestan province. Sporadic protests also broke out in 2018, with farmers in particular accusing the government of water mismanagement. Last year, it was announced that Tehran’s reservoirs, which collectively could once store nearly 500 million cubic meters, now barely hold 250 million.
“Whenever there is a negative rainfall shock, the rate of violence against women increases by 5.5%. However, when there is a positive rainfall shock, no change in the rate of violence is observed,” the IMPS study said.
“Whether it is a positive temperature shock or a negative rainfall shock, interpersonal violence increases by about 5%, and intergroup violence increases by 15%. It is expected that such climate changes will become more frequent in the future, allowing us to predict how much crime and violence may increase,” according to the study.
Out of the 223,521 international female respondents, aged 13-45, 41% reported having experienced sexual violence, 24% had experienced physical violence, and 20% had experienced psychological and emotional violence. More than half of the respondents experienced some type of domestic violence.
Though the study focused exclusively on rainfall as an economic variable in domestic violence, Iran’s economy has been decimated under the weight of sanctions, multiple wars with Israel, and regime-imposed internet shutdowns.
