A 13-year-old Iranian girl died at the hands of her father who beheaded her, chopped her head from her shoulders using farming sicker, after she ran away with an older man.
The victim, Rumina Ashrafi stayed in Hovigh, Talash county. She left her home when her father got very mad. She intended to marry 34-year old Bahamn Khavafri, resulting in the grisly killing reported by the Daily Mail.
Her father was opposed to her decision but she still wanted to go ahead, despite his objections.
Rumina is only one of many women whose life was cut short by anti-women laws in Iran that has caused the deaths of many Iranian girls like her.
Thee beheaded Rumina was convinced by her intended fiancée to leave with him which lead to the girl's death at her father's hands.
Eloping was the first and last act of defiance, against her father's wishes.
Both lovers were caught and she got arrested by local magistrates. Soon the judge sent her back to her father.
When she was returned home, her father accepted her back, but he would chop off her head while sleeping.
Rumina and Khavafri went missing
When both of them were not to be found, families of the two immediately called the authorities who sought out the two, suspicting elopement after Rumina's desire to marry the older man.
For five days, a search for the runaway couple went on and ended with sending Rumina back home. The girl pleaded not to be sent back. But her life ended unexpectedly. The police came and took the murder weapon, which is a sickle, with the beheaded girl's blood. Her father surrendered himself for commiting the crime.
According to the Daily Mail, the girl's getting sent back to her father is required by law. In Iran, a girl can get married at 13, but most women opt for it at 23-years old.
Iran International said the Sharia law says that only the 'immediate family members' are the ones to ask for a death sentence for the killer of a family member, but 'honor killings' like that of beheaded Rumina will not ask for her father's execution and go unpunished since families will not sentence family to death.
The father who beheaded her is the guardian and is exempt according to Islamic Law, that allows 'qisas' that is based on the retribution of justice which insulates guardians, according to Al Arabiya.
Fariba Sahraei, Iran International senior editor, stated that honor killing is common in Iran, committed by male relatives concealing murder as honor killings, wherein many Iranian women are subject to this condition. Rumina's Ashrafi's death is the exception amongst these killings.
Nothing is known about the exact number of honor killings done in Iran, a rep of the Tehran police mentioned that it accounts for 20% of murders in Iran.
A women's rights activist Shahindokht Molaverdi with connections to women and family affairs and the current secretary of Iran's Society for Protecting Women's Rights, said that Rumina is only one of the many victims and she will not be the last. Occurrences like this will not exist if there is something done to prevent it to spare women from this sad fate.
In 2019, the US State Department reported that Iranian law allows shorter sentences for perpetrators of honor killings. An average of a father killing his daughter is sentenced for three to ten years only.
Deaths of 13-year old Iranian girls many not be rare with fathers and relative guilty of honor killings.
