An Iranian man named Sajjad Heydari was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years and two months in prison after he beheaded his 17-year old wife in February 2022.
The wife, identified as Mona, had been forced to marry Sajjad, her cousin, after her father obtained a legal certificate---as the minimum age for marriage in Iran is 13 for girls and 15 for boys. Mona gave birth to a son when she was just 14, and after being a victim of domestic violence she fled her home in mid-2021 to live in Turkey.
She then returned home after she received assurances from her father that she would be safe; however, she was beheaded by her husband and her brother-in-law in February.
The short sentence for the “honor killing,” an act of violence in which primarily women are the victims and are killed by their male relatives, has sparked outrage in the country. The killings are only punishable in Iran by up to 10 years in prison unlike murder, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Massoud Setayesh, who is a spokesman for Iran’s Judiciary, confirmed Sajjad was “convicted of stewardship in intentional murder, intentional assault, and disturbing public order.” The victim’s brother-in-law was “convicted of being an assistant in an intentional murder.” Mona's brother-in-law will receive just 45 months in jail for assisting in her murder.
Mona’s family had pardoned her killer as opposed to demanding Iran’s Islamic law of retribution: qisas, which would have found Sajjad to be punishable by death. Her father claimed he had not consented to the killing.