No one understands the motive of these perpetrators better than the women and girls who are no longer alive to tell their stories. The perpetrators who live to see another day will defend their bloody actions, often while blaming their victims. As their stories unfold we see that some murders were premediated and well-planned, others were impulsive or resulting from an escalated conflict. In some occasions, the perpetrator has engaged in a rampage, murdering multiple people in one gruesome scene.

Although the perpetrators should be held accountable for their crimes certain root causes, combined with misunderstandings about “honor,” property and masculinity are among can contribute to an environment where femicides are committed or tolerated.

Root Causes:
Femicides have been attributed to various root causes. StopFemicideIran continues to explore the factors contributing to this most violent type of crime against women. Some of the known root causes have been reported as:

• Unfair laws: constitutional inequality between men and women in Iran is a fundamental problem that perpetually disadvantages women in all aspects of life. From divorce and custody laws that restrict woman’s choices to the value of her life before the court of law where she is regarded as half of her male peers.
• Lack of mental health resources: Across the country families and individuals face many barriers to mental health services. Preserving a family’s “reputation” is one of the dominant reasons why conflicts are kept behind closed doors and never resolved with expert professionals. In addition, men are reticent about soliciting professional help to address their challenges, fearing the stigma associated with mental health services. For many suffering from poverty and marginalization, lack of financial resources and reliable mental health services also contributes to the problem. 
• Inequality between men and women
• Child marriage
• Lack of education
• Misunderstandings of culture and religion 
• Social expectations based on gender

• Many acts of femicide happen in silence, behind closed doors. Victims are sometimes left on desolate routes or quietly buried, some without headstones that mark their names. For these reasons, obtaining accurate data on femicide is a challenging task. StopFemicideIran assembles statistics and information about cases of femicide in Iran. We utilize multiple sources including local and national news, social media and grassroots reports.

•  Although acts of femicid occur in all parts of the country, based on available data, they are most prominent in 5 provinces

• Although given the current laws it is not easy to hold the perpetrators accountable for these murders, from a sociological perspective, it is important to understand the profile of perpetrators who commit these murders. According to the available data, most murders of women are committed by spouses, brothers, and fathers, but they are all committed by sons, cousins, inlaws, and others.

The list of femicides in Iran has been compiled with the utmost care by StopFemicideIran.org, if you know of cases that are not yet included in our overview please report them to us so we can make our overview as complete as possible.

Top 5 provinces

1. Tehran: 91
2. Khuzestan: 27
3. Kermanshah: 24
4. Kordestan: 22
5. West Azarbaijan: 21