Despite years of physical and sexual abuse during her marriage as a child bride, Goli Kouhkan, a 25-year-old Baluch woman sentenced to death for the murder of her husband, is scheduled to be executed. Prominent UN human rights experts have urgently urged Iranian authorities to immediately halt the execution.
According to Center for Human Rights in Iran, Kouhkan gave birth at the age of 13 without receiving medical attention after being coerced into marrying her cousin at the age of 12. Due to Iran’s extremely discriminatory divorce rules for women, her undocumented status, and social pressures, she faced enormous difficulties when trying to leave her terrible marriage and endured years of physical and sexual abuse.
When Kouhkan turned eighteen in 2018, her husband was killed in a violent altercation with her. The experts pointed out that neither her attempts to protect herself and her kid nor the years of torture she suffered were taken into account by the Iranian courts. Due to her lack of literacy and lack of access to legal representation, Kouhkan was coerced into making a “confession” that served as the foundation for her qisas (retribution-in-kind) punishment.
The victim’s family can prevent her execution under Iranian law if Kouhkan pays 10 billion tomans, or roughly USD 90,000, in “blood money.” The UN experts stressed that her execution would be a reflection of systematic discrimination based on gender, race, and socioeconomic background and classified this amount as much beyond her means.
Kouhkan’s case, UN experts noted, is part of a larger trend of discrimination against women in Iran, where many women who were killed for homicide were victims of forced marriages or domestic abuse and acted in self-defense.
The Islamic Republic’s laws do not protect women who attempt to escape such marriages and are frequently killed by male family members in “honor killings” in retaliation, nor does it offer any effective legal or practical protection for the widespread domestic violence that many women experience, even when it is fatal.
With the intention to save Kouhkan’s life and guarantee that Iran adheres to international human rights standards, the UN experts are in contact with Iranian authorities and are urging immediate action.
