Execution of “Rena Farajoglu” in the Shadow of Child Marriage Laws

The execution of “Rena Farajoglu” in the shadow of child marriage laws once again demonstrated how the Islamic Republic, instead of protecting victims of violence, punishes them.

In one of the most recent examples of the connection between judicial violence and structural discrimination against women and girls, the death sentence of Rena Farajoglu, a young Turkish woman from Tabriz, was carried out in the early morning hours of Wednesday, December 4, 2025 at Tabriz Central Prison. This occurred despite the fact that Rena was not a “professional killer,” but rather one of countless girls who, under the shadow of child marriage laws in the Islamic Republic, was drawn into a cycle of violence from childhood and became a structural victim—first handed over to forced marriage at age 16, and then sentenced to death for attempting to escape that life.

According to a report by the human rights organization Hengaw, Rena was arrested two years ago on the charge of killing her husband, and the judicial system, disregarding her long history of violence, coercion, and inequality, sentenced her to death. Rena is merely one of the victims in a discriminatory structure who lacks security not only within the family, but also in society and the courts.

Based on informed sources, Rena was forced into marriage at age 16, barely at the onset of adolescence, without her consent, to a man 19 years her senior—a man who trapped her for years in a life “like death.” In reality, Rena was a child sold into marriage; a woman who, instead of receiving support, was ultimately executed. In court, Rena had said she didn’t even want a lawyer, because the only feeling she had was a desire for “liberation from that life.”

This painful narrative is not the story of one individual; rather, it is a clear picture of a structure that in Iran not only considers child marriage legal, but traps girls in a cycle of domestic violence, social vulnerability, and judicial injustice.

In Iran under the rule of the Islamic Republic, marriage of girls from age 9 (lunar years) is religiously permissible and from age 13 with parental consent is legal—a law that not only contradicts international standards and international conventions on children’s rights, but pushes thousands of girls into spousal and maternal roles before reaching physical and psychological maturity.

The consequences of this cycle are evident:

• Many of these girls, with severe age differences, are handed over to men with whom the relationship is essentially one of ownership, not marriage.
• School dropout, economic dependency, domestic violence, and deep depression are widespread among these “women-children.”
• And when these girls try to escape this violence (whether through running away or self-defense), the same law that victimized them ultimately provides the executioner.

Rena’s execution is one of the most glaring examples of this cycle: a structure that first renders the victim defenseless, then punishes them.

Until the time of preparing this report, news of Rena’s execution had not been published in any government media outlets, including those close to the judiciary. This silence represents a recognized pattern: erasing signs of violence against women, concealing the social resonance of such cases, and preventing the formation of public sensitivity toward child marriage victims.

Now the question arises: how does child marriage produce victims? According to official and unofficial statistics, tens of thousands of girls are married in Iran before age 18 each year, some at very young ages between 10 and 14. Many of these girls are exposed to high-risk pregnancies, continuous violence, and deprivation of education.

Furthermore, multiple reports document suicides, runaways, honor killings, and desperate acts of self-defense among this group. In other words, Rena is not just a name, but a symbol; a symbol of a path that begins with a stolen childhood and may end in prison and at the gallows.

The Islamic Republic, on one hand, considers child marriage “legal” according to religious law, and on the other hand, punishes the catastrophic consequences of that very law as a “crime.” From a perspective that emphasizes the unconditional value of human beings, the dignity of women, and the protection of children, the construction of such a structure is not merely a sign of failure, but a sign of fundamental denial of human rights. A system that takes away girls’ childhood, robs them of choice, blocks any path to liberation, and ultimately executes the surviving victim of suffering as a “criminal” falls short of even the minimum standards.