Babak Khormdin’s Father Says He Also Killed His Daughter and Son-in-Law; Social Media Reactions
Iranian media reported on Monday, citing Mohammad Shahriari, the head of Tehran’s criminal prosecutor’s office, that Babak Khormdin, a 46-year-old film director whose dismembered body was found in trash cans at several locations in the capital, was killed by his parents—a retired military man and a housewife.
Akbar Khormdin had cited “moral problems” and “corruption” as the motive for killing his son Babak. Now, two days later, Akbar Khormdin and his wife have confessed to the murder and mutilation of their son-in-law, Fereydoon, in 2011, as well as their daughter, Arzoo Khormdin, in 2018, with similar motives.
What People Are Saying
The details revealed about the deaths of three members of the Khormdin family at the hands of their parents have sparked numerous reactions on social media.
Multiple users who are acquainted with the Khormdin family have shared their experiences and knowledge about them.
A user called “Hami” introduced himself as “an old friend and neighbor” of theirs. Stating that hearing this news disturbed him, he wrote: “I may be making an unfair judgment… I may not be respecting people’s privacy, but just know that someone I used to call Uncle Akbar has dismembered his children.”
A user named “Ardabir” reacted to claims of “repeated sexual assault by the father against Arzoo from childhood” and “the mother’s awareness” of this issue, by sharing an interview from RECA News with a friend of one of the victims—Arzoo Khormdin.
Hossein Norouzi, a journalist and writer in the field of children and adolescents, emphasizing the necessity of child protection and pointing to “the widespread distribution of details of the murder and butchery” and how “all these details are being shared in family and relatives’ groups” on Telegram and WhatsApp, wrote: “Both on Instagram and in these groups, children under 15 and 16 years old are present.”
Manli reacted to the judge’s statement about the lack of confirmed mental disorder in Babak Khormdin’s parents, writing that the intent is not to say someone is “normal” if they mutilated their son and daughter, but rather that “a murderer cannot escape punishment by claiming mental disorder.”
One user reacted to drawing general conclusions from a specific case, writing: “It’s not good at all to conclude from Babak Khormdin’s story that parents are like this or that.” Referring to cases where a child has committed murder against parents, he emphasized, should we conclude in those cases that “children are like this or that? The fact that no one should be considered sacred, whether parents or anyone else, is a general fact.”
Another user, by sharing Akbar Khormdin’s statements in the open interrogation session and emphasizing the flaws and weaknesses of the law, said “in the end, it’s his wife’s fault too” because “she didn’t know how to raise children,” “the man of the family doesn’t make mistakes! It was the woman and his child who were guilty.”
Source: Voice of America
