Judicial Official Claims ‘Special Investigation’ into Murder of Romina, 13-Year-Old Girl, by Her Father

A judicial official in Gilan Province has stated that the case of a 14-year-old girl’s murder in the city of Talesh is being investigated “specially.”

According to Mizan news agency, Ahmad Aqai, Deputy Head of the Judiciary in Gilan, explained the details of the incident, stating that Romina Ashrafizadeh disappeared on the 18th of Ordibehesht (April 7) along with a 29-year-old young man.

Local media reported that Romina was in love with this person and had fled home to marry him.

The girl’s family initially filed a complaint titled “kidnapping” at the prosecutor’s office. This complaint led to the pursuit and arrest of both individuals.

Previously, local media in Gilan had reported that despite repeated warnings from Romina about the danger to her life if she returned home, given her father’s “temperament,” she was handed over to her father, Karbalai Reza Ashrafizadeh, according to the law.

The Deputy Head of the Judiciary in Gilan stated in this regard that “the father, through the kindness and affection he showed, gained the investigator’s confidence,” and “given an examination of all circumstances, there was no reason not to hand the daughter to her family at that time.”

Mr. Aqai spoke about the murder: “It is unclear what unusual event occurred” that “at dusk, when the girl was asleep, the father murdered his daughter.”

Based on local media reports, upon Romina’s return home and the escalation of family disputes and tensions, the father, unable to cope with his daughter’s flight from home, on the first day of Khordad (May 21), taking advantage of a quiet moment in the house, brutally severed his 13-year-old daughter’s head with a sickle while she slept.

According to reports, after committing the murder, he left the house with the sickle in his hand and, after turning himself in to police, confessed to killing his daughter.

According to the Deputy Head of the Judiciary in Gilan, the girl’s father is currently in detention, and “regardless of the father’s motive in murdering his daughter,” this case will be investigated specially.

Request by Presidential Deputy to Approve Child Protection Bills

Massoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, in response to this incident, has called for faster approval of the “Bill on Protection of Children and Adolescents.”

Shehnaz Molaverdi, former deputy for women and family affairs of Iran’s presidency, also described this murder as a “crime against humanity” and wrote that Romina Ashrafizadeh will not be the last victim of such killings.

She, like Massoumeh Ebtekar, also pointed to the need to approve bills ensuring women’s security against violence and protecting children and adolescents.

The tweets of these two current and former officials in the women’s sector have been met with widespread negative reactions on social media.

Asieh Amini, journalist and women’s rights activist, tweeted: These bills cannot “compete with the constitution that links civil laws to religious ones that consider the father and paternal grandfather as the owner of the child.”

Extensive Resonance of Romina’s Murder in Cyberspace

In another response by government institutions, Reza Jaafari, Deputy for Social Affairs of the Welfare Organization in Gilan, called this murder “an example of clear violation of children’s rights” and said the government “will make all efforts to uphold the legitimate rights of the child.”

Although Romina’s father has been arrested, according to Article 220 of the Islamic Penal Code, the father, as “guardian of the blood,” will not be executed for killing his child, and if convicted in court, punishment such as imprisonment or blood money will be issued for him.

The brutal murder of this young lover has deeply affected Persian-speaking cyberspace.

His mourning announcement, in which his father’s name is also mentioned, has been repeatedly shared on social media, and users have strongly criticized the fact that the father’s name, despite being the killer, appeared in the announcement.

Every year in Iran, women and girls are murdered by their family members under the guise of “defense of honor.”

There are no exact statistics on such murders in Iran, but Hadi Mostafai, former deputy for combating criminal offenses of Tehran’s Police Intelligence, reported in 2014 that 20 percent of murders in Iran were committed under the pretext of defending honor.

The news website NewsOnline also wrote: “According to statistics, in 2013, 18.8 percent of murders were motivated by honor and forbidden reasons, and Khuzestan Province, Fars Province, and East Azerbaijan are among the provinces with the highest rate of such murders.”

Cases of such murders have also been observed in Ilam, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Hamadan, and West Azerbaijan provinces.

Source: Radio Farda