Explanation of the initiative regarding the bill to increase punishment for fathers who kill children
The vice president announced work on a bill to make the punishment for fathers more severe in cases like Romina's murder. At the same time, a girl wrote to the police saying she ran away from home so she wouldn't suffer Romina's fate.
Masoumeh Ebtekar says that a bill is under consideration to amend the laws regarding the punishment of fathers in the event of the intentional murder of their children, in an effort to ensure that "if something like Romina's murder happens again, the father faces a more severe punishment."
On Thursday, July 25, in an interview with ILNA News Agency, the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs expressed hope that expert work has been done on the bill and that it will be sent to the Bills Committee for consideration.
Romina's murder, which Mehdi Fallah Miri, the public prosecutor and revolutionary center of Gilan province, called "very horrific and unjustifiable," has sparked much debate, especially about Islamic rulings on infanticide.
This 13-year-old girl from Taleshi was killed by her father on June 1, and this incident is one of the crimes that are called "honor killings."
The punishment for intentional murder in the Islamic Republic is in most cases "retribution," in other words, the death penalty, but this punishment does not include a father who kills his own child.
Leaving home for fear of Romina's fate
Simultaneously with Masoumeh Ebtekar's statements, parts of a letter from a 30-year-old woman addressed to the Tehran Intelligence Police were released, in which she asked the police not to comply with her family's request to track her down and return her.
The letter reads: "My family was against my marriage to the man I love. I also ran away from home and I know that if I return I will suffer the same fate as Romina and my father will kill me, but I do not want to suffer this fate."
The girl's father, named Mitra, went to a police station in Tehran on June 13 and announced that his daughter, who has a master's degree in law, had left home in the morning and, despite saying she would return by noon, had not returned by evening and was not answering her cell phone.
Mitra wrote in her letter that she went to a southern city with a man who proposed to her but her family opposed her proposal. She also sent a copy of the marriage contract to the police and asked them to close the case of her disappearance. Her family has not yet responded to this letter.
Source: DW
