The atmosphere in the middle eastern country of Iran has been tainted with the hue and cry of protesters seeking justice for Romina Ashrafi.
She was a 14 years old Iranian girl who was ruthlessly beheaded by her father, Reza Ashrafi using a scythe while she was asleep. The protests have been in motion for over three months demanding legal recourse for the same, and a much more severe punishment than just a nine year jail sentence.
When alive, Romina had requested the judiciary to provide her with protection against her father as she could foresee her father murdering her for having tried to flee the violent household. Her requests were denied and she was sent back to her abusive household where she met with a gruesome end. Her father killed her just because he thought she was a disgrace to the family. Upon further interrogation of the case, it was found that the father was a drug addict who would continually beat up his daughter.
Shahnaz Sajjadi, a human rights representative of the President was quoted saying, “We should revise the idea that home is a safe place for children and women. Crimes that happen against women in society are less than those that happen in the homes.” This incident left the whole world devastated, and brought the plight of women to the forefront with the increase in crimes committed against them. Even though we are in the 21st century and are ‘supposedly’ more forward in our thinking, we see a surge of cases where the perpetrator is left off the hook too easily.
The murder of Romina has started a much needed discussion about the rise in honour killings and the gender bias laws which are in a dire need of reforms. Efforts to reform the law to protect children and women had previously fallen foul of Iran’s Guardian Council, which overruled the parliamentary reforms deeming them irreligious and unfeasible. They would rather blame the victim than make the assailant take full accountability of their actions.
Critics believe that portions of the Iranian penal code are predicated on the assumption that men are entitled to discipline women if they do not conform to the social roles attributed to them. The very system reeks of internalised patriarchy and male favouritism. Another hypocritical facet of the government is that the nine-year sentence contrasts with lengthy jail penalties imposed on women who protest over laws which mandate putting on the hijab.
The Romina Ashrafi incident was enough to take social media by storm. The implicit side of the Iranian government not opposing honour killings was revealed and ridiculed. This case came up at the time when an Iranian #metoo movement has taken to Twitter where women reveal their stories of harassment.
It is said that honour killings take place at a disturbingly high frequency in Iran, but there’s little data to support the statement as the local media occasionally covers up such news. Such cases are no novelty to countries of the Middle East but due to occasional reporting or the selective ignorance of other countries, they are often lost in the pages of forlorn history.
One such case is of the Palestinian girl, Israa Ghrayeb. She was a renowned artist who inspired thousands of women. She was admitted to a hospital in a devastating condition of fractured spine and a bruised face. Her story gradually unravelled into one of trauma, protest and violence against women in the society. It was later found that she was a victim of domestic abuse and she soon succumbed to her injuries. It sparked an outrage among the society to ensure enforcement and protection of laws made for women.
How do we prevent this silent killing pandemic from infiltrating the society, and attacking more innocent victims?
The answer is simple. But its implementation can prove to be tricky. However, we have to start somewhere, right? We can start by trying to change the mentality of the people. For one to achieve that, we first must analyse the most common reasons behind honour killings. The reasons begin from a girl marrying against the parent’s wishes and choices, marriage done by eloping, being involved in adultery, inter-caste marriages and end nowhere. The society always has a myriad of reasons to blame women as from a very young age they are endowed with numerous responsibilities and social expectations. Whenever a girl dares to oppose, her voice is muffled and efforts flushed down the drain. A change in mentality needs to be introduced at a macro level. We have to make the masses realise that it’s okay for a child to choose their life partners, eventually the onus of their choices is completely on the children. We also need to bring in stringent laws emphasising that these killings are serious punishable offences which can not be pardoned and categorising them as non-bailable crimes.
Honour killing is not a new crime, but it is certainly one of the most underestimated and underreported ones. The concept behind it is straight up crooked, whatever tampers honour is set to bring on shame and hence, the “shameful” person must be weeded out. There is no honour in killing and the power to write death sentences should not be vested in the hands of the common folk.
Author-
Aditi Kapoor
aditikapoor.18x@gmail.com
Aditi is currently pursuing her Bachelors in English (Hons.) with a minor in Psychology from Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi. She took to writing poetry, articles and reading books from a very young age owing to her parents who are both avid readers. She is a coffee addict and she loves to observe people. She loves to stay in her little cocoon and would occasionally venture out when an opportunity knocks!
Well written ✨
💕💖💕
❤️❤️great piece