Sara Shadifar Born: 1989
Murdered: around 12 March 2022
Residence: Hosseinabad, Mazandaran Province
Origin: Iran
Children: 2
Perpetrator: her brother
On 1 April the lifeless body of 33-year-old Sara Shadifar was found in the rice fields around the village of Hosseinabad in Iran's Mazandaran province.
Police spokesman Safdar Eslami said that she had been killed about 20 days earlier by "one of her close relatives".
According to media reports, the murder was committed by her brother because, after two failed marriages, Sara was planning to emigrate with her two children to Turkey against her family's wishes.
In Iran, more than 400 women are murdered each year for 'honour'. Prison sentences for honour killings are particularly low, at three to five years, due to special Sharia-inspired legislation condoning honour killings.
Sudan and Syria abolished articles of law condoning honour killings in 2021, bringing their laws more in line with those of the international community.
Judges in the European Union consider the killing of a fellow human being for 'honour' to be an aggravating circumstance. Perpetrators of honour killings within the EU receive long prison sentences in order to combat the phenomenon vigorously.