Goli Koukhan paid 10 billion tomans in blood money to the family of her dead abusive husband to avoid execution by the Islamic regime.
Goli Koukhan, a child bride and victim of domestic violence, was spared the death penalty after Iran raised enough blood money to compensate the family of her dead husband, Mai Sato, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, confirmed on Friday.
Sato wrote on
Kouhken was sold into marriage at age 12 and suffered years of abuse at the hands of her cousin, whom she married.
When Kukan witnessed her husband beating her five-year-old son, she sought help from relatives, a fight that ultimately led to his death.
Women, Life, Freedom mural in Tel Aviv on June 12, 2024. (Picture source: provided by the other party)
She has been on death row at Gorgan Central Prison for seven years since her husband’s death when he was just 18, in a case that has been widely condemned by human rights groups.
After suffering physical and emotional abuse in her marriage, Kukan fled to her home to seek help, but her father reportedly told her, “I sent my daughter away in a white dress. This is the only way you can come back.” [is wrapped in a shroud]” said Ziba Baktyari, a member of the women’s rights organization Brasm.
In a Dec. 1 letter, Sato and several other U.N. officials urged the court to consider the family pain Kukan experienced during their 13-year marriage. “In cases where women commit homicide as a result of domestic violence, courts should fully consider mitigating factors related to the sexual and gender-based violence experienced by women and girls, including addressing the gender bias faced by women and girls sentenced to death,” the letter reads.
Iran denies reports of death penalty for child bride victim
In response to the letter, the regime denied claims that she was a member of the Baloch ethnic group, claiming instead that she was an Afghan immigrant and denying evidence that she was a victim of child marriage.
The regime also denied reports that her cousin accidentally killed her husband while responding to an incident of domestic violence against Kukan’s son.
The regime claimed that Kukan “brutally murdered her husband after injecting an anesthetic, causing multiple stab wounds and decapitation, hurting public sentiment in the area where they lived”. “In part of her statement to the court, she stated that “afterwards [the stabbings] I was afraid that he would stand up and hurt me, so I took a kitchen knife (yellow knife) and slit my throat. “
The regime also claimed to have examined thousands of messages between Kukan and her “associates” that allegedly led authorities to believe the motive for the killing was related to their emotional relationship.
Despite earlier comments, the regime claimed that “although the judgment has been finalized (all stages of the legal proceedings have been completed and legal counsel has been available), the execution of the judgment has been suspended as settlement meetings are ongoing and efforts are still underway to obtain the consent of the victims’ families.”
Ignoring Iran’s claims about her ethnic background, Sato wrote, “The Kuhan case reflects broader discrimination against women throughout the Iranian justice system. At least 241 women were executed in Iran between 2010 and 2024. Notably, in 114 of these cases, women convicted and executed for murder killed their husbands or partners. Many of these women were victims of domestic violence or child marriage, or acted in self-defense.”
It was previously reported that even if Kouhkan paid her husband’s family, she would be deported from her city and unlikely to gain custody or contact with her 11-year-old son.
The #SaviGoli campaign was launched to help her raise the necessary funds to avoid murder by the state. She has until December to pay 10 billion tomans (approximately NIS 342,000) in blood money to her husband’s family.
