One woman killed in Iran every other day in 2024, rights groups say
Women in Iran are being killed at alarming rates, with rights groups reporting an average of one woman killed every other day in 2024.
Women in Iran are being killed at alarming rates, with rights groups reporting an average of one woman killed every other day in 2024.
Many of these killings are carried out by male family members, often citing reasons such as so-called family honor, objections to divorce requests or resistance to abusive forced marriages, according to US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
CHRI in a statement on Monday warned against the rising toll and attributed this systemic violence to the government’s refusal to enact protective laws or hold perpetrators accountable.
“Women in Iran are being shot, stabbed and burned to death by husbands and fathers in shocking numbers, but the government does not take even the most basic measures to try to prevent these crimes, and the Iranian judicial system lets these cases go with little or sometimes even no punishment,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI’s executive director.
CHRI highlighted data from rights groups documenting the alarming rate of violence against women and girls in Iran. According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), 114 publicly reported femicides occurred in 2024, while Stop Femicide in Iran (SFI) reported 93 femicides in the first half of the year, equating to one killing every other day during that period.
A report by Tehran-based Etemad Daily also revealed that femicide rates in Iran in 2024 had increased by 60% compared to the previous two years.
CHRI emphasized that these figures likely represent only a fraction of the true toll, as many cases remain unreported or are misclassified as suicides or accidents.
Separately, Norway-based rights group Hengaw reported that at least 182 women were killed by family members due to domestic violence in 2024, further underscoring the extent of the crisis.
Ghaemi urged the international community to take action: “The international community must recognize the growing emergency in Iran—women and girls are being killed with impunity, and many more will be killed without the international community demanding that the Iranian authorities take concrete steps to address this violence.”
Last month, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran issued a call for input for its report on the country to the Human Rights Council.
The Special Rapporteur said the report will focus on gender-related killings and the systemic failures that enable them, including state complicity through inadequate laws and a lack of accountability for perpetrators.
