Woman and two daughters slain by husband in femicide case in Maragheh

Hengaw – Friday, September 5, 2025

A young woman, Somayeh Kioumarsi, and her two daughters, Sanaz and Maral Dolatkhah, were murdered by her husband in the city of Maragheh. The killings were reportedly carried out under the pretext of preserving “family honor.”

Information gathered by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights shows that on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, a 41-year-old man killed his 38-year-old wife, Somayeh Kioumarsi, along with their daughters, 17-year-old Sanaz Dolatkhah and 9-year-old Maral Dolatkhah, inside their home in Maragheh.

In recent days, state-affiliated media outlets, including Rokna, attributed the motive for the crime—like many other femicide cases—to “family disputes.” However, Hengaw’s findings confirm that the murders of the young mother and her daughters were committed under so-called “honor” motives.

The perpetrator surrendered himself to the Maragheh Criminal Investigation Department after the killings.

The laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran not only fail to protect women from murders committed under the pretext of “honor,” but also, by fostering judicial impunity and issuing lenient sentences, create conditions that allow such crimes to continue. Hengaw warns of the systematic violation of women’s and children’s rights, the ongoing facilitation of wife-killing and filicide, and the concealed figures of femicides and child murders across Iran.