Shahla Karimiani murdered and secretly buried by husband and brother-in-law in Mahabad

Hengaw – Saturday, October 4, 2025

Shahla Karimiani, a 38-year-old woman from Mahabad, was murdered by her husband and brother-in-law shortly after returning to live again with her former husband and children. Her body was discovered 15 days after she went missing.

According to information obtained by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, on Thursday, October 2, 2025, Karimiani’s body was found in Befrehwan Cemetery in the village of Sharweiran, near Mahabad. The discovery followed the confessions of her husband, Omid Shengeh, and his brother, Amin Shengeh, who admitted to killing her and burying her body in secret. The two men had fabricated a story claiming that Karimiani was living in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

A relative of the victim told Hengaw that about a year earlier, Karimiani had divorced her husband due to domestic violence and his second marriage, while their children remained in his custody. Following the divorce, and without family support, she earned a living by working as a laborer in fruit orchards and agricultural fields around Mahabad.

The relative also reported that Karimiani had repeatedly warned her family and friends that her brother-in-law had threatened to kill her, and that she had received numerous threatening and abusive phone calls and voice messages from him. She had expressed fear for her life on several occasions.

Around a year after the divorce, her ex-husband persuaded her to remarry him under the pretext of caring for their children, and the two eventually remarried. Afterward, her family lost contact with her, and when they tried to reach her, her husband claimed that she had fled with another man to a neighboring country. The family later received a message sent from an Iraqi number, allegedly written by Karimiani, stating that she was in Erbil and that they should not worry about her.

Following a complaint filed by Karimiani’s sister against her husband and brother-in-law, both men were arrested and confessed to murdering her and burying her body in Befrehwan Cemetery.

After the exhumation, Karimiani’s body was transferred to forensic departments in Mahabad and Urmia for autopsy to determine the exact cause and manner of death.

Omid Shengeh and Amin Shengeh are currently in custody pending judicial investigation.