Woman who was beheaded by husband had fled to Turkey but was tracked down and brought back
Mona Heydari, 17, was grabbed from a car outside her family's Iranian house and butchered by her cousin and husband Sajjad Heydari. She was sought with the help of authorities after she fled to Turkey. According to Iranian media sources, her father had filed a complaint with Iranian police, who subsequently gave him her address. The father is alleged to have then traveled to the country with a translator and all the documents needed to return her back to home, where she was slain to 'avenge the family's honor.'
Sajjad Heydari married Mona when she was just 12 years old, and they had a three-year-old boy together. Authorities have charged the husband and his brother for murdering Mona in retaliation for her adultery and abandonment. Sajjid could be seen gloating while holding a knife in one hand and his wife's decapitated head in the other. In Iran, where the legal age for marriage is 13 and women are required to wear a head covering in accordance with Islamic law, the episode has surprised many people.
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Javad, Mona's father, justified his decision to push his daughter to marry at such a young age after her death, saying that the domestic abuse was normal. He also stated that the husband had put forth a lot of effort to support his young wife. Sajjad was a good husband, according to her father, who said he worked hard and gave her the "best life".
"She was not forced to marry, and in fact, the husband provided her with the very best of lives," her father continued. "It's true, there was fighting between them, and sometimes there was violence and she would return home, but she only stayed for two or three days, and then he would pick her up and life would return to normal. These fights between husband and wife are completely normal and I don't think there was a problem as she did not ask for a divorce."
He conceded that she was probably too young to marry, but went on to say that, "We got a certificate of confirmation that she was physically old enough to marry, and there was not any physical problems in the relationship."
Surreal and scary. Ahmad Rahdar, director of an Islamic Institute in Iran who is a regular guest on state TV, referring to the beheading of the 17 yo girl, Mona Heydari by her husband, said “ in this case an Iranian man was oppressed and he tried to defend his honor.“#LetUsTalk https://t.co/JhABwJhdVF pic.twitter.com/pXT7iwozkA
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 9, 2022
The family also alleged that the husband had been mocked and insulted since his wife had gone to Turkey with another guy. After he allegedly took part in the 'honor killing' with his brother, images of her smirking husband supposedly clutching the decapitated head of his teenage wife in one hand and a huge sword in the other stunned the world. On February 5, the grisly picture was shot in the Khashayar neighborhood of Ahvaz, in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan.
Every time Mona indicated a wish to divorce her husband, her family encouraged her to return home for the sake of their child, according to the Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Following the gruesome murder, the culprits were apparently apprehended. However, it's unclear what kind of penalty they'll get.