Man beheaded woman and paraded her head, after which her parents forgave

He escaped a harsher sentence after her parents reportedly chose not to invoke Iran’s Islamic law of retaliation.

Mother-of-one Mona Heydari was just 17 when she was dragged from a vehicle outside her family home and killed in February 2022, according to court proceedings.

Her husband Sajjad Heydari, together with his brother Heydar, carried out the brutal massacre in Ahvaz, the capital of the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

A spokesperson for the judiciary confirmed that the lenient sentence was imposed because Mona’s parents had granted him a ‘pardon’ for the murder rather than seeking retribution.

Mona, who was married off at the age of 12, had initially fled her abusive husband and fled to Turkey with another man, the court heard.

Heydari had reportedly rejected Mona’s divorce requests.

Her father, identified in local reports as Javid, eventually tracked her down and persuaded her to return to Iran.

According to the BBC, her father allegedly used Interpol to FIND his daughter and returned her to her abusive husband, where her husband – who is also her cousin – killed her, claiming she had brought dishonor to him.

Disturbing video footage, which The Express has not published, has emerged showing the murderous husband holding his wife’s severed head in one hand and a large knife in the other after she was murdered.

Court spokesman Massud Setayeshi confirmed that Heydari was jailed for seven and a half years for murder, in addition to a further eight months for malicious assault.

His brother, who disposed of the decapitated body of his sister-in-law, was sentenced to 45 months in prison for complicity in intentional murder.

The court was told how the victim’s father defended marrying her off to a relative at the age of 12, claiming the violence she suffered in the relationship was normal. Mona was only 14 when she gave birth to their son.

Her father praised the husband they chose for her as a worthy partner, highlighting his work ethic and insisting he would provide his daughter with the “best life.”

Javid told the court: ‘She was not forced to marry, and in fact the husband provided her with the very best life.

“It’s true, there was a fight between them, and sometimes there was violence, and she returned home, but she stayed only two or three days, and then he picked her up, and life went back to normal.

“These fights between husband and wife are completely normal, and I don’t think there was a problem since she didn’t ask for a divorce.”

Mona’s father admitted afterwards that she may have been too young to marry, but insisted: “We were given a certificate confirming that she was physically old enough to be married, and there was no physical problem in the relationship.”

The family claimed the man felt humiliated and insulted after his wife eloped to Turkey with another man.

The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported that the victim was forced to marry her cousin at the age of 12.

They also revealed that the young girl had allegedly suffered domestic violence and whenever she expressed her desire to divorce her husband, her family pressured her to return home for the sake of their child, who was born when she was just 14.

Local media reported that the man’s brother wrapped the girl’s body in a blanket and threw it away, while the man paraded his wife’s head.

In the video, the suspect is seen smiling broadly as he holds the teen’s head and walks past local people.

Meanwhile, state news site Rokna was reportedly shut down for publishing the story and images at the time of the incident.

The NCRI Women’s Committee said: “Not a week goes by without some form of honor killing making headlines. The clerical regime’s failure to criminalize these killings has led to a catastrophic increase in honor killings.

“In a report published in 2019, the state-run daily Sharq wrote that an average of 375 to 450 honor killings are recorded in Iran every year. The killings are becoming more common [the areas of] in Khuzestan, Kurdistan, Ilam, and Sistan and Baluchestan.

“Some women’s rights activists believe that honor killings in Iran are officially justified as ‘family differences’.

“The catastrophic rise in honor killings in Iran is rooted in misogyny and the patriarchal culture institutionalized in the laws and society. Although the father, brother or husband may hold the knife, sickle or gun, the killings are rooted in the medieval vision of the ruling regime.

“The laws of the clerical regime officially declare that women are second-degree citizens owned by men.”