A Bride Married at 12 Faces Execution Unless She Pays 150 Million KRW: The Unending Tragedy of Women in Iran

[Financial News] A woman from the Islamic Republic of Iran, who was married at a young age and suffered abuse from her husband, is now facing execution after killing him.
According to The Guardian and other sources on the 3rd (local time), Goli Kouhkan, 25, who is currently incarcerated at Gorgan Prison in northern Iran, was sentenced to death for killing her husband seven years ago when she was 18.
Kouhkan, a member of the Baloch people, was married to her cousin at the age of 12 and gave birth to a son the following year.
Throughout her marriage, Kouhkan endured physical and emotional abuse from her husband. Unable to bear it any longer, she fled to her parents' home, only to be met with coldness from her father, who insisted that a daughter sent away in a white dress could only return in a burial shroud.
In May 2018, Kouhkan's husband was violently beating their five-year-old son, prompting her to seek help from another relative.
A fight broke out between the relative and her husband, during which her husband died.
Kouhkan called an ambulance and explained the situation, but she was arrested along with the relative.
Without legal counsel and under coercive interrogation, Kouhkan, who is illiterate, eventually signed a confession admitting to the crime. She was later sentenced to death in court.
The principle of Qisas—an eye for an eye—under Islamic law was applied to Kouhkan's case.
Negotiations over compensation were handled by prison officials. If Kouhkan fails to pay the victim's family Diyya, an economic compensation of 10 billion toman (approximately 150 million KRW or about $110,000), by the end of this year, the execution will proceed.
Human rights organizations have pointed to this case as a symbolic example of the situation facing women in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Although child marriage is legal in the Islamic Republic of Iran, there is a lack of protection against domestic violence, and minority women in particular are said to be targets of government oppression.
Iran Human Rights (IHR) criticized, "Kouhkan, as a minority, a woman, and someone living in poverty, represents the most vulnerable in Iranian society. The verdict against her is a manifestation of the authorities' use of the death penalty to instill fear."
The organization added, "This situation symbolizes the discriminatory laws and society that have led to such tragedies."
newssu@fnnews.com Kim Su-yeon Reporter