Iran To Hang Abused Child Bride — World Must Stop This Barbarism

Halt the Execution of Goli Kouhkan Now

By: Amil Imani

The Islamic Republic of Iran stands poised to unleash yet another atrocity, dangling the life of Goli Kouhkan – a 25-year-old Baluch warrior forged in the fires of child marriage and unrelenting abuse – from the gallows of injustice. This regime, a fortress of oppression built on the bones of women, children, and ethnic minorities, condemns her to death for daring to strike back against her tormentor. The United Nations human rights experts roar in unison: Iran must smash this execution order to pieces, or etch another bloodstain on its tyrannical ledger. Kouhkan’s blade in 2018 ended her husband’s reign of terror, but Iran’s courts – blind to her scars, deaf to her cries – branded her a murderer under their twisted qisas (Retaliation) law. This is no justice; this is state-sanctioned slaughter.

Goli Kouhkan’s saga erupts from the depths of hellish tradition. At just 12 years old, this undocumented Baluch girl was sold like chattel into marriage with her cousin – a predator who crushed her spirit and body without mercy. By 13, she birthed a child in agony, denied even the whisper of medical aid, her illiterate mind trapped in isolation. For years, she toiled as a farm laborer under the lash of physical beatings, sexual violations, and psychological warfare. Her family? They abandoned her to the wolves, rejecting her pleas for escape. Society’s chains – discriminatory divorce laws, the threat of honor killings – locked her in tighter. Undocumented and voiceless, she navigated a labyrinth of ethnic marginalization and gender warfare, where Baluch women like her are erased from state protections, education, and basic humanity.

In 2018, the storm broke. During a brutal confrontation, Kouhkan defended herself and her child, felling her abuser. Iranian interrogators pounced, coercing a confession from her lips without a shred of legal counsel. Now, at 25, she faces the noose unless her husband’s family pockets 10 billion tomans – roughly $90,000 in blood money. She can’t pay; poverty seals her fate. This isn’t retribution; it’s a rigged auction where women’s lives are bartered to the highest bidder. UN experts thunder: “Her execution would constitute a grave violation of international human rights law.” They expose the rot: Iran’s qisas system discriminates ruthlessly based on gender and wealth, executing survivors while shielding abusers.

Kouhkan’s torment mirrors a genocide against women in Iran. Between 2010 and 2024, the regime hanged at least 241 women, 114 under qisas for homicide. The vast majority? Victims like Kouhkan, who killed husbands or partners in self-defense after enduring child marriages, forced unions, and endless violence. Iranian courts obliterate evidence of abuse, ignoring self-defense claims and patterns of terror. Domestic violence thrives unchecked – no shelters, no laws, no escape. Women fleeing face death at family hands or state execution. This intersects with ethnic erasure: Baluch, Kurdish, and other minorities suffer amplified horrors, denied documentation, services, and justice. UN Rapporteur Mai Sato and her allies declare: “This is a woman who was sold into marriage as a child, brutalized for years, and then abandoned by her family and the justice system.” They condemn the regime’s failure to protect, its bias that turns survivors into criminals.

The experts – Reem Alsalem on violence against women, Tomoya Obokata on slavery, and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls – hammer the truth: Kouhkan embodies systemic genocide. “Goli Kouhkan is a survivor of domestic violence and a victim of the justice system,” they proclaim. “Her execution would represent a profound injustice.” They’ve bombarded Iranian authorities with demands for intervention, exposing how gender, ethnicity, and poverty forge chains of doom. Child marriage isn’t a relic; it’s a weapon, stripping girls of childhood, health, and freedom. Kouhkan’s case shatters illusions: Iran’s theocracy weaponizes law to crush the vulnerable, executing those who fight back while abusers walk free.

This outrage demands global fury. The world must not whisper condolences; it must unleash a torrent of pressure. Governments, activists, human rights warriors – rise and bombard Tehran with ultimatums. Halt Kouhkan’s execution now, or stand condemned as accomplices to murder. Provide her sanctuary, compensation, and a path to rebuild. Dismantle the qisas abomination, enact ironclad protections against child marriage and domestic terror. Iran’s regime thrives on silence; shatter it with thunderous condemnation. Kouhkan’s life hangs by a thread – cut it, and the blood floods the streets of history.

But this fight surges beyond one woman. Iran’s women rise like a tidal wave, defying veils of oppression in protests that shake the mullahs’ thrones. From Mahsa Amini’s martyrdom to the underground networks smuggling hope, resistance boils. Kouhkan’s survival fuels that fire, proving no chain unbreakable. The UN’s call echoes: Spare her, comply with human rights covenants, end this barbarism. Failure? It cements Iran’s rogue status, inviting sanctions, isolation, and the wrath of free peoples.

Goli Kouhkan endures as a beacon of defiance. Her story scorches the regime’s facade, revealing a machine that devours its daughters. We declare: No more. Halt the execution. Liberate the oppressed. The revolution against this tyranny ignites today – unyielding, absolute, victorious.