Woman forced into marriage as a child is to be executed over husband’s murd£r unless she raises £80,000

A child bride faces execution in Iran for the murdr of her husband after years trapped in an abusive marriage unless she raises 80,000 to pay off his family. Goli Koohkan, now 25, was aged 12 when her parents married her off to a cousin without her consent. At the age of 13, she was pregnant. And at the age of 18, she was arrested and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for participation in the k!lling, and thrown in Gorgan Central Prison in northern Iran. A source told the Iran Human Rights (IHR) non-profit organisation: "On the day of the murdr, her husband had been beating both Goli and their young son. "Desperate and helpless, she called his cousin for help. When he arrived, a fight broke out which ended with her husband being unintentionally killed. "Goli called for an ambulance and told the authorities everything." It is understood that the fight started after Koohkan returned home to find that her husband had beaten up their five-year-old boy. She was sentenced to de@th by hanging and has already spent seven years behind bars, making her the longest-serving female inmate in Gorgan. Under Iranian law, the family of the victim can pardon her in exchange for a "blood money" payment, that is compensation paid in cases of murdr or bodily harm. As her family has completely abandoned the victim since her arrest, former cellmates launched a campaign to raise the money by December, when the agreement expires. So far, they have managed to collect collect roughly 1.5 per cent of what is being demanded. Koohkan comes from the Baluch minority, one of Irans most marginalized communities, and like many others, she lacks official identity documents. Human rights activists warn her case is emblematic of the discriminatory treatment of women and minorities in Iran, where child marriage is legal and there are limited legal protections against domestic violence. The source told IHR: "Goli was 12 when she was forced to marry a cousin. A year later, she gave birth to a son at home without medical care. "While pregnant, she was forced to do heavy farm and house work and consistently subjected to physical violence at the hands of her husband who also cut her contact with her family and friends." A former cellmate who spoke to IranWire said Koohkan nearly did giving birth to her son under difficult conditions. "Her pelvis was too small, so she was afraid, and this became the reason for violence against her," they said. The abuse centered on pressure for her to have more children. Each attempt to flee the abusive marriage had been unsuccessful due to both her undocumented status and pressure from her family and the community. Once, Koohkan managed to escape, but when she returned to her parents home seeking help, her father threatened her.He told her that she had left for her husbands house "in white clothes and would go to the cemetery in a white shroud."Iran executes the highest number of women in the world many after sham trials and allegations of torture. The post Woman forced into marriage as a child is to be executed over husbands murdr unless she raises 80,000 appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.