Iran | Child Bride Saved from the Gallows After Blood Money Raised Through Donations, Charities

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 9, 2025: Goli Kouhkan, a 25-year-old undocumented Baluch child bride who was scheduled to be executed within weeks, has been saved from the gallows after the diya (blood money) was raised in time.

According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency, the plaintiffs in the case of Goli Kouhkan, have agreed to forgo their right to execution as retribution. In a video, the victim’s parents are seen signing the relevant documents. Goli’s lawyer, Parand Gharahdaghi, confirmed in a social media post that the original 10 billion (approx. 100,000 euros) toman diya was reduced to 8 billion tomans (approx. 80,000 euros) and had been raised through donations and charities.

Forced to marry at the age of 12 and subjected for years to severe physical and psychological violence, Goli was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) over an incident that led to her husband’s death, alongside Mohammad Abil, the victim’s cousin who Goli had called in desperation that day. It should be noted that Mohammad remains on death row and at risk of execution.

On 4 November, IHRNGO issued a statement calling for action to save Goli’s life. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, Director of Iran Human Rights, said at the time: “Goli Kouhkan’s case reflects the discrimination and structural violence experienced by many women in the Islamic Republic who face the death penalty, women who are victims of poverty, child marriage, domestic violence and rejection by their families and society. On top of that, Goli is an undocumented Baloch woman, a situation that places her in the weakest and most deprived social position in Iran.”

He continued: “In court, no consideration was given to Goli’s age at the time of marriage, her history of domestic violence, or the fact that she had no access to a lawyer during her arrest and interrogation and was illiterate at the time. In addition, the blood-money amount set for her case is several times the official rate, an impossible sum for a young, undocumented Baluch woman from a deprived background who has also been rejected by her family.”

Furthermore, on 2 December, a group of UN experts that included Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Iran, Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and the Working group on discrimination against women and girls, issued a joint statement calling on Iran to halt the execution of Goli Kouhkan, a domestic violence survivor.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, December 9, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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