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Tehran, Iran (CNN) --
The beheading of a 17-year-old girl last week, allegedly by her husband, in Iran's western Khuzestan province has again raised concerns about the country's laws around homicide and gender violence.
The official Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA) referred to the alleged killing as an "honor killing".
A video began to circulate showing the husband, Sajjad Heydari, walking in the provincial capital of Ahvaz while smiling and carrying his wife's severed head, IRNA reported.
Local authorities have confirmed that the widely shared images purporting to be Heydari are from the same incident, a source with knowledge of the statements told CNN.
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The video, seen by CNN, showed Heydari holding a knife in one hand and the teenager's head in the other.
CNN has not been able to contact Heydari or her family, and it is unclear if she has an attorney.
In an interview published in Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, Sajjad's mother is quoted as saying that her son had previously threatened to kill his wife and that he was responsible for her death.
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A teenage girl identified as "Mona" and "Ghazal" by Iranian media was allegedly killed and beheaded by her husband in Khuzestan province in western Iran last week.
The teenager, who was identified as "Mona" by IRNA, and as "Ghazal" by Fars, who allegedly spoke to the husband's family, had fled to Turkey four months before her father convinced her to return to Iran, according to a interview with the girl's mother-in-law, published in Fars.
The teenager was 12 years old when she married Heydari, according to IRNA.
In an interview with the father, published Tuesday in Fars, he is quoted as saying that he had obtained a legal certificate allowing his daughter to marry.
The minimum age for marriage in Iran is 13 for girls and 15 for boys.
CNN has not been able to confirm Sajjad Heydari's age.
She returned from Turkey on Friday, according to Fars, and was killed shortly after.
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Heydari was arrested along with his brother, who allegedly helped him commit the crime, prosecutor Abbas Hosseini Pouya told Fars.
"The defendant will definitely be treated harshly," Pouya told Fars.
Those who posted and shared the video can also be arrested, Pouya said.
The incident has prompted Iran's government to push for a review of a bill that aims to protect women from domestic violence, Ensieh Khazali, vice president of Women and Family Affairs, a post to Iran, said in a tweet. cabinet level, according to IRNA.
"The judiciary is determined to inflict the most severe punishment (on the murderer and an alleged accomplice) in accordance with the law," Khazali said.
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For years, Iranian women's rights activists have campaigned for a law to prevent "violence against women and prosecute abusers," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in 2020.
The bill has "a number of positive provisions," HRW said, including the creation of restraining orders and the formation of a committee to "strategize and coordinate government responses to violence against women."
The law would also require prejudicial mediation in domestic disputes involving a parent or spouse.
But the law still "falls short of international standards," HRW said, adding that it "does not criminalize some forms of gender-based violence, such as marital rape and child marriage."
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), said "the beheaded teenage bride...could be alive today if the Iranian government had enacted laws against the cruel practice of child marriage, and protections against domestic violence.
The crime comes just two years after another high-profile "honor killing," in which a 14-year-old girl was allegedly murdered by her father with a sickle after she ran away with a 29-year-old man from the his family's home in Talesh County, northern Iran.
Crime
