SAQQEZ, Iran — Eight months had passed since Gulala Shekhi’s engagement to Kayumars Zarkhami. All the preparations were ready for the wedding, scheduled to take place in their home the next month.
On Monday, family members and civil society activists gathered in Aychi graveyard in Saqqez to remember the young woman, killed by her fiancé 40 days earlier.
“We had three daughters. Gulala was my eldest daughter, and she was so loved. She graduated from Saqqez University with a bachelor’s degree in law. She was working in a human rights defense center for two years,” her mother Zulaykha Bahrami told Rudaw English.
“We knew Kayumars Zarkhami’s family. They asked for her hand a few times and we said yes on the condition that her husband wouldn’t stop her from working and he agreed. They got engaged eight months before the accident and everything was ready for their wedding,” she added.
On the evening of May 28, Gulala dressed in pink and said goodbye to her parents before leaving for a walk with her fiancé. “That was the last time I ever saw her,” her mother said through tears.
“I am a teacher. I slept early that night so I could wake up early in the morning. My students had an exam,” her father Osman Shekhi, 55, told Rudaw English with bloodshot eyes. “My wife woke me up at 12 saying Gulala wasn’t picking up her phone.”
Osman called his soon-to-be son-in-law, but his phone was out of service. Thinking the couple had been in a car crash, he panicked, and went to each hospital in the city, trying to track them down, but couldn’t find a trace.
“We went to the police station then and filed them as missing, the boy’s family were searching with us too.”
A day later, he was contacted by Kayumars uncle. According to his nephew, Gulala had taken her life on the road leading to Diwandara. He rushed there, with the people, but found no sign of her body.
Kayumars was found by police near the Azerbaijan border, after giving his fiancé’s gold to a friend to sell. Returned to Saqqez, he told the police where to find Gulala’s remains.
"There was nothing left of my daughter, I only saw a few burnt bones,” her father said.
Gulala is one of many women across Iran who have been killed by their partner, a horrific phenomenon which can be found across the globe. Data indicates that up to 450 women are killed each year in the country, an Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate told Rudaw English last year. Women are often killed by male relatives in the name of “honour.”
According to reports given by Kayumars to the police, Gulala was killed after a fight over her right to work, in which she was struck by her fiancé, before being taken out the city and set on fire.
Her murder has been the topic of much discussion among social media users in Iran’s Kurdish areas, with civil society workers and women’s right advocates condemning the crime.
Sociologist and Doctor Khalid Shekhi told Rudaw English that no action has been taken against violence against women in the area, which takes place on a “daily basis.”
“Issues regarding women in eastern Kurdistan are in a tragic position,” said women’s rights activist Zhina Mudars Gurji. “Murders in the name of honour, and domestic violence, have not left women alone.”
“Even though we have women emerging in science, sports and arts sectors in recent years, it’s not enough to lessen the issues our women face because they suffer in a patriarchal society,” she added.
For Gulala, justice has still to be served.
“Because of how great and tragic the crime is, Gulala’s case was investigated privately in Saqqez’s court,” said lawyer Asaad Shekhi, adding that the case has now been sent to another court.
Translated by Layal Shakir
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