UN Special Rapporteur for Iran Mai Sato on Friday welcomed the release of an Iranian child bride who was on death row for killing her abusive husband, warning that the case exposes deep-rooted institutional injustices in Iran’s judicial system.
“The diyah (blood money) has been paid, but while we celebrate saving one life, we cannot ignore the institutional and structural injustices that brought Goli Kouhkan to the brink of death,” Sato said in a post on X.
Kouhkan, a 25-year-old Iranian woman and child marriage survivor who had been sentenced to death for killing her abusive husband, was spared after the victim’s family agreed to forgive her, the judiciary’s news agency reported on Tuesday.
“Goli was sold into marriage as a child and endured years of domestic violence in a country where such violence is not effectively criminalized,” Sato said.
Kouhkan comes from Iran's Baloch minority in the southeast, where poverty and traditional social practices pose serious challenges to women’s rights under the Islamic Republic.
She gave birth at home at 13 without medical care. Attempts to escape the marriage failed because of her undocumented status as a Baloch woman and the societal pressures she faced.
In May 2018, her husband beat both her and their five-year-old son. After a relative was called to intervene, a confrontation ensued that resulted in the husband’s death, according to UN experts who had urged Iran to halt the execution.
“Between 2010 and 2024, at least 241 women were executed in Iran. Notably, in 114 of these cases, the women convicted and executed for murder had killed their husband or partner. Many were victims of domestic violence, child marriage, or were acting in self-defense,” Sato said.
“The case gained widespread international attention, including in global media, but it raises the question: what happens to all the cases that never get heard?” she added.
In Iran, the legal marriage age for girls is 13, and even younger with a guardian’s and judge’s approval. Rights groups say girls and women have little protection from domestic violence, and face major obstacles when trying to divorce.
“The qisas (retribution) system, which conflicts with many international human rights standards, remains in place. We urgently need the complete abolition of the death penalty and protection for women’s rights,” Sato said.
“Any substantial effort to restore those capabilities will be a trigger for action,” Brigadier General Amir Avivi, a former officer in the Israeli military who now serves in the reserves, told Iran International in an interview.
The United States held five rounds of negotiations with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year, for which President Donald Trump set a 60-day ultimatum.
When no agreement was reached by the 61st day Israel launched a surprise military offensive on June 13, followed by US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
Avivi said Israel's destruction of Iran's air defense capabilities which ultimately paved the way for the US bombing run was swift.
“Within two days we had opened an air corridor to Tehran and could operate almost freely over large parts of Iran,” Avivi said. “They had more than 130 air-defense systems in the west and around Tehran, and we took out roughly 84 of them very quickly.”
Three red lines
Avivi said Israel in coordination with the United States is closely tracking Iran’s efforts to repair war damage as Tehran tries to project strength while quietly restoring parts of its military infrastructure.
“We are watching them by the minute, and there are three red lines that will bring Israel to act again: rebuilding advanced air defenses that close the corridor to Tehran, resuming mass production of ballistic missiles, and any move to renew nuclear weapons work,” Avivi said.
Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and says it aims only for peaceful technology. Israel and Western countries doubt its intentions.
Israeli intelligence has warned that Iran hopes to build a missile arsenal capable of overwhelming Israel's defenses, even as Tehran insists its program is defensive and conventional.
“Before the war they were aiming for around 10,000 ballistic missiles, and we are not going to sit and wait for them to return to that level or get close to a weapons‑grade nuclear capability,” Avivi said.
Scientists, sites and industry
The attacks on June 21 also struck the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s (IRGC) external arm, killing Mohammad Saeed Izadi, who oversaw Palestinian operations, and Mohammadreza Nasirbaghban, the Quds Force’s deputy for intelligence.
The strikes killed senior nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians. Iranian counterattacks killed 32 Israeli civilians and an off-duty soldier.
“We didn’t only hit the nuclear sites, we hit the scientists, the weaponization experts and the industries that make explosives, fuel and components, so they cannot easily rebuild,” Avivi said.
Iranian authorities have quietly moved surviving nuclear scientists to safe houses and dispersed some sensitive work, while publicly insisting that missile and cyber units remain fully operational.
“The regime was hit very, very hard, much harder than people think, and recovering that military‑industrial base will take them a very long time,” Avivi said. “The image of Iran as a regional powerhouse was exposed as a paper tiger, and that has encouraged Europe to move toward harsher measures.”
Psychological pressure
During the June attacks, Israel also struck Tehran’s Evin prison and state television main building. Iranian officials condemned Israel's onslaught as "terrorism" and "psychological warfare".
The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran said in October that Israel likely violated international law in its military campaign in June while Tehran expanded repression after the conflict with hundreds of executions and new curbs on dissent.
When asked what was the objective of the attack on the prison which according to official tallies killed about 80 people, Avivi said it was a message to leaders in Tehran.
“We hit symbols of repression and propaganda to show that if we decide to destabilize the regime itself, not just its military capabilities, we can reach those places,” Avivi said.
“The idea was to throw the leadership off balance and make them feel existentially threatened, not just militarily exposed.”
‘Campaign between wars’
Avivi described the current period with Iran and its allies as a “campaign between wars,” in which covert operations and limited strikes are used to contain threats between major flare‑ups.
“We are moving from a short war to ongoing operations between wars, some of them kinetic and some not, including cyber and intelligence work,” he said.
Since June, Israel has continued to hit carry out air strikes on targets it says aim at Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The strikes have killed hundreds of people according local health authorities, many of them civilians.
“We will keep degrading these groups systematically until the day comes when local governments can deal with them themselves,” Avivi said.
Next objective
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed victory in the 12‑day war and threatened a tougher response if Israel strikes again in rhetoric rejected by Israel and the United States.
“In the last round we did not set regime change as a formal goal, but if this regime continues to threaten Israel’s existence, next time bringing it down could be on the table for Israel and the US,” Avivi said.
