In December 2022 17-year-old Masumeh was killed by her father who had forced her to get married while still a minor, during the ongoing feminist revolution in Iran. Her father confessed to the murder of his daughter to police without any delay. He knows that in the Islamic Republic of Iran he will not receive the death penalty for the murder of his daughter, in contrast to other murder cases in Iran. His penalty consists of paying bloodmoney to those who could have inherited from childless 17-year-old Masumeh.
After Romina Ashrafi, a thirteen-year-old Iranian girl, was decapitated with a scythe by her own father, he knew he had made a decision without consequences after talking to his lawyer. Romina had fled her home because she did not want to get married. Police found her and returned her to her father even though she described the situation to them. After that, her father cut off her head with a scythe.
In The Cocoon
Death is a religious father. His house is ruled by order and discipline. Death does not like his daughter coming home late. He is a good role model. Today his daughter went to school wearing a mini skirt. That angers him. Clothing is a layer of protection, like a cocoon. In every cocoon there is the process of change, improvement and realisation. He knows that she will become a fragile butterfly.
Death is seized by fear. Death is seized by despair. Death never learned how to handle his feelings. Death has a daughter, alive in the cocoon. With every day she grows more beautiful. With every day her wings grow thinner so that she can fly one day.
He knows that she will never return once she has left this world. One day she will leave this world and go looking for the rainbow with a torch. He knows she wants to go the way he once went.
Light and without a trace like the ghost that lived in their house. Love is a prison for this ghost since being in love feels like illness to him. The ghost feels no pity for death. The ghost has no daughter. The ghost does not need to worry. He has no religion. The ghost cannot look forward to death.
Yet the daughter looks forward to meeting her father with joy, even though he never learned to love her. As soon as she leaves the cocoon, she is excited. With every heartbeat she comes closer to her father. With every day she lives outside the cocoon, she dies a little bit more. As soon as she leaves the cocoon her father knows what to do.
He will not hurt her. That is his promise, because he knows a truth about the life of a butterfly. In live there is not only pain that will accompany you until death, there is pain that will accompany you in death.
This article was also published in German
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- gabriela-tamara-cycman-I-EiXkwo1fU-unsplash: Gabriela Tamara Cycman on Unsplash
