June 20, 2025
The murder of a young Tehran woman, picked up by a taxi driver near Azadi Square, has taken the capital by storm and sparked an outcry from the public. The young woman did not abide by the hijab rules, and many suspect she was killed for that crime.
. . . stabbed to death at age of 24
Elaheh Hossein-nejad, 24, disappeared May 25. Her body was found 10 days later.
Media reports claimed the forensic medical department said she had been sexually assaulted. But the Judiciary’s Mizan media website denied that. “The state ment by this organization that the deceased was raped is untrue.”
Several days later, the autopsy report was released. It said Hossein-nejad died from a stab wound to her chest. It said the body had badly decomposed be fore it was found and that animals had eaten part of it, so the autopsy was unable to discern if she had been raped or not.
Hossein-nejad, a resident of Islamshahr on Tehran’s southern outskirts, was picked up by Snapp, a ride-hailing service, near Azadi Square, one of the city’s busiest public squares. She was returning home from work.
The police announced they had arrested the Snapp driver, Bah-man Farzaneh, 32, and charged him with murder. They stood him up at a police station and allowed reporters to interview him. His responses were confusing. He said his passenger was “shameless” for the way she dressed and complained that he was being made “to pay for her sins.”
The man’s Instagram page showed that he was a solid supporter of the regime, which painted him in the worst light for many Tehranis. In 2020, he posted a photo of the Supreme Leader with the caption, “Love means my leader.”
. . . confessed killer
His ex-wife was interviewed and told reporters Farzaneh was a violent man who often beat her.
Police and officials initially cited Hossein-nejad’s expensive phone as what attracted the killer, suggesting he had stabbed her only after she resisted his effort to steal the phone. Others pointed out that he threw the phone away and said that indicated it wasn’t an important item to him.
Farzaneh said his motive wasn’t theft. He said if that were his goal, he would have taken the gold jewelry she was wearing. News reports quoted investigators as saying her corpse still had gold jewelry. As to why he killed the woman, Farzaneh said he got into an argument with her. He accused the woman of “belittling” him and said that made him angry. “The derogatory words she said to me upset me,” he said.
The suspect said he did not intend to kill her, but the stab wound proved fatal, after which he moved her body to the back of the car and then dumped it in a remote desert area near Imam Khomeini Airport at night.
The suspect has a history of family-related offenses, but no prior record of theft, assault, or sexual violence, Mizan said.