ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - No suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing of a 30-year-old transgender woman in Iran’s western Kurdistan province, a Norway-based human rights monitor said late Tuesday, adding that the victim’s body remains in a morgue two weeks after her death.
The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported that Mahshid Fallahi “was killed in a knife attack” approximately two weeks ago in the city of Sanandaj. According to the group, Fallahi “had been rejected by her family and was experiencing homelessness at the time of her death.”
Citing an anonymous “social worker,” Hengaw noted that “no arrests have been made” in connection with the killing, while vowing to “continue investigating the case to clarify the circumstances surrounding her death” and urged anyone with relevant information to come forward “through secure communication channels.”
In a report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2025, 6Rang - a network whose name means “six colors” in Persian, a reference to the six-color LGBTIQ+ rainbow flag - said that members of the latter community remain among Iran’s “most marginalized groups.”
The group said that transgender individuals are frequently stigmatized as mentally ill and may be subjected to practices such as electroconvulsive therapy. It also reported that some homosexual individuals face pressure to undergo gender reassignment procedures without providing fully informed consent.
For its part, global rights monitor Amnesty International reported in 2025 that state-endorsed “conversion therapies amounting to torture or other ill-treatment” remained widespread in Iran.
“Hormone therapy and surgical procedures, including sterilization, were mandatory for individuals seeking to change the sex assigned to them at birth,” the report added, noting that members of the LGBTIQ+ community continue to face “homophobic and transphobic attacks without access to legal remedies or protection services.”
Furthermore, the Islamic Republic’s Penal Code, adopted in 2013, criminalizes same-sex conduct and imposes penalties ranging from lashing to the death penalty. Punishments vary by gender, marital status and frequency of the offense, with men facing a higher immediate risk of capital punishment.
Meanwhile, advocacy for LGBTIQ+ rights in Iran may be punishable by death under the broadly defined charge of efsade fel-arz - spreading corruption on earth.
