Why Women Kill Their Husbands: A Qualitative Study of Gendered Experiences among Incarcerated Women in Iran

This article explores the complex pathways leading women in Iran to commit spousal homicide, situating these acts within intersecting layers of individual trauma, familial dysfunction, and systemic oppression. Guided by Feminist Pathways Theory and Gendered Victim Precipitation, the study challenges conventional victim-perpetrator binaries by highlighting how chronic abuse, constrained agency, and institutional failures shape women’s violent responses. Based on qualitative analysis of 10 in-depth interviews with incarcerated women convicted of murdering their husbands, the research utilizes data collected inside an Iranian prison, where participants were identified via prison staff, and participation was voluntary, which introduces sampling constraints. Findings underscore how discriminatory legal, cultural, and political structures, particularly marriage and divorce laws, create conditions of entrapment, often turning these homicides into acts of survival rather than aggression. The article concludes by calling for structural reforms and a nuanced recognition of women’s agency.