If I am released, I will kill Azita, my other daughter for her misbehaving with my grandson, like her sister and brother.
-Akbar Khorramdin after confessing to killing his children
Babak Khorramdin was a talented film maker from Iran. He was known for a series of short films called Cut, as well as An Elegy for Asher. He was talented and driven but he was single and had his own opinions about how his life should be led. This caused his father Akbar to drug him, stab him to death with kitchen knives, and mutilate his body in the bathroom tub. The two then packed his dismembered body parts into various bags and scattered them in random trash bins.
Akbar, along with his wife, are among the worst of killers. The family annihilators. While they dress up what they did under the guise of protecting the family honor, it is little different than John List killing his entire family because he lost his job.
Akbar’s reasoning for killing his son was because Babak wasn’t married but still dated and had relations with women. Babak also didn’t want Akbar, who was in his 80s at this point, trying to control him and would balk at the old man’s attempts. Akbar didn’t agree with the life his son led and took it away in May 2021.
The Dishonorable Practice Of Honor Killing
Babak wasn’t the only victim of Akbar’s familial wrath. His daughter Arezoo, along with her husband, were killed in a similar way. Given food laced with poison and possibly sleeping medication, then stabbed over and over. What was the reason that Arezoo and her husband had to die? They didn’t live their life the way Akbar and his wife wanted them to.
Honor killings, the practice of murdering a family member for an act that damaged the family “honor”, is still practiced in parts of the Middle East and Africa but it isn’t restricted to just those old world hold outs. Honor killings have occurred across Europe and the United States as well. What is unique about Babak’s murder by his own father is that he was male. Most instances of honor killings involve daughters who chose to date boys their parents didn’t want them to, wear different clothes than their parents approved of, or show any real individuality of their own.
Now it should be said that honor killing is an extreme belief, held by a fraction of people. Akbar, it would seem to me, isn’t really among them. It would appear that his choice to kill his children came not just from a perceived slight that stained the family name, but more on his lack of control over them. He didn’t like how his children had turned out, that they didn’t follow his word and in turn felt that they disrespected him simply by living. He used the extremist beliefs more a shield to justify his own actions. Akbar shows no remorse for his crimes and has even stated he plans to do the same to his other daughter, should be given the chance.
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(If you enjoyed reading this article, feel free to check out other killers in my Human Monsters category.)
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