Recently, Chief Justice Sadegh Jafari Chegni of Shush in Khuzestan Province, stated that his office was submitting an inhumane tradition called “Khoon Bas” to the Iranian Heritage Office for registration of the practice as an “intangible cultural heritage” of Iran.
“Khoon Bas” is a medieval custom for some tribes in different countries, including medieval Iran. This custom was performed after a clash between two tribes involved in war and bloodshed.
Tribal elders would then give one or more daughters from the victim’s tribe (from infancy) to the tribe that won the war, in order to stop the process of bloodshed and to put an end to any future conflict or revenge. However, the pardoned girl or girls who were married to the men of the slain tribe no longer had any rights, and were in fact sexually, physically, and mentally abused as slaves.
This awful and inhumane custom gradually disappeared and became illegal during the Pahlavi era. Unfortunately, after the Islamic Revolution, it was re-enacted because it was supported by Iranian government officials, similar to issues such as female circumcision, concubines, or religious prostitution, and other cruel and anti-woman rituals.
The officials of the Islamic government intend to register these kinds of customs as “Iranian cultural heritage” and intend to send them to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to be placed on the world’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Fortunately, recent protests by men and women who love Iranian culture and are against the registration of such horrific rituals have led to UNESCO formally asking the Cultural Heritage Organization of the Islamic Republic to stop the registration of such inhumane and anti-woman practices.
Yesterday however, the Chief Justice of Shush continued to stand by his previous statements and called UNESCO’s reaction “narrow-minded.”