Iran’s first female serial killer

Iran’s first female serial killer

Iran’s arrests its first reported female serial killer. But the country is no stranger to headline grabbing serial killings.

May 18, 2009 3:58 by Parinaaz Navdar

An Iranian woman, Mahin, has been arrested for the murders of five elderly women, aged between 50 and 70 years old, in the northern city of Qazvin, reports Maktoob Business.

Mahin confessed to killing the elderly ladies during the months of February through May. She approached her victims and offered them a ride, but later strangled them after offering them anesthetic laden fruit juice.

Akbar Hedayati , a local police chief in the city said Mahin was arrested after her latest victim, a 60 year old woman, managed to escape from the car and give the police major leads.

The police chief also said that psychologists believe Mahin’s actions point to a troubled relation with her parents during her childhood. “It is likely that the murderer took revenge on women who resembled her mother and were of the same age because of her intense hatred of her own mother,” he said.

Murder is punishable by death in Iran, which hangs hundreds of people every year. Convicts are hanged only if a court deems that their offenses deeply affected public sentiment.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Iran has had problems with serial killers.

In 2002, Saeed Hanaei Hanaei was executed for killing female prostitutes, in the eastern city of Mashhad. He often targeted drug addicts, and was praised by some fundamentalists, because he felt that he was helping rid the city of moral corruption.

The Iranian press referred to the killings as the “spider killings”; Hanaei lured his victims to his home where he had sexual relations with them, before strangling them and dumping their bodies. Hanaei killed 16 women before he was apprehended by the police.

In 2005, Mohammed Bijeh confessed in court to raping and killing 16 young boys between March and September 2004. Dubbed the Tehran desert vampire by the Iranian press, he was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by public execution.

All his victims – save two – were between eight and 15 years of age.