Sanandaj; The murder of "Mahshid", a trans woman, with knife stabs Concerns over the movements of "Salafi extremists" and government silence
June 2, 2026; During the past days, the murder of a Kurdish trans woman named "Mahshid (identity document name: Majid)" with knife stabs in the city of Sanandaj has led to severe concern among the trans community of this city, and reports indicate that "Salafi extremists" are behind this terror-mongering against this minority community.
On Saturday, May 30, 2026, "Mahshid", a trans woman around 30 years old, from and a resident of the "Golshan" neighborhood of Sanandaj and from an underprivileged family, was murdered with multiple knife stabs. Her body was found by passersby in the vicinity of "Seh-Rah-e Jihad" in the city center of Sanandaj and, after the presence of police forces, was transferred to forensics.
Until now, the identity of the perpetrator or perpetrators of this murder has not been determined. Nonetheless, based on information received by Kurdpa, "Salafi extremists" in the city of Sanandaj are likely behind this murder. According to this source, the murder of "Mahshid" has caused severe concern and the creation of an atmosphere of fear among the trans individuals of Sanandaj.
Also, rumors indicate movements of "Salafi extremists" against groups including the LGBTQ community. Based on this information, "Salafi extremists are undergoing training to counter trans individuals and individuals active in relation to drugs," and it is said that these individuals gather on Fridays at a location near Sanandaj to hold congregational prayers.
Despite the presence of the police at the location where the body was discovered, official and state media of Iran have not published any report regarding the murder of this trans woman until now, and it remains unclear through what process and how this case is being followed up.
A Look at the Situation of Trans Women in Iran;
Legal Structure; Contradiction Between Medical Acceptance and Identity Repression Despite considering gender-reassignment surgeries legal based on religious fatwas, the laws of Iran recognize the identity of trans individuals only through the lens of pathologization and forced surgery and sterilization; consequently, individuals who are unwilling or unable to undergo these heavy surgeries have no support and legal identity, and expressing their real identity in society can lead to arrest and security or moral charges.
Threats, Denial, and Unregistered Trans-Femicides Trans women in Iran are parallel victims of transphobia and misogynistic judicial structures, where in the event of a crime occurring against them, cases are usually justified under titles such as "defense of honor" or "the moral deviation of the victim" and accompanied by sentence mitigations for the perpetrators; as a result, when a crime occurs against a trans individual, the judicial system has no inclination to register separate statistics or follow up on transphobic motives. Consequently, these cases are archived as ordinary crimes or honor crimes without mentioning the details of gender identity so that the official statistics of the country in this field remain completely "white" and clean.
The Fabric of Society and Systematic Exclusion The absence of the protective umbrella of the law directly leads to the widespread exclusion of these women by family, deprivation of inheritance, and ultimately homelessness; also, the non-conformity of identification documents with real appearance has created a major barrier against their education and formal employment, and this chain of deprivations drives trans women toward absolute poverty, informal jobs, and a severe increase in vulnerability to street violence and extortion.
The movements of Takfiri and Jihadi currents (which are colloquially called Salafi in Kurdistan) in Sanandaj and Marivan have a historical background and a very specific security complexity; In recent years, these currents have driven their activities toward overt street violence and arbitrary moral cleansings. Based on previous reports by Kurdpa, the overt attacks of these groups with swords and machetes against citizens in Marivan, Saqqez, and Sanandaj (spring of 2021) and even their armed gathering in front of Kowsar Hospital in Sanandaj have never faced prevention or legal prosecution by the government.
Many Kurdish civil activists consider the reason for this silence to be an "instrumental overlap of interests"; the government uses the violent potential of the Salafis to restrict Kurdish parties and suppress the secular fabric of Kurdistan. Objective signs of this margin of safety are completely evident in the published images of meetings of Salafi clerics with IRGC commanders (such as Salehabad village in Saqqez), and from the perspective of security apparatuses, as long as the system is not threatened, the lives and rights of the people hold no importance at all.
