Iran shuts down news website over image of beheaded woman

Iran has shut down a news website after it published an image of a man holding what was said to be the head of his wife in his hand, the state-run Iran newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the report, a media supervisory board on Sunday decided to close Rokna website because of its continuing to “publish images and issues that violate public decency.” Authorities have arrested the man who is accused of killing his wife on Saturday in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

The photograph, in which the man holds a large knife in the other hand, has had tens of thousands of views on social media. The case is under investigation. Rokna was started in 2016 and has more than 20,000 subscribers on Telegram, a free social instant messaging service that provides video calling, file sharing and other features.

Iran has had a long history of closures of media outlets. In 2020, authorities shut down Jahan-e Sanat newspaper after it quoted a former member of the national coronavirus taskforce as saying that the country’s death toll from the pandemic could be 20 times higher than officially provided figures.