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Iranian Police Seek Serial Prostitute Murderer As 18th Victim Found
TEHRAN, July 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Police in Iran's holy city of Mashad have stepped up efforts to find the killer of the latest victim in a series of prostitute murders, dubbed "spider killings", the state IRNA news agency reported Tuesday.
It went on to report that on Sunday, police found the body of the 18th victim - a 25-year-old woman in a northern district of the city. She was still wrapped in her black chador (the full-length cloak many Iranian women wear).
Like the rest, she had been strangled with her own headscarf, IRNA said.
Police have formed a special task force to track down the killer or killers of the women, aged between 25 and 50, all of whom had criminal records for drug use and prostitution.
Anxiety is mounting in Mashhad, the most important pilgrimage center for Shiite Muslims in Iran, as the murders continue with minimal progress towards a resolution.
Last week, following the murder of the 17th victim, the former police chief of Khorassan province said security officials had identified "the gang of those behind the killing of 17 prostitutes," IRNA reported.
"Five people were identified after the infiltration of a police agent in the gang known as the 'spider killers,'" former police chief Javad Hamed was quoted as saying.
Mohammad Abayi-Khorassani, an MP from Mashad and close ally of the moderate President Mohammed Khatami, told the reform-majority parliament last week, "We have the right to know what police and the intelligence ministry are doing to ensure security."
But, there was no explanation for why the murders have continued or any confirmation as to whether arrests had been made.
Since all the victims had criminal records for drug use and prostitution, newspaper reports have been filled with speculation over the motives for the brutal and "organized" killings.
One of the most popular theories presented in the press is that the murders represent a kind of "cleansing" act by suspected conservative Muslims seeking to eliminate prostitution in this holy city, Iran's second largest city after Tehran.
"Earlier, they said the murders had a religious nature, but they can also be an act of vengeance," said Fatameh Khatami, a deputy from Mashad.
"Authorities must take the murders seriously and inform the population of the results of their investigations," she said.
In April, an unnamed suspect was quoted in the press as supporting the "cleansing" theory, IRNA reported.
The suspect, while denying his own involvement, was quoted by IRNA as saying, "I am completely in favor of these murders, but they were carried out by others. We believe the society needs to be cleaned up of corrupt women."
President Khatami said several other fellow women MPs had raised the issue at a meeting recently held with the parliament's security commission, where they demanded that the interior and intelligence ministries respond to the murders.
All forms of prostitution, female and male, have been banned in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but the phenomenon has made a comeback in recent years, much to the distress of authorities.
The killings have sparked not only serious concern among Iranians, but have also instigated wide-spread outrage at the revelations of prostitution in Iran's holiest city, otherwise known as the "place of martyrdom."
Contacted by telephone, residents of Mashhad told AFP that the "spider killings" were apparently still puzzling officials and had become the leading topic of conversation in the city of 1.5 million.
In another effort to counter the growth of prostitution, a Women's Participation Center was formed in Iran to help female victims of physical, mental, and verbal abuse, often administered by husbands, brothers and even children.
Zahra Bonyanian, a leading member of the group, said in an interview with a government-run paper that Iran currently has several shelters for battered and abused women and warned that abuse at home was one of the main reasons why young women "run away from home and often fall victim to wrong deeds" - a clear allusion to prostitution.
During the past year, Iranian press reports have increasingly drawn attention to the fate of women, particularly unmarried girls, who in an effort to escape various pressures at home, run away and fall into the hands of organized prostitution rings.
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