An Iranian father strangled his runaway daughter when she returned home, press reports said Saturday amid growing warnings over the dangers facing young women unhappy with their fate in Iran.
A 50-year-old man choked his daughter to death after she returned from a spell on the loose and then confessed his crime to police, the Entekhab paper said.
But it accompanied the story with a scathing editorial entitled "This is not the proper way to treat runaway girls" as the plight of young women on the streets of the capital gets mounting attention in the press.
A government newspaper said earlier this month that a young woman in Tehran is now raped and murdered every six days as criminals take advantage of runaways, mostly young women unhappy at home.
"Regardless of the motives for running away, one cannot only blame it on the girls," Entekhab said, adding that many young Iranian women were on the verge of "despair."
It said they face "unfriendliness, discrimination between the sons and daughters and the exaggerated (social) limitations on women" among other problems.
Tehran has established a home for runaway girls, who can move into the centre after getting medical and police approval -- TEHRAN (AFP)
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