What it means
قربانی (qorbâni) is a noun meaning victim, someone who has suffered harm from a crime, accident, disaster, or injustice. The word comes from the Arabic قُربَان (qurbân), meaning a sacrificial offering or something brought close to God, from the root ق-ر-ب (q-r-b, to draw near). In Persian the word has expanded beyond its religious origin to cover any person who bears the cost of something harmful. It can refer to a crime victim (قربانی جرم, qorbâni-ye jorm), a victim of deception (قربانی کلاهبرداری, qorbâni-ye kalâhbardâri), or casualties in a disaster. A near synonym in legal contexts is مصدوم (masdûm), which tends to mean the injured party rather than a victim in the broader moral sense.
How to use it
- اون زن قربانی خشونت خانگیه. (Un zan qorbâni-ye khoshunat-e khânegi-ye.) “That woman is a victim of domestic violence.”
- چند نفر قربانی این حادثه شدن. (Chand nafar qorbâni-ye in hâdese shadan.) “Several people became victims of this incident.”
- حمایت از قربانیان جرم وظیفه دولته. (Hemâyat az qorbâniyân-e jorm vazife-ye dolate.) “Supporting crime victims is the government’s duty.”
- نباید قربانی رو متهم کنیم. (Nabâyad qorbâni ro motaham konim.) “We must not blame the victim.”
Cultural note
In Persian media and legal discourse, قربانی is the standard word for victim across criminal, civil, and humanitarian contexts, appearing in court reports, news coverage of disasters, and human rights documentation. Outside the courtroom, the religious root of the word still resonates. عید قربان (Eid-e Qorbân), the feast of sacrifice, is one of the two major Islamic holidays, and the connection between sacrifice and offering is felt in the word’s weight. The phrase قربانی شدن (qorbâni shodan, to become a victim, literally to be sacrificed) carries a sense of being consumed by forces larger than oneself.