Thirty-one. This is the number of women Iranian authorities have executed in 2024, according to Iran Human Rights. A record figure since this non-governmental organization began in 2008 to record the application of capital punishment in the Islamic Republic.
“The execution of women in Iran reveals the brutal and inhumane nature of the death penalty, and demonstrates the extent to which discrimination and gender inequality are rooted in the judicial system” of Iran, declared the director of the IHR, Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam.
“Yet they hanged his lifeless body”
The IHR, headquartered in Norway, has recorded a total of 241 women executed between 2010 and 2024, including 114 for murder and 107 for drug charges. “Many women executed for murder were victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse acting out of desperation,” the IHR said.
The Islamic law of retaliation, applied in Iran and known as qisas, states that a murder must be “paid for” by the loss of another life, unless the victim's family forgives or accepts a compensation payment. This rule implies that “the Iranian judicial system rarely considers [l’existence de violences familiales] as extenuating circumstances,” according to Iran Human Rights.
The IHR cites the case of Zahra Esmaili, forced to marry her neighbor, an official in the intelligence ministry, after becoming pregnant because he had raped her. This woman was accused of having killed her husband, who was violent against her and her children, in 2007. Her husband's family insisted on qisas, with his mother-in-law personally taking charge of the execution in 2021. Her lawyer said later revealed that Zahra Esmaili had suffered a heart attack after seeing a group of men executed before her. “However, they hanged his lifeless body,” according to the NGO.
Instill fear in society
One of the most high-profile cases was the October 2014 hanging of Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, convicted of murdering a former intelligence agent who she said had tried to sexually assault her. The young woman said she was tortured to extract a confession. The victim's family insisted on his execution because they maintained they acted in self-defense. His case was the subject of the documentary Seven winters in Tehran presented at the Berlin Film Festival in 2023.
Human rights activists are generally concerned about the growing number of executions in Iran, suspecting Islamic authorities of using the death penalty to instill fear in society, particularly following protests in 2022. 2023.
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