Zahra Azizpour and Hedayat Jamalzadeh Hanged for Murder in Rasht

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man and a woman were hanged in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison on 25 August 2026. Their identities have been established as Zahra Azizpour, a 40-year-old woman from Ardabil, and Hedayat Jamalzadeh (photo), a 30-year-old man from Rasht.

Zahra was arrested around six years ago and Hedayat was arrested five years ago. They were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for separate murders by the Criminal Court.

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Zahra Azizpour is the eighteenth woman execution recorded in 2026. In 2025, at least 48 women were executed, the highest number of women executions recorded in Iran in more than two decades. Iran executes the highest recorded number of women globally.

In January 2025, IHRNGO published a report titled “Women and the Death Penalty in Iran; a Gendered Perspective,” which sheds light on the contemporary experiences of women facing the death penalty, focusing on the discriminatory laws and societal factors that perpetuate their suffering.

Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or mitigating factors due to a lack of grading in law. Once a defendant has been convicted, the victim’s family are required to choose between death as retribution, diya (blood money) or forgiveness.

Crucially, while an indicative diya amount is set by the Judiciary every year, there is no legal limit to how much can be demanded by families of the victims. IHRNGO has recorded many cases where defendants are executed because they cannot afford to pay the blood money. Should the victim’s family choose execution, they are not only encouraged to attend, but also to physically carry out the execution themselves.

According to IHRNGO’s 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 747 people including 48 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Under 7% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2025, IHRNGO also recorded 566 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.