Three Women Executed in a Day; Afghan Senobar Jalali Executed for Murder

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, an Afghan woman was executed in a Tehran/Alborz Prison on July 27. Her identity has been established as Senobar Jalali who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of her husband.

On July 26, she was transferred for execution from Ward 7 of Qarchak Prison. HRANA news agency which first reported news of her execution, stated that she was executed in Rajai Shahr Prison. Iran Human Rights is continuing its investigation to confirm the location of her execution.

On the day of her execution, two other women were also executed for the murders of their husbands. Child bride Soheila Abedi was executed in Sanandaj Central Prison and Faranak Beheshti was executed in Urmia Central Prison.

According to Iran Human Rights’ report on Women and Death Penalty in Iran on the occasion of World Day Against the Death Penalty, at least 164 women were executed between 2010-October 2021. Of those, six were child brides and one woman (Safieh Ghafouri), was an aroose-khoon-bas, a bride offered by one tribe to the opposing tribe to stop the bloodshed.

Within the marriage itself, a woman does not have the right to divorce, even in cases of domestic violence and abuse, which are hidden in cultural codes and language. In 66% of the known murder cases, the women were convicted of killing their husband or partner.

At the time of writing, her execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

According to data gathered by Iran Human Rights, at least 183 people were executed on murder charges in 2021. Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or circumstances 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.

At least 251 including 6 women and 67 Baluch minorities were executed in the first six months of 2022. This is double the number of executions in the same period in 2021 when 117 people were executed.