Two Women and Kurdish Man Hanged in Urmia

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two women and a man were hanged in Urmia (Darya) Central Prison on 16 March. Their identities have been established as Mojgan Azarpisheh from Naghadeh, Kosar Bagherzadeh (left photo) from Urmia and Arshad Farzadband (right photo), a 28-year-old Kurdish man from Margour in Urmia. They were all sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Informed sources previously told IHRNGO: “Mojgan Azarpisheh waws arrested for the murder of a pregnant woman six years ago and Kosar Bagherzadeh was arrested for the murder of her husband over two years ago.”

IHRNGO previously reported the two women’s transfer for execution.

“Arshad Farzadband was arrested last year for murdering a woman to steal her gold,” a source told IHRNGO.

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

Mojgan and Kosar are the sixth and seventh women to be executed in the first 75 days of 2025. Iran executes the highest number of women globally. In 2024, at least 31 women were executed for drug-related, murder and security-related charges in Iran, the highest number of recorded women executions in more than 15 years.

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.

Crucially, while an indicative 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.

According to IHRNGO’s 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 419 people including a juvenile offender and 19 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 12% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2024, Iran Human Rights also recorded 649 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.

17 March 2025 UPDATE: Photo of Mojgan Bagherzadeh and her death notice.