Woman and Two Men Hanged for Murder in Mashhad

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a woman and two men were hanged in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 6 September 2026. Their identities have been established as Fatemeh Jahangard, a woman of around 40 years of age from Mashhad, 27-year-old Mohammadreza Mohammadparast (photo) and 24-year-old Mehrdad Mokhtari from the Abdolmotaleb region in Mashhad.

They were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for separate murders by the Criminal Court.

An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mohammadreza was arrested four years ago and accused of killing his mother's partner with a shovel and a concrete block during an altercation. Mehrdad was also arrested four years ago for a homicide that took place during an altercation. Fatemeh was arrested for the murder of her husband five years ago.”

At the time of writing, Fatemeh and Mehrdad’s executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Fatemeh Jahangard is the nineteenth 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.