About this report:
Since its establishment in 1979, the Islamic Republic has used the death penalty as a primary instrument to instill fear and maintain its grip on power. At a minimum, tens of thousands of prisoners, including women, have been executed following sham trials. While the vast majority of those executed have been men, significantly less information is available about the women who have faced this inhuman punishment. Even less attention has been given to the gender-specific aspects of the death penalty in Iran.
This report examines how the death penalty in Iran uniquely affects women, with a focus on executions carried out between 2010 and 2024. The majority of these women were sentenced to death for charges related to murder or drug offences. As an attempt to estimate the number of women sentenced to death during a given period, we have also conducted a systematic search of official Iranian media from January 2022 to January 2024.
It is important to note that this report does not cover the large number of female political prisoners executed during the 1980s or women subjected to stoning or hanging for adultery in the first three decades of the Islamic Republic.
There has been limited research about the mass execution of political opponents in the 1980s. Thousands were executed in show trials during this decade, including the mass-executions of 1981 and 1988, described by the UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman as crimes against humanity and genocide. Women, in particular, faced harrowing fates—many subjected to rape before execution—a dark facet of history that requires deeper investigation.
The practice of stoning, though not included in this report, serves as a stark example of the gender biases entrenched in the Islamic Republic’s judicial system. Officially not practiced since the end of 2000s, it was a method disproportionately used against women accused of adultery. These women were buried up to their chests, making any attempt to escape impossible, while men, buried to the waist, often invoked defences like polygamy or temporary marriages. Such brutal practices highlight the historical and ongoing gendered disparities in Iran’s legal system.
This report seeks to shed light on the contemporary experiences of women facing the death penalty, focusing on the discriminatory laws and societal factors that perpetuate their suffering. Due to the scarcity of official data on women on death row, we rely on verified cases and systematic analysis to uncover trends and bring attention to the realities faced by these women.