“170 women have been executed in Iran in the past 10 years”

Despite the amendment of the death penalty law for drug crimes in the Islamic Republic, 116 prisoners, five of whom were women, have been executed this year alone, compared to just 25 the previous year.

According to human rights sources, more than a dozen women have been executed in Iran this year, raising concerns among human rights organizations about the unfair judicial process in Iran.

According to these organizations, most of the women executed in Iran were for the murder of their husbands or partners. These organizations consider Iran's "retaliation" law to be one of the reasons why cases such as domestic violence by husbands are not considered in family murder cases.

The Iranian Human Rights Organization, based in Oslo, the capital of Norway, has identified one of the women recently executed in Iran as “Susan Rezaeipour.” She was executed on November 25 for the murder of her husband, who was also her cousin.

According to the Iranian Human Rights Organization, Ms. Rezaeipour has been in prison for six years, and the victim's father, who is the woman's uncle, has refused to forgive her and has demanded retribution.

The organization, citing an informed source, wrote that Rezaipour said in her confession that her husband had returned home drunk on the afternoon of the incident and had beaten her severely. She also said, "I couldn't take it anymore."

The Iranian Human Rights Organization has recorded the names of at least 15 women who have been executed this year alone. The number of women executed since 2010 has also been listed as 170.

Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, director of the Iranian Human Rights Organization, emphasized that in addition to the execution of women, there are numerous other issues of concern regarding the status of women's rights in Iran, including: "numerous cases of abusive relationships, child marriage, and in traditional societies, marriages to end conflict between two tribes."

Amiri Moghadam also considered the Qisas law to be in contradiction with international law because, according to this law, the responsibility for punishment is placed on the victim's family.

One of the most famous cases of female retaliation is that of Reyhaneh Jabbari. She had repeatedly stated that the victim, a former intelligence agency agent, had intended to rape her and was murdered by Reyhaneh. She also said that she had been tortured during interrogation. An international campaign was launched to save her.

Despite this, and despite all the domestic and international protests and criticism, Reyhaneh was hanged in the fall of 2014, when she was only 26 years old, because the victim's family refused to forgive her.

Patriarchy and discrimination: causes of crime committed by women

Julia Bourbon-Fernandez, of the Paris-based group Together Against the Death Penalty, blamed patriarchy and discrimination for the high number of executions of women in Iran. “Many [executed women] tried to defend themselves against rape or other cases of domestic violence and found themselves in an explosive situation,” she told AFP.

Many human rights activists say that most of these cases occur in marginalized areas and among marginalized segments of society.

"Most of these women are poor and have been rejected by their families. So they are very vulnerable and out of our reach," Roya Boroumand, co-founder of the Abdolrahman Boroumand Foundation in Washington, told AFP.

The Boroumand Foundation has collected about 100 cases in which women were executed for murder or adultery during the Islamic Republic's rule. Roya Boroumand says that most of these women were either victims of domestic violence, victims of early marriage, or committed murder due to the harsh conditions of divorce in Iran.

Execution for drug crimes

Iran has the highest execution rate in the world after China. In 2017, a law was passed that prohibits executions of drug-related offenders, which led to a period of decline in the number of executions, but then began to rise again. This year alone, more than 100 people were executed for drug trafficking, many of them women.

One of the most recent executions of women related to drugs was Maryam Khakpour, 41, who was executed in Isfahan on December 25, according to the Iranian Human Rights Organization. Her husband was also found guilty but only received a prison sentence.

According to the organization's report, on December 9, six people were executed in Kerman for drug crimes, three of whom were women. The organization listed at least 116 prisoners, five of whom were women, who have been executed this year in drug-related cases. The number of executions in this category was announced at 25 last year.

Human rights activists believe that the Iranian judicial system fundamentally discriminates against women. For example, the age of criminal responsibility for girls is 9 years old and for boys is 15 years old, the testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of one man, and the blood money for a woman is half that of a man.

Bourbon Fernandez, however, points to the mobilization of society against the death penalty as a bright spot in the face of the high number of executions. This general desire against the death penalty can be seen in the film “The Devil Does Not Exist,” by Mohammad Rasoulof, which won the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlinale.

Bourbon Fernandez considers the popular movement against the death penalty in Iran to be very strong and in complete contradiction with the positions of the Islamic Republic's leaders.

Source: DW