The number of executions in Iran has drastically increased since more than two years ago, when Ebrahim Raisi took office as the mullahs’ president in August 2021.
On the eve of the World and Europe Day Against the Death Penalty, we appeal to the international community to do whatever in their power to stop executions in Iran.
For years, Iran has held the world record in the execution of women and the per capita execution rate among all countries.
The death penalty is the clerical regime’s means of existence and survival. The Iranian regime uses the death penalty as a tool to suppress and silence a disgruntled public, the majority of whom live under the poverty line, are unemployed, and deprived of freedom of expression.
No wonder that in the past two years, the clerical regime has executed more people than it has in all the previous years. Here are some statistics:
Drastic rise in the number of executions
The Iranian regime executed 1275 persons from August 2021 to August 2023 under Ebrahim Raisi. In the first year, the authorities executed 521, while in the second year, the executions increased to 754.
Compare that to 333 executions in the entire 2021, and you get a sense of how the death penalty is frequently used under Ebrahim Raisi, the henchman of the 1988 massacre.
These figures do not account for the executions carried out in Iran on political grounds in the 1980s.
The Iranian regime is among those governments that execute their opponents. 120,000 people have been executed in Iran since 1981 for their opposition to the government, including thousands of women.
According to international laws, pregnant women must not be executed, whereas, in Iran, at least 50 pregnant women were executed in the 1980s.
Women were also executed en masse in 1988, during the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran.
Ebrahim Raisi had six more women executed every year
Based on the data compiled by the NCRI Women’s Committee, 118 women were executed in Iran from August 2013 to August 2021, when Hassan Rouhani was in office. That makes an average of 15 women executed per year.
However, under Ebrahim Raisi, 42 women were executed from August 2021 to August 2023. That makes an average of 21 women per year, which is six more women executed every year compared to the regime’s previous president.
Iran is the chief executioner of women
Focused on the violations of women’s rights in Iran and the struggle of Iranian women for freedom and equality, the NCRI Women’s Committee has been marking October 10 every year to remind the world that the clerical regime in Iran is the world’s chief executioner of women.
The Iranian regime open-handedly uses the death penalty as a form of punishment. In many cases and in a discriminatory manner this punishment is carried out against religious and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, and women.
In defiance of international laws, which recommend other forms of punishment instead of imprisonment for women due to their role as mothers and caretakers, women in Iran are not only jailed but also executed.
The Iranian Resistance has always called for the abolition of the death penalty and an end to torture and all forms of rights abuses in Iran.
On World Day Against the Death Penalty, we draw attention to the plight of women in Iran who are victims of execution and urge the international community to pressure the Iranian regime to stop the death penalty, especially against women.
We further call for the prosecution of Ebrahim Raisi and Ali Khamenei as the chief officials responsible for the killing spree in Iran.
