At dawn on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, two prisoners were executed at Adelabad Prison in Shiraz. One of them was a 45-year-old woman by the name of Bagheri Nejad.
Ms. Bagheri Nejad had been incarcerated for five years on charges of “murdering” her husband, and she had been sentenced to death.
As of the time of this report, the execution of these two prisoners has not been announced by official sources in Iran or domestic media outlets.
The majority of women executed by the clerical regime are victims of domestic violence and discriminatory family laws. Many of them murder in self-defense. After enduring years of tumultuous marriages marked by insults, physical abuse, and, in some cases, torture at the hands of their husbands, these women often claim that had the judge granted their request for divorce, they would never have reached such a tragic outcome.
Ms. Bagheri Nejad is the third woman to be executed in Iran in February 2025. Before her, Maryam Kaviani was executed on February 1 in Parsilon Prison, Khorramabad, and Mahtab Qazizadeh was executed on February 6 in the Central Prison of Sari.
Iran: The World’s Leading Executioner of Women
Iran holds the grim record for the highest number of women executed globally. According to data compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), at least 266 women have been executed in Iran since 2007.
Many of the women executed by the Iranian regime are themselves victims of domestic violence and discriminatory family laws. A significant number have acted in self-defense.
The number of women executed in Iran saw a sharp rise in 2024. At least 34 women were hanged last year, with 23 of these executions occurring after Massoud Pezeshkian took office. In total, the regime executed at least 1,000 prisoners in 2024.
A Statistical Comparison of Women’s Executions in Iran
Between 2013 and 2020, at least 120 women were executed in Iran, averaging 15 executions per year. In contrast, the execution of 34 women in 2024 marks more than a twofold increase, signaling an alarming trend.
Since Ebrahim Raisi took office in 2021, the number of executions—including those of women—has steadily increased. This upward trajectory has accelerated after Raisi’s death on May 19, 2023, and Pezeshkian’s rise to power in August 2023.
Since Raisi’s death, an average of 3.3 women have been executed per month. Pezeshkian openly defended the regime’s execution policy on October 9, 2024. In comparison, during Raisi’s 34-month tenure, 63 women were executed, averaging 1.85 executions per month.
These figures reinforce the reality that, regardless of who holds the presidency, the Iranian regime continues to trample on the rights of its people—especially women.
