A woman was hanged in Isfahan at dawn on Thursday, November 25, 2021. Maryam Khakpour was the 124th woman executed in Iran since August 2013.
Originally from Kashan, the 41-year-old Maryam Khakpour had been sentenced to death on drug-related charges five years ago.
She had repeatedly claimed innocence, saying the drugs belonged to her husband. Nevertheless, she was sentenced to death, and her sentence was carried out in Dastgerd Prison of Isfahan, central Iran.
Maryam Khakpour had been imprisoned in the past five years in the women’s ward of Dastgerd Prison. She divorced her husband three years ago. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Maryam Khakpour’s execution has not been announced yet by any state media in Iran.
An article added to the Anti-Narcotics Law in 2017 limited the drug-related death sentences. However, the death penalty is still being used in drug-related cases.
Execution of a couple in Yasuj
Earlier this week, on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, a couple were hanged in the Central Prison of Yasuj, the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.
The man was identified as Siavosh Ardeshiri, but the woman remains unidentified. The husband and wife had been arrested in December 2018 for murder. All the Iranian state media published the news of these hangings in Yasuj.
The world’s chief executioner of women
Iran holds the world’s top executioner record, with the highest number of citizens executed per capita. It is also the world’s chief executioner of women. An average of 15 women is executed in Iran every year. The executions are grossly unfair.
The actual number of executions, particularly the number of women executed, is much higher. The clerical regime carries out most executions in secret and out of the public eye. No witnesses are present at the time of execution but those who carry them out.
The Iranian regime open-handedly uses the death penalty as a form of punishment. In a discriminatory manner, this punishment is carried out against religious and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, and women.
According to Amnesty International, more than two-thirds of the world countries have abolished or halted the death penalty. However, in Iran, the killing machine is taking up speed under Ebrahim Raisi, the notorious henchman of the 1988 massacre, and Gholam Hossein Mohseni Eje’i, another notorious judge involved in the genocide.
