Shocking Statistics on Women’s Execution in Iran; 34 Women Executed in 2024
While the death penalty has been abolished in many countries worldwide, in Iran’s theocratic dictatorship, executions are not merely a form of punishment; they are a strategic tool for an illegitimate regime to maintain its grip on power.
Over the past four decades, executions in Iran have targeted a wide array of individuals, including political dissidents, ethnic minorities such as Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmens, and Arabs, as well as followers of diverse religions.
Amnesty International reported last year that 74% of global executions in 2023 occurred in Iran. In 2024, the number of executions in the country increased by 15% compared to the previous year, rising from 850 in 2023 to 997 in 2024, including the execution of eight political prisoners.
The clerical regime does not use executions to punish offenders or criminals but rather as a means to instill fear in society and ensure its survival. Consequently, the regime holds not only the world’s highest per capita execution rate but also the grim record of executing the highest number of women globally.
The World’s Leading Executioner of Women
Out of the 997 individuals executed in Iran in 2024, 34 were women. At first glance, the presence of 34 women among nearly a thousand executions may not seem particularly high. However, it is important to consider that in no other country are even a tenth of this number of women executed.
Moreover, given the maternal role of women, even imprisonment in other countries is often replaced with alternative sentences to ensure that their children are not left without caregivers. Yet, in Iran, not only are thousands of women imprisoned, but every year, some of these women are executed, leaving their children orphaned.
Statistical Comparison of Executions of Women in Iran
According to data compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, at least 263 women have been executed in Iran since 2007.
From 2013 to 2020, a period of eight years, at least 120 women were executed in the country, with an annual average of 15 executions. However, in 2024, with 34 women executed, the number has more than doubled this average, marking a deeply alarming increase.
Since Ebrahim Raisi took office in 2021, the number of executions, including those of women, has steadily increased. After Raisi’s death on May 19, 2023, and the rise of Masoud Pezeshkian in August 2023, this upward trend accelerated further.
Of the 34 women executed in 2024, 23 women—nearly 68%—were executed during Pezeshkian’s tenure. This number, occurring in just five months, is 1.5 times the annual average of 15 women.
During Pezeshkian’s tenure, an average of 4.6 women were executed monthly. On October 8, 2024, Pezeshkian openly defended executions. By comparison, during Raisi’s 34-month presidency, 63 women were executed, averaging 1.85 women per month.
Issuance of Death Sentences
According to documents disclosed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, over 5,000 prisoners in Iran are currently on death row. While these sentences are issued under various pretexts, their primary motive is to preserve the clerical regime, categorizing them as political executions.
In the past year, two Kurdish political prisoners, Pakhshan Azizi and Varisha Moradi, were sentenced to death. A labor activist, Sharifeh Mohammadi, was also handed a death sentence, though her ruling was later overturned.
Additionally, the regime’s judiciary sentenced nine political prisoners to death on charges of “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.”
The “No to Executions” Campaign
Since February 2024, political prisoners in Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj have launched a campaign called “No to Executions Tuesdays” to protest the rising number of executions in Iran.
On Tuesday, January 30, 2024, a group of prisoners in Qezel Hesar Prison announced the campaign: “To make our voices heard, we will go on a hunger strike every Tuesday. We chose Tuesday because it is often the last day of life for our fellow inmates who are transferred to solitary confinement in the preceding days.”
Through the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, these prisoners have sought to draw greater domestic and international attention to the gross violation of the right to life and the widespread executions in Iran.
They have been on a hunger strike for 48 weeks, with 28 prisons joining the movement. Women’s wards in Evin Prison and Lakan Prison in Rasht have played a prominent role in this campaign. Courageous women and men prisoners chant in solidarity:
“United, determined until the death penalty is abolished. We will stand till the end.”
Global Support for the “No to Executions Tuesdays” Campaign
On December 10, International Human Rights Day, it was announced that over 3,000 former world leaders, heads of state, ministers, ambassadors, members of parliament from various countries, UN officials, human rights experts, Nobel laureates, and NGOs had signed a statement calling for an end to executions in Iran. This announcement coincided with the 46th week of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign.
Additionally, 581 mayors in France expressed deep concern about the alarming increase in executions during the tenure of Masoud Pezeshkian, a rate significantly higher than in previous years, and called for an immediate halt to executions in Iran.
In solidarity with the “No to Executions in Iran” campaign, the 17th District Municipality of Paris displayed a banner featuring images of political prisoners sentenced to death. The banner highlighted Pakhshan Azizi and Varisha Moradi, two Kurdish political prisoners on death row, alongside photos of nine supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) also facing execution. The banner called for an end to the inhumane death sentences of these freedom fighters.
For 46 years, the Iranian regime has sustained its existence through the systematic destruction of human rights, employing executions and massacres as tools of repression. In contrast, the Iranian Resistance has emphasized the abolition of the death penalty for over two decades. Abolishing executions is a key tenet of the 10-point plan proposed by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. The “No to Executions” campaign, both inside and outside Iran, is part of this broader movement: No to the daily hanging of youths, no to the execution of women, and no to the reign of the gallows.
The international community must isolate the clerical regime and hold its leaders accountable for 46 years of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes. The Iranian Resistance demands that diplomatic and trade relations with the regime be conditioned upon the cessation of executions and torture, as well as the end of impunity for regime leaders.
The regime must allow an international investigative delegation to visit Iranian prisons and meet with prisoners, particularly political prisoners.
