The Iranian regime began increasing the number of women executed and female political prisoners exiled in the run-up to the Iranian New Year (Nowruz) on March 20.

Since the start of 2021, the regime has executed five women, including Zahra Esma’ili, an innocent woman who took the blame for her teenage daughter who’d killed her abusive father, who was hanged after having a heart attack because she’d seen 16 other people executed in front of her. Another one of those executed was domestic violence victim Maryam Karimi.

This exemplifies how the regime’s law unfairly target women because there is no way to try murder by degrees or to provide exemptions for victims of domestic violence who are acting in self-defence. Iran is the top executioner of women, with 116 women hanged since the supposed moderate President Hassan Rouhani took power in 2013.

The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran wrote: “[We] strongly condemns the death penalty. The Committee has repeatedly urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, and all the international human rights organizations and women’s rights advocates to strongly condemn the executions in Iran and particularly the execution of women. The NCRI Women’s Committee has also called for urgent action to save the lives of death row prisoners, particularly the female inmates.”

In addition to the executions, the regime has also illegally exiled the following female political prisoners:

  • Maryam Akbari Monfared
  • Atena Daemi
  • Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee
  • Sakineh Parvaneh
  • Zeinab Jalalian

The regime exiles them to increase pressure on and punish political prisoners, especially those known to protest the regime in jail, by preventing their family from easily visiting them.

It’s worth noting, during this discussion on abuses against women that Iran is one of only a few countries that haven’t signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Javaid Rehman said on International Women’s Day that Iranian women are treated as second class citizens, as women across Iran carried out rebellious actions and protests that are setting the stage for the end of the mullahs’ regime. The mullahs have spent over 40 years oppressing women across all sectors of society and, despite every ounce of repression, women are on the frontline of struggle against this dictatorship.