Human Rights Activists have expressed concern regarding the increase in capital punishments in Iran, noting that in November 2023 alone, at least 115 people were executed as punishment for their offenses.
This number will soon be surpassed because of the execution of Samira Sabzian, a child bride who was executed on Wednesday, December 20, 2023, in the Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran.
Iran’s surge in executions, particularly of women, has sparked alarm worldwide amongst various human rights groups of the International Community, like the British government, Amnesty International, and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights.
They have further expressed horror over Iran’s sharia-based murder laws, which often overlook critical circumstances such as instances of domestic abuse that might influence a person’s actions, and rights groups, including Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Hengaw, emphasizing Samira Sabzian’s execution, who was not only a child bride (15 years old) but also a victim of domestic violence.
Sabzian’s early life was marked by hardships and misfortune due to being forced into marriage at just 15 years old. She later faced accusations of domestic violence and was ultimately convicted for her husband’s murder 10 years ago, at 19 years old.
The fact that she was estranged from her two children, whom she had met for the first time earlier this month before her tragic death, has led human rights organizations to contend that significant legal reforms are necessary to improve the state’s treatment of women in Iran, especially those like Sabzian, who are victims of child marriage and domestic abuse.
According to the International Human Rights Director Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam, 18 women have now been executed in Iran this year, including Sabzian, who was a victim of gender apartheid, child marriage, and domestic violence but fell victim to the incompetent and corrupt regime’s killing machine.
‘’Samira was a victim of child marriage, so we urge Iran to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty because the British government had called on Iran to spare Sabizan’s life but refused to abide by the international campaign for clemency,’’ Moghaddam noted.
Moghaddam noted that Sabzian was convicted under the principle of qesas (retribution-in-kind) for the killing of the man she was forced to marry as a child at the sentencing stage, which entails a mandatory death penalty for homicide, removing the ability of courts to consider relevant evidence and potentially mitigating circumstances such as a history of abuse and trauma when issuing a sentence.
According to a November report from the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Group and Amnesty International, Iran has executed more than 600 more people this year than any other country except China, making it the highest number of executions in eight years.
