On January 14, two women were executed in the cities of Shiraz and Mashhad, bringing the number of women executed during six years of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency to 105.
Maliheh Haji Hassani, was executed on charge of murder on January 14 in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province.
The 29-year-old was executed after spending three years on death row.
On the same day, another woman named Sara M. was executed in Mashhad Prison, the state-run Rokna news agency reported on January 14, 2020.
Sara M. arrested in 2016 at the age of 32. The execution was carried out at Mashhad Central Prison last week. The 35-year-old was executed after spending three years in prison on death row. The official state media have not yet announced the exact date of the execution.
With these executions, the total number of women executed during Rouhani’s tenure reaches 105.
In 2019, Iranian authorities hanged 16 women in tandem with increasing suppression and executions in Iran. In the three weeks of December 2019, alone, six women were executed in various Iranian prisons.
The actual number of executions are much higher because the majority of executions in Iran are carried out secretly, away from the public eye where only the masterminds and perpetrators are witness to them.
Many women are currently awaiting execution in prison. Some of these women are being held in Qarchak Prison on the death row. These women are mostly mothers and have several children.
Iran is the top executioner of women. As a consequence of the clerical regime’s failure to categorize deliberate murders according to their degrees, anyone committing murder is sentenced to death, regardless of their motives. Many of the women convicted of murder in Iran are themselves victims of violence against women and have committed murder in self-defense. The trials and sentences issued are grossly unfair.
