On the early morning of Wednesday, December 20, 2023, the death sentence of a female prisoner named Samira Sabzianfard, a 30-year-old from Khorramabad, Lorestan province, who was accused of murdering her husband, was carried out in Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.
Samira Sabzianfard was forced into marriage at the age of 15 and became a victim of domestic violence by her husband. Ten years ago, in December 2014, she was arrested in Malard city, Tehran province, on charges of murdering her husband and was sentenced to death. Since then, she has been held in Gharchak Varamin Prison. Mrs. Sabzianfard was only 19 years old at the time of her arrest.
Samira Sabzianfard is the mother of two children, aged 11 and 15, and during her ten years of imprisonment, she has been deprived of seeing her children. Only before her execution, she was able to see her children after ten years.
The prisoner was transferred to a solitary cell last week in preparation for the execution, but the execution was postponed. On Wednesday, December 13, 2023, she was transferred to the public ward. A source close to the family of the prisoner said, “This action was taken following the granting of a several-month reprieve. Mrs. Sabzianfard had lost her ability to speak after being transferred to solitary confinement. Additionally, upon returning to the ward, she was unable to walk and was transported in a wheelchair.”
According to the statistics reported by the Iran Human Rights Monitor (IranHRM) since the beginning of the current calendar year, at least 20 women prisoners have been executed in Iranian regime prisons. Samira Sabzianfard is the Twenty first woman to be executed by the Iranian regime. Iran continues to hold the record for the highest number of executions of women worldwide.
