A woman was hanged on Wednesday, January 30, 2019, in Nowshahr Prison, in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran.
The woman identified only as M.A, was convicted of “killing her husband.”
She had spent six years on death row.
The woman is the 87th woman who is executed under Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian regime’s president.
The Iranian regime is the world’s top record holder in execution of women while it has the highest per capita executions in the world.
Last month a young woman identified only as Noushin was executed in Iran, the state-run ROKNA news agency reported on December 22, 2018.
Noushin was convicted of murdering a man, Soheil, who had promised to marry her, but took advantage of her, and subsequently brutalized, blackmailed and forced her into having sexual relations with his friends.
She did this for a month before she decided to stop this situation by killing the man who was forcing her to do so.
It is worth noting that the horrific news of the execution of 24-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Zeinab Sekaanvand in October 2018, triggered a bitter debate over the execution of violence victims in Iran.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, condemned the execution of Sekaanvand Lokran, by issuing a statement on October 5, 2018, calling it a “sheer injustice.”
She stressed that the UN Human Rights Office opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances, as no judiciary in any part of the world is mistake-free.
More women on death row
Dozens of women are on death row across Iran most of whom had committed murder in self-defense against domestic violence.
The names of eight woman lingering in Urmia Central Prison on death row were previously announced as:
- Chenar Salehi,
- Yasna Sadeqi,
- Arasteh Ranjbar,
- Nazdar Vatankhah,
- Tahmineh Danesh,
- Farideh Hassanpour,
- Shelir Khosravi,
- Somayeh Ebrahimzadeh.
Another 11 death-row women prisoners are held in Qarchak Prison of Varamin. The names of the eleven women and duration of their detention in jail follows:
- Azam Maleki, 8 years, charged with murder of her brother-in-law and nephew-in-law;
- Narjes Tabaii, 3 years, charged with murder of her husband’s second wife;
- Fereshteh Shirazi, 5 years, charged with murder of mother-in-law (sister of Assadollah
Lajevardi, the infamous warden known as the Butcher of Evin Prison); - Tahereh Noori, 12 years, charged with murder of her husband;
- Roya Amirian, 14 years, charged with murder of a man harassing her on the street;
- Mahtab Shafii, 3 years, charged with murder of her husband and mother-in-law;
- Mahboubeh Rasouli, 7 years, charged with murder of mother-in-law;
- Mahnaz Agahi, 7 years, charged with murder of her husband;
- Soghra Eftekhari, 10 years, charged with murder during a conflict;
- Eshrat Nazari, 6 years, charged with murder of her husband;
- Samira Sabziyan.
Under the laws of the Iranian regime, the woman and the victim who has defended herself must face trials and retribution.
While the international community has adopted the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul, May 11, 2011) to protect women victims of violence, and while most countries endeavor to assist women victims of violence and protect them against the death penalty, the misogynous clerical regime in Iran does not protect the rights of women who are victims of violence, because misogyny has been institutionalized in the country’s laws and the Iranian regime is moving in the opposite direction.
The fate of the eleven women imprisoned on death row in Qarchak calls for action by international human rights organizations to investigate the injustices of the Iranian Judiciary and inhuman prison conditions. It also highlights the need to abolish the death penalty in Iran.
