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CHRI – On December 20, Iranian authorities executed Samira Sabzian, 32, who was detained in Gharchak prison in Tehran province. Sabzian, the mother of two, was convicted in 2016 of murdering her husband.
According to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based human rights organization, Sabzian was a 15-year-old girl when she was married to her husband, and suffered domestic violence. She was only 19 at the time of the alleged crime. Iranian law allows girls to marry at 13 and boys at age 15, as well as at younger ages if authorized by a judge. Attempts by parliamentarians to increase the age of marriage have been unsuccessful.
Since the beginning of 2023, the rate of executions has risen dramatically, with Iranian authorities executing at least 707 people including 17 women across the country. Iranian law lacks adequate protections for victims of domestic violence, and all intentional homicide cases are punishable under the Islamic law principle qisas, by which a victim’s heirs can seek the death penalty or forgive the perpetrator, sometimes seeking payment of “blood money”, after which the judge can sentence the accused to up to ten years in prison.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is inherently cruel and irreversible. Iran is one of the only countries that continues to implement the child death penalty.
