Iran executed a woman, Samira Sabzian, on Wednesday for the murder of her husband, the Norwegian-based Iran Human Rights Organisation (IHRNGO) has reported.
Sabzian, from the city of Khorramabad in western Iran, was forced into marriage with her husband at the age of 15. She became a victim of domestic violence in the years that followed, according to her relatives.
After enduring four years of abuse, in 2013, at the age of 19, Sabzian killed her husband. She was then arrested and sentenced to qisas, which means retaliation in kind. The international community’s pleas for clemency went unanswered, despite repeated calls from the United Nations and international human rights groups for the execution to be halted.
According to the Islamic Penal Code, those accused of premeditated murder are sentenced to qisas, which allows the victim’s family to choose between accepting the death penalty or receiving financial compensation. In Sabzian’s case, the grandparents of her children, who were the plaintiffs, requested the death penalty.
The IHRNGO quoted informed sources as saying that Sabzian initially refused to meet her children in prison, hoping to get forgiven by her husband’s parents. Custody of her children, who were seven years and six months old at the time of the murder, has been granted to relatives on the father’s side.
“Samira was a victim of years of gender apartheid, child marriage and domestic violence, and today she fell victim to the incompetent and corrupt regime’s killing machine,” said IHRNGO Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
With at least 16 women executed in 2022 and 18 in 2023, the Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s leading executioner of women. According to an earlier report by IHRNGO, at least 164 women were executed between 1 January 2010 and October 2021, 66 percent of whom were convicted of killing their husbands or partners. Iranian law does not allow women to seek divorce, even in cases of domestic violence.
With the Christmas holidays approaching, human rights groups recently expressed concern that the season could mask further executions, particularly of vulnerable groups.
