The U.N. human rights office said Tuesday that Iran had executed 901 individuals last year, including 31 women, some of whom had been found guilty of killing their husbands to protect themselves from rape after being forced into marriage.
According to the U.N. statement, the majority of the executions were for drug-related offenses, but the victims also included political dissidents and those involved in the 2022 public protests over the murder of a 22-year-old woman in police custody.
In a statement emailed to journalists, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T rk expressed his grave concern that the number of Iranians facing the death penalty is increasing annually. Iran needs to stop the increasing number of executions.
According to the U.N. rights office, at least 901 individuals were hanged in the Islamic Republic last year, up from 853 in 2023. That was the most since 2015, when 972 people were put to death.
A request for comment on the U.N. statement was not immediately answered by Iran’s diplomatic office in Geneva.
Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian lady, was killed in police custody after she was arrested for allegedly disobeying Iran’s required dress code. This incident set off the 2022 protests, which caused some of the greatest unrest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
At a press briefing in Geneva, U.N. rights office spokesperson Liz Throssell told reporters that at least 31 women were executed in 2024, the most in at least 15 years.
Most of the cases featured murder charges. She said that a sizable portion of the women had experienced forced marriage, underage marriage, or domestic abuse.
Following the briefing, Throssell told Reuters that one of the women who were put to death for murder had killed her husband to stop him from raping her daughter.
Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected president of Iran in July 2024, pledged throughout his campaign to strengthen protections for minorities and women.
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