Soheila Abadi, now 25, was hanged in prison for killing her husband
A child bride who killed the man she was forced to marry when she was 15 is among 3 women executed in Iran for murdering their husbands this week.
Soheila Abadi, now 25, was hanged in prison after she was convicted of killing her husband over 'family disputes' according to the sentencing courts.
2 other women executed on Wednesday were also convicted of murdering their husbands, Human Rights Watch said.
Activists claim that most incidents of wives killing their husbands are sparked by domestic violence but the Iranian courts do not take this into account.
The trio are among 32 people hanged in the country in just the past week.
It comes amid a surge in executions across the country, with at least 251 people killed by the state killed in the first 6 months of the year, Amnesty International reported.
The figure is more than double the number executed over the same period last year.
The charity accused Iran of carrying out a 'horrific spree' of executions, with many of those sentenced to death not having had a fair trial.
Of the 251 executed, 146 of them were for murder, and at least 86 were for drug offences which should not warrant the death penalty under international law.
Diana Eltahawy, deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said: 'The state machinery is carrying out killings on a mass scale across the country in an abhorrent assault on the right to life.
'Iran's staggering execution toll for the 1st half of this year has chilling echoes of 2015 when there was another shocking spike.'
The true number of executions is likely far higher, with hangings often carried out in secret and not reported.
Since the start of the year, authorities in Raja'i Shahr prison which has one of the biggest death row populations, have been executing up to 10 people a week.
Some have claimed the surge is due to a concerted effort to bring down prison numbers.
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran found spikes in executions coincide with public statements from the authorities about the need to reduce prison overcrowding and wipe out the legal backlogs.
At least 26 % of those executed this year are members of the impoverished Baluchi ethnic minority which makes up only five per cent of the total Iranian population.
Roya Boroumand, executive director of the centre, said: 'The disproportionate use of the death penalty against Iran's Baluchi minority epitomizes the entrenched discrimination and repression they have faced for decades and further highlights the inherent cruelty of the death penalty, which targets the most vulnerable populations in Iran and worldwide.'
Under Iranian law, the death penalty can be imposed for financial crimes, rape and armed robbery.
Other activities protected by international human rights law such as homosexual acts, extramarital sexual relations and speech deemed 'insulting to the Prophet of Islam' as well as vaguely-worded offences such as 'enmity against God' and 'spreading corruption on earth' are also punishable by death.
Senobar Jalali, the 4th woman executed in 1 week in Iran
On Wednesday, July 27, 2022, an Afghan national named Senobar Jalali was executed in Gohardasht Prison of Karaj. The execution brings to 140 the number of women executed in Iran since the summer of 2013.
Senobar Jalali was imprisoned in Qarchak Prison. She was transferred from ward 7 of Qarchak Prison on Tuesday, July 26, and moved to solitary confinement in Gohardasht Prison.
Senobar Jalali had murdered her husband in a family fight. An informed source said, “I was with her in ward 5. She tried very hard to get released. She worked hard in prison, washing dishes and clothes. She was nervous but hopeful for freedom. She constantly worked. She was supposed to pay the blood money according to the rules of Afghanistan and spend time in prison for the rest of it. But they executed her.”
The execution of Senobar Jalali in Gohardasht Prison took place on the same day as the executions of Soheila Abedi in the Central Prison of Sanandaj and Farank Beheshti in the Central Prison of Urmia.
The clerical regime sent 3 women to the gallows on the same day.
On July 21, 2022, Robab Danaii was executed in the Prison of Yazd, central Iran. The regime has thus executed 4 women in only 1 week.
Senobar Jalali was a victim of domestic violence
The Iranian regime has embarked on an execution spree in recent months under Ebrahim Raisi.
The NCRI Women’s Committee has previously announced that many of the women executed by the mullahs’ regime are victims of domestic violence against women and have acted in self-defense.
The Iranian regime open-handedly uses the death penalty in Iran as a form of punishment. In many cases, religious and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, and women are targets of the death penalty in a discriminatory manner.
In 2019, the mullahs’ regime hanged 16 women in tandem with increasing suppression and executions in Iran. In December 2019, 6 women were executed by the regime in various Iranian prisons.
The regime also executed 18 women in 2021, 7 from November 22 to December 21, 2021.
Many women are currently on death row in Iran.
On July 15, 2022, a woman named Mina received the death penalty in Tehran. (The state-run etemadonline.com – July 15, 2022)
183 women on death row in Iran
According to documents from the mullahs’ regime, the Iranian Resistance declared mid-May 2022 that 183 women in the regime’s prisons were on death row or sentenced to death by retribution (Qesas).
Death by retribution is carried out on persons convicted of murder, regardless of their motives.
During a series of major revelations, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published extensive information obtained from the clerical regime’s judicial system, including the Prisons Organization.
According to the statistics registered by the office of the Prisons Organization, 5,197 people are on death row or sentenced to Qesas (retribution in kind). Of these, 1,366 are sentenced to death, including 39 women. Another 3,831 prisoners, including 144 women, have a sentence of Qesas or retribution.
60 death row prisoners were under 18 at the time of the alleged offense in 2020.
The documents also list the names of 51 persons, including 23 women, sentenced to death by stoning and 107 prisoners sentenced to amputation.
Source: women-ncr-iran.org, Staff, July 29, 2022
Ex-child bride among 3 women executed in 1 day - report
Iranian authorities put 3 women to death on Wednesday for murdering their husbands, a human rights charity says.
According to the Iran Human Rights Group they were among 32 people executed in the past week alone.
A former child bride, convicted of later killing the man she had married at the age of 15, was among them.
Authorities are believed to have substantially stepped up their use of the death penalty, executing twice as many people so far this year than last.
Rights groups report that Iran also executes more women than any other country, the majority of whom are thought to have been found guilty of killing their husbands.
On Wednesday, the Iran Human Rights Group says former child bride Soheila Abadi was hanged in prison after being convicted of killing her husband after marrying him 10 years previously when she was 15 years old.
The sentencing court reportedly said the motive for the murder had been "family disputes."
2 other women executed on Wednesday had also been convicted of murdering their husbands, the group said.
Activists say many of the cases involve accusations of domestic violence but that Iranian courts frequently do not take that into account.
Precise figures on execution numbers are not available as Iranian authorities do not officially announce every case where the death penalty has been carried out.
According to a research published in April by two rights groups, only 16.5% of executions believed to have been carried out in Iran last year were announced by officials.
Reports this year suggest the use of the death penalty has spiked even further since.
Human rights group Amnesty International this week accused Iran of having embarked upon a "horrific" execution spree in recent months, reportedly putting more than 250 people to death in the first 6 months of 2022 - more than double the number executed over the equivalent period in the previous year.
"The state machinery is carrying out killings on a mass scale across the country in an abhorrent assault on the right to life," said Diana Eltahawy, deputy regional director at Amnesty International.
Some of those convicted have been put to death in mass executions, the rights group reports, including a dozen people in one prison on 15 June and the same number in a separate prison on 6 June.
Ethnic minorities are also overrepresented in the statistics.
Despite making up around 5% of Iran's general population, members of the Baluchi minority made up more than one in four of those believed by Amnesty International to have been executed so far this year.
Source: BBC News, Staff, July 29, 2022
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
