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Two Women Executed in Iran: Parvin Moussavi and Fatemeh Abdullahi

Parvin Moussavi, 53, was among five prisoners hanged in Urmia

Fatemeh Abdullahi, 27, was hanged in Neyshabur

Two women were executed this morning [ May 18, 2024] in Iran. They have been identified as Parvin Moussavi and Fatemeh Abdullahi.

A 27-year-old woman was hanged at dawn this morning, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in the Central Prison of Neyshabur, in the eastern Razavi Khorasan province.

Her name was Fatemeh Abdullahi and had been arrested and sentenced to death three years ago for murdering her abusive husband.

At the same time, the death penalties for at least five prisoners were carried out early this morning, Saturday, May 18, at the Central Prison of Urmia, in the northwestern province of W. Azerbaijan. A woman named Parvin Moussavi, 53, was among the victims.

Parvin Moussavi, who suffered from cancer, came from Maragheh in the East Azerbaijan province. She had two sons, aged 32 and 22. She was arrested and imprisoned four years ago.

Parvin could not afford to pay for hospital treatment, so the prison authorities did not send her to the hospital.

Parvin Moussavi was accused of carrying 5 kilograms of morphine. She had been told that it was medicine intended for medical purposes. She did not know it was drugs she was carrying, and since she needed money, she agreed to transport it for only half a million tomans (less than $9).

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, the Iranian Judiciary Chief, had promised her family that she would be released.

On Thursday, May 16, when she was taken to solitary confinement, other inmates in the women’s ward of the Central Prison of Urmia launched a protest and clashed with prison guards.

According to the information compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, with the executions of these two women, the number of women executed in Iran since 2007, the number of women executed reached 239.  

The Iranian regime has again stepped up the wave of executions in Iran fearing another potential uprising. Six women have been executed in less than one month, since April 20, 2024.

Ten women have been executed since January 2024.

Record holder of executions of women


The Iranian regime is the world’s top record holder of executions of women.

No government in the world has executed so many women. The list does not account for the tens of thousands of women executed in Iran on political grounds.

The NCRI Women’s Committee previously mentioned that many of the women executed by the mullahs’ regime are themselves victims of domestic violence against women and have acted in self-defense.

An average of 15 women were executed every year under the former government in Iran.

However, 26 women were executed under Raisi government in 2023, which is 11 more than the previous average.

The NCRI Women’s Committee calls on the United Nations, the European Union, and other relevant international organizations to take urgent action to save the lives of those on death row and stop the use of death penalty in Iran.

Source: women.ncr-iran.org, Staff, May 18, 2024

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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



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