Iran | First Woman Execution Recorded in 2026

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); January 6, 2026: Karim Asgari and Tayebeh Hekmat, a man and a woman on death row for separate murders, were executed in Zanjan Central Prison.

Tayebeh Hekmat is the first woman execution to be recorded in 2026.

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man and a woman were hanged in Zanjan Central Prison on 5 January 2026. The man’s identity has been established as Karim Asgari from Zanjan. The woman has been identified as 53-year-old Tayebeh Hekmat, a mother of three arrested for the murder of her husband around seven years ago. Per informed sources, “Her three children are the plaintiffs in the case. They’ve never visited their mother behind bars and ultimately chose execution.”

Both Karim and Tayebeh were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Tayebeh Hekmat is the first woman execution recorded in 2026. In 2025, at least 47 women were executed, the highest number of women executions recorded in Iran in more than two decades. Iran executes the highest recorded number of women globally.

In January 2025, IHRNGO published a report titled “Women and the Death Penalty in Iran; a Gendered Perspective,” which sheds light on the contemporary experiences of women facing the death penalty, focusing on the discriminatory laws and societal factors that perpetuate their suffering.

Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or circumstances due to a lack of grading in law. Once a defendant has been convicted, the victim’s family are required to choose between death as retribution, diya (blood money) or forgiveness.

Crucially, while an indicative diya amount is set by the Judiciary every year, there is no legal limit to how much can be demanded by families of the victims. IHRNGO has recorded many cases where defendants are executed because they cannot afford to pay the blood money. Should the victim’s family choose execution, they are not only encouraged to attend, but also to physically carry out the execution themselves.

According to IHRNGO’s 2024 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 419 people including a juvenile offender and 19 women, were executed for murder charges, the highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 12% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2024, Iran Human Rights also recorded 649 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions. At least 641 people were executed for murder charges in the first eleven months of 2025.

Source: Iran Human Rights, Staff, January 6, 2026

"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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