Eight women face execution in Iran, rights group warns

At least eight women are facing death sentences in prisons across Iran, including four in cases linked to the nationwide January protests, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) rights group reported on Sunday.

HRANA said the women had been sentenced in separate political, security, and protest-related cases on charges including “armed rebellion,” “enmity against God," and “corruption on earth,” offenses that can carry the death penalty under Iran’s Islamic penal code.

The cases were heard by branches of the Revolutionary Courts in Tehran, Isfahan, Rasht, and Bandar Abbas, the group said.

The death sentences of Pakhshan Azizi and Arghavan Fallahi have been upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court, according to HRANA.

Azizi, who is being held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, was arrested in August 2023 and sentenced to death the following year on a charge of “armed rebellion through membership in groups opposed to the country,” HRANA said. Her requests for a retrial have since been rejected.

Fallahi, also held in Evin, was arrested in Tehran in February 2025 and later sentenced to death on a charge of “armed rebellion through membership in groups opposed to the government and armed action.” Her sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in August, HRANA said.

A third woman, 68-year-old Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, was sentenced to death for a second time after the Supreme Court overturned an earlier death sentence and ordered a retrial. She was convicted of “armed rebellion through membership and activity in an opposition group” and is being held in Lakan Prison in the northern city of Rasht, according to HRANA.

Four other women—Maryam Hadavand, Mahnaz Chardouli, Leila Abolhasani and Taraneh Rahimi—were sentenced to death in cases connected to the nationwide protests that erupted in January, the rights group said.

Hadavand, 45 and a mother of two, was arrested in connection with events in Pakdasht, southeast of Tehran, on Jan. 8 and sentenced to death on charges including allegedly participating in the killing of two Basij members, deliberately setting fire to a religious site, damaging public property and assembly, and collusion against national security, according to HRANA.

Chardouli, held in Qarchak Prison, was tried on charges including “attacking a mosque with a Molotov cocktail,” “participating in gatherings," and “assembly and collusion,” HRANA said.

A Revolutionary Court in Isfahan sentenced Abolhasani, a mother of two teenage daughters, to death on a charge of “enmity against God” after her arrest during protests in Shahin Shahr on Jan. 8. HRANA said a source close to her family had previously said the case stemmed from her presence at and filming of a fire at a shop, while judicial authorities accused her of involvement in the blaze.

Taraneh Rahimi was among 10 defendants sentenced to death and 11 years in prison in a case involving 16 people arrested over the January protests in Isfahan, known as the “Isfahan Shohada Square” case. The defendants were each sentenced to death and 11 years in prison on charges including “enmity against God through carrying a bladed weapon,” destruction of public property, and assembly and collusion, the group said.

The eighth woman, 32-year-old Sevda, also known as Marzieh Ebrahimi Shamsabadi, was sentenced to death in Bandar Abbas on a charge of “corruption on earth” in a case HRANA said was linked to security developments during the war.

She also faced accusations including insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader, conducting media activity deemed contrary to national security, carrying out intelligence activity for hostile governments, photographing a military site, and sending images to Persian-language media abroad.

HRANA said five of the eight cases were still at the initial trial or appeal stages.

The group also highlighted the case of Bita Hemmati, who had been sentenced to death in connection with the January protests before the Supreme Court overturned the sentence in June and ordered a retrial. HRANA said the outcome of the new proceedings remained unclear.

Separately, Varisheh Moradi, who had been sentenced to death on a charge of “baghi,” or armed rebellion, over alleged membership in an opposition group, had her sentence overturned by the Supreme Court in December 2025 and was granted a retrial. Her case remains unresolved.

Source: Iran International, Staff, September 13, 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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