Death Penalty News

After the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini and the subsequent protests, Iranian universities have also faced heightened repression and intensified control. The government's new "Population Growth" initiative, coupled with mandatory hijab laws, has transformed universities into enforcers of these policies, placing additional pressure on female students. Under the policy, universities offer academic grades and incentives for observing mandatory hijab, marrying, or having children, effectively turning these institutions into vehicles for promoting the Islamic Republic’s ideological goals.

Press Release: UN News | A new Iranian law that raises the prospect of the death penalty for abortion has been condemned by independent human rights experts, who have declared that is in “clear contravention of international law”. In a statement released on Tuesday, the experts called on the Iranian authorities to repeal the ‘Youthful Population and Protection of the Family’ law, which was ratified by Iran’s Guardian Council on the first of November. The law, said the experts, severely restricts access to abortion, contraception, voluntary sterilization services and related information, in direct violation of women’s human rights under international law, and contains a provision stating that if carried out on a large scale, abortion would fall under the crime of “corruption on earth” and carry the death penalty. “The Iranian Government is taking further steps to use criminal law to restrict the rights of women, for the sake of increasing the number of births, which will effectively for...