Mahtab Ghazizadeh Second Woman Hanged in Iran in 2025

According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a woman was executed in Sari Central Prison on 6th February 2025. Her identity has been established as 47-year-old Mahtab Ghazizadeh, a mother of two. She was arrested for the murder of her husband more than three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

At the time of writing, her execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Mahtab’s execution is the second woman execution to be recorded in Iran by IHRNGO in 2025. Iran executes the highest number of women globally. In 2024, at least 31 women were executed for drug-related, murder and security-related charges in Iran, the highest number of recorded women executions in more than 15 years.

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 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.

In 2023, at least 282 people including two juvenile offenders and 15 women, were executed for murder charges, the second highest number of qisas executions since 2010. Only 20% of the recorded qisas executions were announced by official sources. In 2023, Iran Human Rights also recorded 857 cases of families choosing diya or forgiveness instead of qisas executions.