Women Executions in 2025

This is an excerpt from the 2025 Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran.

Iran carries out the highest number of recorded executions worldwide while enforcing a system of gender apartheid. Women are affected by the use of the death penalty in two ways. First, they can be sentenced to death and executed themselves. Secondly, they are also impacted as the relatives of men sentenced to death and executed.

In December 2024, IHRNGO published a gendered perspective of women executions in Iran which provides a thorough analysis of the discriminatory laws and societal factors that impact women on death row in Iran.[1] According to the report, between 2010 and November 2024, at least 241 women were executed, with the majority convicted of murder and drug-related offences. Many of the women were victims of domestic violence, child brides, or from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds. The report underscores key challenges such as lack of fair trial rights, gender biases in legal processes, and the absence of support structures for women on death row. IHRNGO also published a report on the inhumane conditions of Qarchak (Gharchak) Prison, where many death row women prisoners are held.[2]

The Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s top executioner of women, with at least 48 executed in Iran in 2025, the highest number of women executions since the execution of women began being systematically recorded more than 20 years ago. As previously mentioned, there was a sharp drop in the execution of women on drug-related charges after the 2017 Amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Laws, which was reversed in practice in 2021, consistent with the rise in overall drug-related executions.

Facts about women executed in 2025

At least 48 women were executed in 2025, a 55% increase compared to 2024
32 were sentenced to qisas for murder
16 women were executed for drug-related charges
The identities of 4 of the women are unknown and one woman was only partially identified
One of the women was an Afghan national
21 women were executed for the murder of their husbands/fiances
At least 2 women were child brides
Only 4 or 8% of the executions were announced by official sources
At least 289 women were executed between 2010 and 2025

Women executed in 2025

Nasrin Barani

Nasrin Barani was a 29-year-old woman from Isfahan who was arrested in 2021. She had been married to a man for six years who she divorced. However, after she had remarried, her ex-husband continued to stalk and harass her. She was sentenced to qisas for his murder and hanged in Isfahan (Dastgerd) Central Prison on 1 March 2025.[3]

Setareh Taherlu

Setareh Taherlu was arrested for drug-related offences in 2022. According to informed sources, she owned a pick-up truck in which drugs were discovered. No further information is available about her case. Setareh was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court and hanged in Damghan Prison on 19 May 2025.[4]

Table 3: List of women executed in 2025