Iran hangs woman who was ‘child bride’ for murder of husband: Rights groups

PARIS – Iran on Dec 20 hanged a woman convicted of murdering her husband, whom she married while still a child, defying an international campaign for clemency, rights groups said.

Samira Sabzian, who had been in prison for the past decade, was executed at dawn in Ghezel Hesar prison in the Teheran satellite city of Karaj, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said.

Her execution comes as concern grows over the number of people executed in 2023 by Iran, where hundreds of people have been hanged mainly on drug and murder charges, including more than a dozen women.

IHR said Sabzian was a “child bride” who had married her husband at the age of 15 and had been a victim of domestic violence, according to relatives.

The Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights also confirmed the execution of the woman, now believed to be in her late 20s or early 30s, saying that she was originally from the city of Khorramabad in the western Lorestan province.

Amnesty International said it was “horrified” by the reports of the “chilling execution”, saying the mother of two was “subjected to a forced and early marriage as a child”.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “alarmed” by the execution, saying Sabzian had been forced to marry her husband when she was 15.

“We again urge Iran to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty,” it added.

The execution has so far not been reported by the media inside Iran.

‘Killing machine’

Sabzian was arrested about a decade ago when she was 19, on charges of murdering her husband, and was subsequently sentenced to death, IHR said.

She had two children whom she had not seen after her arrest until a final meeting in prison earlier in December, IHR said.

“Samira was a victim of years of gender apartheid, child marriage and domestic violence, and today she fell victim to the incompetent and corrupt regime’s killing machine,” said IHR director Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam.

Rights groups have raised the alarm over a surge in executions in Iran in 2023, with at least 115 people put to death in November alone, according to Amnesty International.

“The international community must urgently call on Iran’s authorities to immediately establish an official moratorium on executions,” Amnesty said.

The British government had called on Iran to spare Sabzian’s life.

“Samira is a victim of child marriage... Iran must cease its appalling treatment of women and girls,” British junior foreign minister Tariq Ahmad said on X, formerly Twitter, late on Dec 19.

According to IHR, 18 women have been executed in Iran in 2023, including Sabzian.

Rights groups have repeatedly said Iran’s syariah-based murder laws – based on a principle of “qesas” (retribution in kind) – fail to take into account potentially mitigating factors such as abuse or domestic violence in such cases.

Iran has executed eight men in cases related to protests that erupted in September 2022, but rights groups argue that the surge in hangings on all charges is aimed at instilling fear in the wider population.

According to IHR, Iran executed 582 people in 2022, but 2023’s total is expected to be significantly higher. AFP