Paris: More than a dozen women have been executed this year in Iran, activists say, raising concern over a rigid judicial system that automatically seeks capital punishment for a killing without taking into account the circumstances.
Most of the women executed in Iran in recent years have been hanged for murder, the majority of cases over the killings of a husband or partner, rights activists say.
Iran’s Islamic law of retribution known as qesas — where another life must be taken after a killing unless the victim’s family forgives or accepts a payment — means that extenuating circumstances such as domestic violence may not be taken into account by a court.
According to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based NGO which closely monitors the use of the death penalty in Iran, one of the women most recently hanged was Susan Rezaeipour, executed on October 27 for the murder of her husband — who was also her cousin.
IHR said she had been in prison for six years and was executed after the victim’s next of kin — who was also her maternal uncle — refused to forgive.
A source told the group that Rezaeipour had stated in her confession that her husband was drunk from the afternoon and then would beat her, so “I couldn’t stand it anymore”.
– ‘Tried to defend themselves’ –
“Behind the numbers of women executed we see many other issues of grave concern,” said Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, director of the Iran Human Rights, which has counted at least 15 women executed this year and 170 since 2010.
“There have been cases of an abusive relationship, of child brides and — in traditional communities — women offered as a bride as a reconciliation between tribes,” he said.
He added that qesas was incompatible with international law as it “puts this responsibility of punishment on the family of the victim” even though the judiciary claims to mediate with the families.
One of the most notorious cases in recent years was the October 2014 hanging of 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was convicted of murdering a former intelligence officer she maintained had tried to sexually assault her.
Jabbari said she had been tortured into making incriminating confessions and there was an international campaign for her life to be spared. But the victim’s family insisted she must die unless she dropped her position she had acted in self-defence.
“It is the weight of the patriarchy, these discriminations that are important to understanding the reason why there can be so many women executed in Iran,” said Julia Bourbon Fernandez of Paris-based NGO Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM).
“Many tried to defend themselves against attempted rapes at home or there was an overall context of violence and explosive conditions,” she told AFP. AFP
