Execution of two women in Iran for their participation in early-year protests - Sarmad
Iranian courts have handed down death sentences to two women for their alleged involvement in anti-government protests in January, according to human rights organizations, amid a surge in executions linked to those events, the Associated Press reported.
Although the two verdicts were issued in separate cases, both are connected to incidents in Isfahan, a city in central Iran that became a focal point for protests that spread across the country and peaked on the nights of January 8 and 9.
Amid the ongoing tensions between Iran and the United States, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization stated that Tehran has carried out executions against 27 men on charges related to the demonstrations.
However, no death sentence related to the protests has been executed against a woman so far, although at least 16 women were executed this year in other cases, according to the same organization.
The Norway-based Hengaw Organization and the US-based human rights news agency Hrana reported on Monday that 20-year-old Taraneh Rahimi was sentenced to death alongside nine men in connection with incidents that occurred during protests in a square in Isfahan, which resulted in the deaths of two people, one of whom was a security officer.
The two organizations added that other suspects in the case, including Romina, Taraneh’s sister, received prison sentences of up to 36 years.
Hrana reported that the defendants’ lawyers were unable to access a significant portion of the case file and lodged objections regarding the lack of sufficient time to review documents and evidence.
In a separate case, a court in Isfahan convicted 43-year-old Leila Abolhassani, a mother of two sons, of setting fire to a shop during the protests, according to the Dadban legal monitor and Hrana.
Relatives of Abolhassani denied the charges against her, insisting that she was only present at the scene and filmed the burning shop, according to the two human rights organizations.
Nevertheless, Abolhassani was convicted of “corruption on earth and waging war against God,” a crime punishable by death. Her case was referred to the Supreme Court for review.
In April, US President Donald Trump reposted a message on the platform X by a pro-Israel activist in the United States, who claimed that eight Iranian women were facing the death penalty and urged Tehran to release them.
It later emerged that not all the women had been sentenced to death, and several had been released.
Among them was Beta Hemmati, who had previously been sentenced to death for throwing concrete blocks from a building onto police officers during the protests, before Hrana reported in April that her sentence had been overturned.
