The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has maintained its place on the agenda of human rights organisations due to its death sentences, turned the eyes to the violation of the right to life in Iran with the death sentence given to Kurdish journalist activist Pexshan Ezîzî. Mahmood Reza Amiry-Moghaddam, Director of the Iranian Human Rights (IHR), told Mezopotamya Agency (MA) that 2024 was the worst year in terms of violations of the right to life.

 

Stating that the death sentences are an attempt to instil fear in the society, Amiry-Moghaddam stated that the death sentence given to Pexshan Ezîzî aims to prevent the repetition of the protests organised by the women's movement in Iran against the murder of Jîna Amînî in the future. Amiry-Moghaddam, "We remember that more than about two, three years ago, we had the woman life freedom movement and regions of Iran, especially Kurdish regions, and Kurdish women were very active in this movement. So we think that this is an attempt to prevent similar protests in the future. It doesn't have any basis in the law or the legal system. When it comes to the death sentence being suspended, basically, they have said that they will review the case again, so she might be again sentenced to that, but the fact that Iranian authorities had to take a step back and agree to review the case shows that the international pressure, the campaigns by people inside and outside Iran lawyers, human rights defenders, has been impactful."

 

'MORE THAN 168 PEOPLE EXECUTED IN OCTOBER'

 

Amiry-Moghaddam stated that they will publish their annual reports in the coming weeks. He said, "Iran Human Rights has been publishing annual reports on the death penalty in Iran since 2008 and I think 2024 was at least one of the worst years when it comes to the number of executions. We have published monthly reports. For example, in October, we had the highest monthly number of executions, more than 168 executions, only in one month. In average, especially in the last four or five months, between four to six people have been executed every single day." 

 

Amiry-Moghaddam emphasised that the Iranian regime is experiencing its greatest crisis, that it is incapable of solving problems and that the death penalty is being used to prolong survival, "We all remember how DAESH, when they wanted to stabilize the rule, they started with these mass executions, and that's the picture that remains in people's mind. So death penalty is a very strong instrument.  But on the other side, we also see a growing opposition to the death penalty in Iran. We have many campaigns you probably have heard about no death penalty Tuesday's campaign. And this is new, because normally, most of the protests and campaigns are about political prisoners who are sentenced to death. But now we see that people are also reacting to execution for other crimes. People who are charged with non-political crimes. We see a growing abolitionist movement also inside Iran," said Amiry-Moghaddam.

 

'THERE IS NO NETWORK TO SUPPORT WOMEN'

 

Drawing attention to IHR's report on the execution of women, titled "Women and the Death Penalty in Iran: a Gendered Perspective", Amiry-Moghaddam said that the purpose of this report is to draw attention to the gender-specific aspects of the death penalty. Amiry-Moghaddam pointed out that most of those executed in Iran are men, but the death sentences given to women have aspects that do not attract attention in society,

 

Amiry-Moghaddam added, "For example, about 70% of women who are sentenced to death with murder charges, it has been murder of their male partners. It can be husband. And when we dig into these cases, we see the stories of domestic violence. Women normally, they don't have the right to divorce. So there have been women who have been struggling against domestic violence, trying to come out of an abusive relationship, and haven't managed because the law doesn't support them. There have been women who have been acting in self defense. There have been child brides, young girls who have been forcibly married to people that have subjected them to violence. So there is a big spectrum of discriminatory laws and also societal factors that is different for women than men. For example, we also see that women who are on death row for any charges, especially non-political charges, very often, they are abandoned by their families. They don't have any network who supports them. Very often we don't get any information about them because relatively less information from women's prisons. So beside being discriminated in the law, there is also a societal factor that we want to raise attention about." 

 

'IRAN IS THE WORLD'S BIGGEST EXECUTIONER OF CHILDREN'

 

Amiry-Moghaddam emphasised the prevalence of capital punishment against children in Iran and stated that children also face many problems. Stating that children face imprisonment and executions before the age of 18, Amiry-Moghaddam said, "Iran is world's biggest executioner of children, what we call child offenders somebody who was committed an offense under age of 18. In the last 35 years, more than 70% of the child executions in the world has taken place in Iran. So this is also a very important issue. When it comes to the age of criminal responsibility, we also see there is a difference between boys and girls. So, one of our recommendations is that the international community should ask Iran to introduce equal age of majority for boys and girls. Also the limit of child and not child should be 18. But so far, they haven't accepted it. But this is one of the things. In a country where human rights are violated to these degrees, situation of children must be much worse. Our focus has been the death penalty, but there are many aspects that don't receive attention. For example, children whose parents are in prison. Recently, we published a report about a woman's prison outside Tehran called Karchak. There we have written a section about children that very often, they are abused and in many ways and no attention has been given to them." 

 

'PEOPLE ARE MUCH MORE ORGANISED IN KURDISTAN'

 

Stating that the Iranian regime has increased its security-based approach towards Kurdistan and Baluchistan after the "Jin, jiyan, azadi" protests, Amiry-Moghaddam said that the majority of the people killed during the protests in these regions were Kurds or Baluchis. Amiry-Moghaddam stated that the Iranian regime, which considers women as second-class citizens, also oppresses the peoples of Iran, such as Kurds and Baluchis, both because of their race and religious beliefs. Amiry-Moghaddam continued as follows: "When it comes to Kurdistan Region, people are much more organized. And we had the big strike in protest to Pakshan Azizi’s death sentence. So they managed to organize themselves much better than other parts of Iran. And I think this is something that scares Iranian authorities, they are scared of any organized movement or activity. That's why the oppression has been high in these regions, in particular Kurdistan, over a long time. But, it is even worse. The fact that the last woman who was executed for political affiliation was Shirin Alam Hooli, who was Kurdish. And also the new death sentences against Kurdish activists who are women. That shows that the regime is trying to use even more violence to suppress people, but I don't think they are going to manage."

 

'IRAN DOES NOT ANNOUNCE 90 PERCENT OF EXECUTIONS'

 

Amiry-Moghaddam stated that human rights organisations are banned in Iran and therefore they cannot carry out Iran-based activities, and that they have a strong network in the country despite all the risks. Amiry-Moghaddam said: "When it comes to death penalty; 90% of all executions are not announced by official media or official sources. They come to us, to Iran human rights sources. And if somebody is caught for providing this information, you know they might risk very, very heavy sentences. Fortunately, we see more and more people contacting us and coming to us. So I think that the regime's strategy of fear hasn't worked. But for us, security of our sources is has the highest priority. We never jeopardize it and we manage. And outside Iran, Iranian authorities try to intimidate, but it doesn't have any impact on our activities."

 

Amiry-Moghaddam stated that the attention of the international community has turned to the events between Iran and Israel, and the Iranian regime has used this situation as an opportunity for further executions.

 

Amiry-Moghaddam said, "We see that the number of executions have increased dramatically after the tension started growing between Iran and Israel in beginning of August end of July. So we call on international community to pay attention to situation in Iran, to put pressure on the Iranian authorities. In any dialog between international community and Iranian regime human rights and in particular, the death penalty must be on top of the agenda. They cannot sit and talk about other things without taking into account situation of people inside the country. This is good also for the future, because the only reason why the Iranian regime is trying to create instability in the region is that it's a regime that is threatened from inside. The biggest existential threat to Iranian regime, are people who are living in the country. So we call for the solidarity of international community, and that they put human rights situation on top of their agenda." 

 

MA / Hîvda Çelebi