According to human rights defenders, a mother was legally hanged with the blessing of her daughter at the Rasht Prison in the northern Iranian province of Gilan on March 13. Activists reported that the execution was carried out under the pretense of ‘retribution.’
The executed woman was Maryam (Masoumeh) Karimi. She had been on death row for around 13 years. She had been accused and sentenced to death for killing her husband in collaboration with her father. It is said that Maryam Karimi was exposed to ill-treatment. Furthermore, the husband had refused to divorce and put her wife in overwhelming conditions.
Notably, her father’s execution was delayed at the last moment. However, authorities took her father to the gallows to see the hanged lifeless body of his loved one. This is another kind of mental torture applied by Iranian authorities against inmates. They had visited each other for the last time in mid-February.
Earlier in November 2020, interrogators tortured 19-year-old inmate Mohammad Davaji to death in front of other prisoners to teach them an unforgettable lesson. To intimidate society, Iranian officials frequently hang inmates in public for different reasons.
According to the Islamic Republic’s Penal Code, family members of slain must be present as the execution takes place. This is another indicator of barbarism in Iran under the ayatollahs’ thumb. Worse, judiciary officials misused a girl to carry out her mother execution sentence.
Notably, at the time of the murder, the girl was just six years old. Following the murder, her paternal family took her in their custody. During the past 13 years, they had told her that both her father and mother had died. However, some weeks in advance, they told the true story to the young woman, preparing her psychologically for the execution of her mother Maryam .
“Recruiting a girl for hanging her mother is an inhuman and merciless action prone to a firm response on behalf of human rights organizations across the globe,” Iranian dissidents stressed. “The international community should do whatever it takes to stop performing death penalties in Iran.”
According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, Iranian authorities have executed at least 80 individuals in 2021, including 31 inmates in January, 37 in February, and 12 in the first 20 days of March. There are several political activists and female prisoners among the executed individuals. However, given the secret executions that are carried out in Iran, the real number of executions is thought to be much higher.
On the other hand, many prisoners are currently on death row. They have been convicted to death during rigged proceeding and trials, Iran experts say. Iranian authorities reportedly file forced confessions as evidence in courts which issue their biased rulings based on flawed documents.
