Iranian authorities carried out at least 1,639 executions in 2025, marking the highest number since 1989, a joint report by two NGOs. This figure represents a 68 percent increase compared to the 975 executions recorded in 2024. The report highlights concerns that capital punishment could be employed even more extensively following the January protests and the ongoing war involving Israel and the United States.
Among those executed were 48 women, a significant rise from previous years, many of whom were sentenced for killing their husbands or fiancés. Human rights organizations have noted that these women were often victims of abusive relationships. The data, compiled by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), is based on confirmed cases, as many executions go unreported in Iranian official media.
The report emphasizes that the 2025 execution rate averages over four per day, the highest since IHR began monitoring in 2008 and the most reported since the early years of the Islamic revolution. It warns that if the Islamic Republic endures the current turmoil, executions may increasingly serve as a tool for oppression and repression.
Notably, hundreds of detained protesters from the January 2026 demonstrations remain at risk of death sentences. These protests were violently suppressed, resulting in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of arrests. IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam stated that the authorities used the high execution rate to instill fear, aiming to deter further protests and maintain their weakening grip on power.
Even amid the war that began on February 28 against Israel and the United States, Iran executed seven individuals linked to the January protests. Six were convicted members of the banned opposition group People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), and one was a dual Iranian-Swedish citizen accused of spying for Israel.
Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM, described the death penalty in Iran as a political instrument disproportionately targeting ethnic minorities and marginalized groups. The Kurdish minority in western Iran and the Baluch in the southeast—both predominantly Sunni Muslims in a Shia-majority country—are especially vulnerable.
Nearly half of those executed were convicted of drug-related offenses. While most hangings occurred inside prisons, public executions more than tripled to 11 in 2025. Although Iran’s penal code permits various methods of capital punishment, hanging remains the sole method used in recent years.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, report that Iran has the highest execution rate per capita globally, second only to China, where reliable data is unavailable.
