Iran has continued carrying out executions at a rapid pace over the past month, with women among dozens of prisoners sent to the gallows for murder, drug-related offences and security-related charges, according to reports compiled by the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
HRANA’s monthly assessment for August recorded 78 executions, including five women. According to the organisation, 40 people were executed after being convicted of murder and 29 for drug-related offences. Two were executed for moharebeh, or “enmity against God”, in non-political cases, while four executions involved security-related charges. Two other people were put to death in cases linked to the January 2026 protests.
Women Executed
Women represented a comparatively small but significant proportion of those executed. Among the cases documented by HRANA was Donya Mohammadi, a resident of Eyvan-e Gharb County, who was executed in Ilam Prison on August 19. Citing the Kurdish human rights organisation Kurdpa, HRANA reported that Mohammadi had been arrested approximately two years earlier in connection with a murder case and subsequently sentenced to death. A male prisoner, Khodadad Mohammadi, was executed at the same prison that day.
Days later, Zahra Azizpour, approximately 43 years old and the mother of one child, was executed at Lakan Prison in Rasht on August 25. According to HRANA, Azizpour, originally from Ardabil, had been arrested six years earlier for the murder of her husband and subsequently sentenced to death. HRANA noted that Iranian prison authorities and other state institutions had not publicly announced her execution at the time of its report.
Executions of women continued into September. HRANA reported on September 11 that Fatemeh Jahangard, approximately 40, was among six prisoners executed at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad and Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan on September 6 and 9. The group also included Mohammad Yousef Issazahi, Shahrokh Pour Esmaeili, Hossein Ghasemzadeh, Mohammadreza Mohammadparast and Mehrdad Mokhtari.
Men account for overwhelming majority
Among the cases was Ezzat Asgari Galugahi, a 26-year-old athlete executed in Behshahr Prison on September 8 following a murder conviction. HRANA also documented the execution of Ali Mirrezaei, a Mazandarani singer, at Babol Prison on September 2. On the same day, Aziz Roshanayi was executed at Adelabad Prison in Shiraz following a murder conviction.
Drug-related cases also continued to account for a substantial share of executions. HRANA documented executions in prisons including Isfahan, Mashhad, Karaj and Semnan, while repeatedly noting that many cases had not been publicly announced by Iranian authorities.
The latest figures form part of a broader pattern of extensive use of capital punishment in Iran. According to HRANA’s annual statistics, 2,063 people, including 61 women and two juvenile offenders, were executed in Iran during 2025, providing a stark backdrop to the executions continuing throughout 2026.