Victim of Child Marriage Executed in Iran Over Husband’s Murder

Iran wire- Dec20th2023

The Iranian authorities have executed a victim of child marriage who had been convicted of killing her husband, a human rights organization reported.

“This morning, the death sentence against Samira Sabzian, a child bride convicted of the ‘deliberate murder’ of her husband, was carried out,” the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said on December 20.

The IHR urged a strong response from the international community to address the surge in executions in Iran.

“Samira Sabzian endured years of gender apartheid, child marriage, and domestic violence. Today, she became a victim of the execution machinery of an inefficient and corrupt government which sustains itself through violence and intimidation,” IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials of the Islamic Republic “must be held accountable for this heinous crime,” he added.

Sabzian was 15 years old when she got married. She killed her husband four years later, in 2013. Her children were aged seven years and six months at the time of the murder.

IHR cited informed sources as saying that Sabzian initially refused to meet her children in prison, hoping to obtain forgiveness from her husband’s parents.

The children’s custody was granted to paternal relatives.

Under Islamic Penal Code, those accused of murder are all sentenced to death, regardless of their motives and the circumstances of the crime.

The victim’s family is given the choice between accepting the death penalty or opting for financial compensation.

In Sabzian’s case, her children’s grandparents were the plaintiffs and requested the death penalty to be carried out.

The Islamic Republic stands as the world’s leading executioner of women, having hanged at least 16 of them in 2022.  At least 17 women have been executed in the country so far this year.

Under Iranian laws, women cannot seek divorce, even in cases of domestic violence.

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