As of December 1, 2023, at least 690 prisoners were executed in Iran, according to the human rights organizations Center for Human Rights in Iran and the Oslo-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, who based their data on official Iranian statistics.
However, these rights organizations believe that a significant number of unreported executions have been carried out hidden from the public eye and only come to light years later when bereaved relatives have the courage to speak out.
Saeid Dehghan, an Iranian human rights activist, told DW, “The world is distracted by the Gaza war. The Islamic Republic of Iran is taking maximum advantage of this situation to crack down on its critics, especially with executions that I would characterize as state murder for revenge, and to intimidate society through violence.”
Dehghan, who founded a worldwide network of Iranian lawyers and heads a legal center called Parsi Law, emphasized the need for international organizations, such as UN bodies, to continue their efforts to improve human rights in Iran.
“The sad reality is that as soon as the streets in Iran are emptied of protesters, the country is forgotten and the global community returns to business as usual with the Islamic Republic,” said Dehghan. He emphasized the need for Western countries to not ignore the massive oppression in Iran, especially by politicians where human rights are one of the fundamental principles of politics.
Iran cracks down on women’s rights movement
At least eight people arrested during nationwide women’s rights demonstrations under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” have been sentenced to death and executed in recent months.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who is imprisoned in Iran, wrote to the UN Human Rights Commission, urging them to take urgent action to stop executions in Iran.
Since December 3, Iranian authorities have cut off all of Mohammadi’s connections with the outside world. She is not allowed to make phone calls or receive visitors. Her voice, and that of other critics, has been silenced.
Journalists and media professionals in Iran are under tremendous pressure not to publish any critical articles. The public prosecutor’s office in Tehran took legal action against the newspaper Etemad, which had published a secret document showing an excerpt from a ministerial directive for “arrests” and “other measures” against women who refuse to wear the obligatory headscarf in public.
This article was originally written in German.