Hengaw’s 2025 report — 176 femicides and systematic violations of women’s rights in Iran

At least 176 femicides have occurred across Iran from the beginning of 2025 to today (November 25, 2025). During this same period, Iranian authorities have arrested 136 women, executed 45 women, and issued death sentences for two women activists. Courts have also handed down prison and flogging sentences to 163 women activists, according to data recorded by the Statistics and Documentation Center of Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

Hengaw emphasizes that violence against women in Iran, under a government that enforces gender apartheid as an official policy, has reached a critical level. This situation continues while Iran remains among the lowest-ranking countries in the Global Gender Gap Index.

At least 176 femicides recorded

Hengaw’s data shows that at least 176 femicides have taken place across Iran since the beginning of 2025. At least 25 of these killings were motivated by so-called “honor.”

State media have frequently attributed 92 cases to “family disputes.” However, Hengaw’s follow-up confirms that many of these killings were in fact “honor” crimes that families and state-controlled media intentionally misrepresented as “domestic disputes.” Hengaw considers the use of “domestic disputes” a deliberate effort to minimize and normalize femicide in Iran.

According to Hengaw’s findings:

Perpetrators killed at least 11 women for rejecting marriage proposals.

Husbands killed at least 9 women after the women requested a divorce.

Husbands killed at least 10 child brides.

Perpetrators killed at least 6 women who had been forced into marriage.

The highest number of femicides occurred in Tehran Province with 27 cases. Mazandaran and Kermanshah (Kermashan) each recorded 14 cases, and Razavi Khorasan and West Azerbaijan (Urmia) each recorded 13 cases.

East Azerbaijan recorded 10 cases, Sistan and Baluchestan 9 cases, Lorestan and Fars 8 cases each, and Gilan 7 cases.

Hengaw warns that authorities conceal a substantial number of femicides within what it identifies as hidden statistics. Government secrecy, media restrictions and structural protection of patriarchal norms prevent many femicides and “honor” killings from being reported, often by presenting them as “domestic disputes.”

Documented cases reflect where reporting has been possible, not where femicide is most prevalent. Regions with limited or no data often face deeper, unreported crises.

Hengaw stresses that femicide represents one of the most extreme expressions of misogyny. “Honor” killings are only one part of this broader pattern. Patriarchal norms, discriminatory laws and entrenched power structures continue to enable violence against women. In 2024, Hengaw documented 191 femicides in Iran, many committed by close relatives, reflecting systemic misogyny reinforced by Iran’s legal and social frameworks.

Execution of 45 women

Iranian authorities have executed at least 45 women in prisons across the country since the beginning of 2025, marking an 87.5 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Most of the executed women had been convicted of murder (29 cases, or 64.5 percent). Authorities executed 15 women on drug-related charges, and one woman on charges classified as religious.

Breakdown by province:

Fars and Isfahan: 7 cases each

Razavi Khorasan: 6 cases

Lorestan, East Azerbaijan and Zanjan: 3 cases each

Mazandaran, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Alborz and West Azerbaijan (Urmia): 2 cases each

Hamedan, Gilan and Golestan: 1 case each

Global statistics place Iran among the countries with the highest number of executions of women. The judiciary routinely fails to protect women who experienced child marriage, severe domestic violence or long-term exploitation. Women who defend themselves against abusive male relatives are frequently sentenced to death or “qisas”.

In many drug-related and economic cases, male relatives coerced women into criminal activity, or the women acted while attempting to escape unsafe homes. Iranian courts routinely ignore these circumstances. These executions reflect systematic violations of women’s rights and a judicial system that disregards the conditions in which these women act.

136 women arrested in less than 11 months

Security forces have arrested at least 136 women activists across Iran over the past eleven months.

The highest number of arrests targeted Baha’i women activists, with 43 cases.

Additionally:

Security forces arrested at least 36 Kurdish women.

They arrested at least 9 Gilak women.

They arrested at least 6 Lor women.

They arrested at least 2 Arab women and 2 Turk women.

Three of the arrested women were under 18, all of them Kurdish.

Hengaw states that the Islamic Republic not only strips women of their basic rights but also criminalizes their activism. Women who advocate for gender equality or challenge discriminatory laws face continuous targeting by security agencies, which treat their public engagement as a threat to state ideology.

Prison, flogging and death sentences for 65 women activists

Iranian courts have issued rulings against at least 65 women activists since the beginning of 2025, including prison terms, flogging and death sentences. Two activists, Nasimeh Eslamazahi and Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, received death sentences.

Additional findings include:

Courts sentenced 43 women to a combined 255 years, 7 months and 12 days in prison, along with 6 years of suspended sentences.

Authorities issued 252 lashes to two women in addition to prison time.

Nearly one-third of the sentenced women were Baha’i activists, with 20 collectively receiving 83 years in prison.

Courts also sentenced at least 8 Gilak women and 5 Kurdish women.

Gender apartheid in Iran

Hengaw Organization for Human Rights classifies the Islamic Republic of Iran as a gender-apartheid regime, where systematic violence against women is embedded in law, policy and institutional practice. Hengaw calls on the international community to recognize gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, integrate it into international legal frameworks and classify the Islamic Republic accordingly, based on its explicitly anti-woman laws and its structurally entrenched repression of women.