Kurdish humanitarian aid worker Pakhshan Azizi, Kurdish dissident Verisheh Moradiand and human rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi are the only known women facing execution after convictions for politically-motivated offenses in Iran. They were convicted and sentenced to death in separate cases following grossly unfair trials before Revolutionary Courts. Pakhshan Azizi is at imminent risk of execution.
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Pakhshan Azizi
Humanitarian worker Pakhshan Azizi, 40, from Iran’s oppressed Kurdish ethnic minority, is at risk of execution after Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced her to death in July 2024. She was convicted of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) solely in relation to her peaceful human rights and humanitarian activities. Between 2014 and 2022 she was involved in providing humanitarian support to women and children displaced following attacks by the Islamic State armed group (IS) and sheltering in camps in northeast Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In early January 2025, the Supreme Court upheld her conviction and death sentence. One of her lawyers said he was notified on 5 February 2025 that Branch Nine of the Supreme Court rejected her request for judicial review.
On 4 August 2023, Ministry of Intelligence agents arbitrarily arrested Pakhshan Azizi in Tehran and transferred her to section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, where they held her in prolonged solitary confinement for five months without access to a lawyer and her family. During this time Pakhshan Azizi was reportedly subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations. Agents repeatedly told her that she had no right to live and threatened to execute her. They also subjected her to gender-based violence in order to compel her to make forced “confessions” of having ties to Kurdish opposition groups, which she repeatedly denied. In early December 2023, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin prison, where she remains.
TAKE ACTION
Please write letters calling on Iranian authorities to:
- Immediately halt any plans to execute Pakhshan Azizi, quash her conviction and death sentence and release her immediately and unconditionally, as she is held solely for her peaceful humanitarian work and human rights activism.
- Pending her release, authorities must provide with adequate healthcare and regular visits from family and lawyers; protect her from further torture and other ill-treatment; and order an independent, effective and impartial investigation into her torture allegations, bringing anyone suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials.
- Immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.
Write to:
Head of judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei
c/o Embassy of Iran to the Union Nations in Geneva
Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28
1209 Geneva, Switzerland
stop the execution of pakhshan azizi
Verisheh Moradi
Verisheh Moradi, 39, from Iran’s oppressed Kurdish ethnic minority and a member of the group East Kurdistan Free Woman Society (known by the acronym KJAR), is at risk of execution after Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced her to death in early November 2024 following a grossly unfair trial. She was convicted of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) in relation to allegations of her affiliation with Kurdish opposition groups. Her appeal before the Supreme Court remains pending.
In an August 2024 open letter from prison, Verisheh Moradi revealed that Ministry of Intelligence agents subjected her to torture and other ill-treatment during her arrest on 1 August 2023. She said she was held in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj for 13 days in solitary confinement following arrest, where according to an informed source, agents subjected her to gender-based violence before transferring her in August 2023 to section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison. She was held in prolonged solitary confinement for over four months and interrogated without a lawyer. She says that agents subjected her to torture and other ill-treatment, including execution threats, to compel her to make forced “confessions” about taking up arms with Kurdish groups against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which she has repeatedly denied. In late December 2023, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin prison, where she remains held. In the same August 2024 open letter, Verisheh Moradi highlighted that the Iranian authorities have “equated [her] struggle against terrorist forces like Da’esh [Islamic State (IS) armed group] with a struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran”. She has subsequently denied taking up arms in Iran. In 2014, while in north-east Syria, she was injured during the armed conflict in Kobani, a Kurdish-majority town now under the de-facto control of the Autonomous Administration of north-east Syria, between the IS armed group and Kurdish armed groups and others.
TAKE ACTION
Please write letters calling on Iranian authorities to:
- Immediately halt any plans to execute Verisheh Moradi, quash her conviction and death sentence, and release her as her detention is arbitrary due to severe non-observance of her fair trial rights.
- Pending her release, authorities must provide her with adequate healthcare, including outside prison if necessary, and regular visits from family and lawyers; protect her from further torture and other ill-treatment, and order an independent, effective and impartial investigation into her torture allegation, bringing anyone suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.
- Immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to fully abolishing the death penalty.
Write to:
Head of judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei
c/o Embassy of Iran to the Union Nations in Geneva
Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28
1209 Geneva, Switzerland
stop the execution of verisheh moradi
Sharifeh Mohammadi
Human rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi, 45, is at risk of execution in Lakan prison, in Rasht, Gilan province, after Branch Two of the Revolutionary Court of Rasht sentenced her to death for “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi), in a decision issued to her lawyers on 13 February 2025. In October 2024, Branch 39 of the Supreme Court had overturned her conviction for “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) and death sentence, and remanded her case to a lower court for further review. On 19 December 2024, Sharifeh Mohammadi was tried again during a 30-minute session. Her re-trial was grossly unfair. Her lawyers’ request for Sharifeh Mohammadi to attend her trial in person was rejected by the court and she was connected from prison via video conference for 20 minutes. In a media interview on 19 February 2025, one of Sharifeh Mohammadi’s lawyers highlighted procedural flaws during the retrial, including authorities not providing defence lawyers with sufficient notice of the trial date in violation of her right to adequate defence. Further, Amnesty International learned that the presiding judge of Branch Two is a close family relative of the presiding judge of Branch One, which convicted and sentenced Sharifeh Mohammadi to death the first time in July 2024. Amnesty International understands that Sharifeh Mohammadi is expected to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
On 5 December 2023, Ministry of Intelligence agents arbitrarily arrested Sharifeh Mohammadi and held her in a Rasht detention centre for several days, before transferring her to solitary confinement in Lakan prison. During interrogations there, she was questioned about her human rights activism, including supporting women’s and workers’ rights as well as the abolition of the death penalty, and her past membership with the Coordinating Committee to Help to Form Workers’ Organizations, which advocates for trade unions. On 28 December 2023, she was transferred to a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, and reportedly subjected her to torture and ill-treatment to compel her forced “confessions”, including by repeatedly hitting her in the face and head while blindfolded, resulting in visible injuries. In late February 2024, she was transferred to Lakan prison.
TAKE ACTION
Please write letters calling on Iranian authorities to:
- Immediately halt any plans to execute Sharifeh Mohammadi, quash her conviction and death sentence, and release her immediately and unconditionally, as she is held solely for her peaceful human rights activism.
- Pending her release, they must provide her with adequate healthcare and regular visits from family and lawyers; protect her from further torture and other ill-treatment; and order an independent, effective and impartial investigation into her torture allegations, bringing anyone suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials.
- Immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to fully abolishing the death penalty.
Write to:
Head of judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei
c/o Embassy of Iran to the Union Nations in Geneva
Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 28
1209 Geneva, Switzerland
stop the execution of sharifeh mohammadi
stop the execution of Kurdish women Activists
Stop the execution spree
What else you can do
Sign and share the online petition Stop the Execution Spree in Iran
Share your solidarity on social media: record a short video or take a picture with a message of support.
- Suggested messaging to include in your social media post: I/we stand in solidarity against injustice with the people of Iran and beyond. I/we call on the Iranian authorities to halt any plans to carry out the executions of Pakhshan Azizi, Verisheh Moradi and Sharifeh Mohammadi and abolish the death penalty!
Photo credits: Pakhshan Azizi © private, Verisheh Moradi © Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Sharifeh Mohammadi © private
Header image: A protester holds ‘Stop executions in Iran’ and ‘Free Iran’ placards during the demonstration in London, on January 14, 2023. Demonstrators gathered outside Downing Street in protest against executions in Iran and in support of freedom for Iran. Photo by Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.
