Please join us on March 8, International Women’s Day, for the second webinar in this monthly series on the abolition of the death penalty. This series is sponsored by Amnesty International Canada, Carleton University’s Youth & Justice Lab, The Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa, The Canadian International Council (Saskatchewan Branch), The Mardom Foundation, The Paivand Society and the campaign United Against Executions in Iran.
Statistics tell us that women are executed at lower rates than men. While superficially true, recent research says the real rate of execution of women is severely under-reported.
When all the factors of discrimination against women by ‘male-dominated systems’ are considered, including laws that minimize a woman’s voice, cultures that degrade ethnic minorities, religions that silence women, societies that make light of domestic abuse and other crimes of violence against women, no-one should be surprised that the state is often the driving force behind the suffering of women and girls. Which remains an untold story.
The regimes that kill women don’t boast about it. Traditional reporting doesn’t pay it much attention.
This is changing. Women are leading the way.
As Professor Milani points out, women are playing an ‘undeniable leading role in the abolition of the death penalty, not least through … cultivating power dynamics in both private and public spheres’ and challenging the use of state violence to maintain social order.
Join the webinar on Saturday March 8, 2025 at 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm EST.
In this webinar we will hear from three women. They are not only scholars and writers, they have been profoundly effective at advancing the fundamental rights – to life, safety, security, equality before the law – of women and girls around the world.
Moderator
Samira Mohyeddin, Journalism Fellow, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto, is an award-winning journalist, CBC radio producer, food expert, and trained Shakespearean actor. Ms. Mohyeddin challenges journalists to uphold the highest standards of their profession: powerful people must be accountable.
Panelists
Sandra Babcock is the faculty director of the Cornell University Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. As a human rights litigator she secured the release of over 250 prisoners in Malawi including 150 facing the death penalty, while playing a pivotal role in creating the Malawi Resentencing Project. She has received Mexico’s highest honour for a citizen of a foreign country – the Aguila Azteca award – for her legal counsel to the Government of Mexico in cases of Mexican nationals facing the death penalty in the US. Presently she represents women facing the death penalty in the US, Malawi, and Tanzania.
Roja Fazaeli is the Established Professor of Law and Islamic Studies at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway. She has worked for Amnesty International Irish Section and taught Islamic civilizations at Trinity College Dublin. She is widely published on the issues of women’s rights in Iran, human rights and religion, Islamic feminisms, and hate in society. During a 2004 research trip to Iran, where she was born, she was placed under house arrest and subjected to daily interrogations.
Lucy Harry is a Research Associate of the Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU) at the University of Oxford. She has published her research into cases of women who have been sentenced to death as drug couriers in Malaysia and the Gulf States, where drug syndicates, human traffickers, and law enforcement treat women (intersecting as migrants, racialized minorities) as ‘disposable’.
Stay tuned for the story of Pakhshan Azizi
Pakhshan Azizi is a Kurdish-Iranian social worker. She worked for ten years in refugee camps in northeastern Syria helping women and children recover from the trauma they had suffered at the hands of ISIS. She was arrested in August 2023 and detained for months, enduring solitary confinement and torture, before being charged with ‘armed insurrection against the Islamic Republic of Iran’. She was moved to the women’s ward in Evin Prison to await trial. She appeared before a Revolutionary Court over two days in June. A month later she was sentenced to death. Her appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court this past January. Her execution date is unknown but imminent. Her lawyers vow to keep fighting.
The international response is fury, outrage. Amnesty International and dozens of other human rights groups are applying all conceivable pressure on Iran. Groups of lawyers, journalists, academics and women inside and outside Iran are fighting to have the sentence revoked, to have Pakhshan released from prison.
Upcoming webinars in this series
Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty is a virtual panel discussion series that will tackle the complex question of the death penalty with a view to its abolition in retentionist states, particularly in the contemporary context of the Middle East, in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. The panel series will provide in-depth discussions on the death penalty from diverse legal, philosophical, sociological, psychological, and political perspectives. The speakers will address and put in context current instances of the death penalty, exploring the dynamics involved in this criminal sanction. The series aims to create a dialogical platform for everyone interested in engaging with the abolitionist discourse to discuss the possibilities and challenges to put an end to the death penalty. Each session will introduce the audience to significant aspects of capital punishment, expounding theoretical and practical particularities of the sanction.
April 12 – Session 3, International Human Rights and Abolition
Ezat Mosalanehjad, Trauma Counsellor, Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture
Payam Akhavan, Massey Chair in Human Rights, Human Rights lawyer, University of Toronto
John Packer, Associate Professor of Law, Director Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa
May 10 – Session 4, Political Violence and the Death Penalty
Alex Neve, Past Secretary-General of Amnesty Canada (ES), Visiting Professor of International Human Rights Law, University of Ottawa
Parastou Forouhar, Installation Artist, Frankfurt Germany
June 14 – Session 5, Islam and the Death Penalty
Fereshteh Vasmaghi, Lawyer, Poet, Human Rights Activist
Hasan Fereshtian, Defence Attorney of Iranian Dissidents
July 12 – Session 6, Global and Regional Perspectives: Abolition challenges and opportunities
John Packer, Associate Professor of Law, Director Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa
Omid Milani, Fellow, Human Rights Research and Education Centre, Artist, University of Ottawa
September 13 – Session 7, Capital Punishment and the Iranian legal system
Hossein Raeesi, Iranian lawyer, defended death penalty cases in Shiraz for 20 years, Adjunct Professor, Carleton University
Hasan Fereshtian, Defence Attorney of Iranian Dissidents
October 11 – Session 8, Children, Trauma and the Death Penalty
Judy Finlay, Child Welfare and Children’s Mental Health advocate, Toronto Metropolitan University
Hossein Raeesi, Iranian lawyer, defended death penalty cases in Shiraz for 20 years, Adjunct Professor, Carleton University
Sandra Joy, Professor of Sociology, studies impact of death penalty on families, Rowan University
November 8 – Session 9, Sociological Perspectives
Hosein Ghazian, Iranian Sociologist, Theorist, Commentator, Researcher, Author, Photographer
Saeed Paivandi, Professor of Education, University of Lorraine
December 10 – Session 10, Non-Violence and Forgiveness (Human Rights Day)
Payam Akhavan, Massey Chair in Human Rights, human rights lawyer, University of Toronto
Ramin Jahanbegloo, Director of ‘Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, New Delhi, Visiting Professor, St. Andrews University
Omid Milani, Fellow, Human Rights Research and Education Centre, Artist, University of Ottawa
Note: dates and speakers subject to change
Poster & Artwork Design © Omid Milani
