Iran executed at least 901 people in 2024 -- including 31 women, some of whom were convicted of killing their husbands while fighting off a rape or other cases of domestic violence -- a nine-year high that has sparked outrage at the United Nations.
About 40 of the total executions came in the last week of December alone, the UN high commissioner for human rights said in a report published on January 7.
"The increase in the number of people executed in Iran over the past year is very worrying," High Commissioner Volker Turk said, adding that the total had climbed from 853 in 2023.
“It is high time Iran stemmed this ever-swelling tide of executions,” he added.
The UN said that most of the executions were for drug-related offenses, but it added that dissidents and people connected to protests in 2022 were also executed.
Protests erupted across Iran in 2022, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was arrested for allegedly violating the hijab law, while in police custody.
During the protests, women and girls removed and burned their head scarves.
The authorities waged a brutal crackdown on protesters, killing hundreds and arresting thousands.
In the latest report, Turk called on Tehran to halt all future executions.
“It is incompatible with the fundamental right to life and raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. And, to be clear, it can never be imposed for conduct that is protected under international human rights law,” Turk said.
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UN spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva that the number of women executed in Iran was the highest figure in at least the past 15 years.
"The majority of cases involved charges of murder. A significant number of the women were victims of domestic violence, child marriage, or forced marriage," she said.
Throssell told Reuters that one of the women executed for murder had killed her husband to prevent him from raping her daughter.
The conservative Islamic state has a long history of violating the rights of citizens, especially women and girls.
Masud Pezeshkian, who many labeled as a reformist, won Iran’s presidential election in July, vowing to better protect the rights of women and minorities, but many rights activists and international observers remain skeptical pending substantive actions.