Iran Regime to Execute First Female Protester and Her Husband

Iran’s violent crackdown on dissent is entering an even darker chapter, with the regime now poised to execute what rights groups believe would be the first woman sentenced to death for taking part in the country’s anti-government protests. Her husband is set to die alongside her.

According to human rights organizations, Bita Hemmati and her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi-Asl, have both been sentenced to death by a Tehran Revolutionary Court as part of the Islamic Republic’s escalating campaign of terror against protesters. Two other men, Behrouz Zamaninejad and Kourosh Zamaninejad, who reportedly lived in the same residential building as the couple in Tehran, were also handed death sentences.

The charges against them are chillingly familiar in modern Iran: authorities accused the group of acting on behalf of the United States and allegedly throwing concrete blocks from a residential building onto security forces during the January unrest. Rights advocates say the case follows the same grim pattern seen again and again under the regime — opaque legal proceedings, coerced confessions, and courts designed to crush dissent rather than deliver justice.

Hemmati is believed to be the first woman condemned to die over the recent wave of anti-regime protests, a horrifying milestone that underscores just how ruthless Iran’s leadership has become. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said it believes Hemmati was also the woman shown in a state television broadcast in January, where she appeared to be personally interrogated by judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.

That televised moment only deepened concerns among rights groups, who say the Iranian government continues to weaponize forced confessions as propaganda. The Boroumand Center condemned the recording and airing of such interrogations, calling it a blatant violation of the defendants’ rights.

The death sentences were reportedly issued by a Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Imam Afshari, one of the many figures tied to Iran’s notorious judicial machinery. For critics of the regime, the message is unmistakable: this is not justice, but state-sponsored intimidation meant to terrify a population already battered by arrests, torture, and mass repression.

Iran has already executed seven people connected to the protests, which were met with a brutal state response that reportedly left thousands dead and tens of thousands arrested. Rights groups warn that the regime may now be accelerating its use of executions to tighten its grip, especially in the aftermath of rising regional tensions and conflict involving Israel and the United States.

A joint annual report released by Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty painted an especially grim picture. The groups said at least 1,639 people were executed in Iran in 2025, including 48 women. That marks a staggering 68 percent increase from the 975 executions recorded in 2024.

The numbers are almost impossible to comprehend. More than four people, on average, were executed every single day. According to the report, this is the highest number recorded since Iran Human Rights began tracking executions in 2008, and the deadliest year documented since the early years following the Islamic Revolution.

Even more disturbing, activists say many women executed by the regime had been convicted after killing abusive husbands or relatives, highlighting the broader brutality of a legal system that often punishes victims instead of protecting them.

This month alone, the regime has already carried out more executions tied to the protest movement. Earlier in April, 18-year-old musician Amirhossein Hatami was hanged at Ghezel Hesar prison after being convicted of moharebeh, or “enmity against God,” a sweeping charge the government routinely uses to justify death sentences against dissidents. Hatami had been arrested on January 8 and accused of setting fire to a Basij paramilitary base during the protests.

Just two days later, Iranian authorities executed 19-year-old Mohammadamin Biglari and 30-year-old Shahin Vahedparast Kalour at the same prison. Their families, according to reports, were denied final visits and never given the chance to say goodbye.

Like so many others, the men were reportedly detained during the January protests, accused of arson, and forced into confessions after weeks in custody amid widespread allegations of torture. They were sentenced to death by Revolutionary Court judge Abolghassem Salavati, widely known by critics as one of Iran’s most feared “death judges.”

Rights groups say these cases are only the beginning. In addition to the seven protesters already executed, at least 26 more people arrested during the January demonstrations have reportedly been sentenced to death, while hundreds of others are facing charges that could also carry execution.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran says dozens of defendants have been rushed through deeply flawed trials without due process, access to independent legal counsel, or any meaningful protection from torture and coercion. For many observers, it is further evidence that the Iranian regime is using the death penalty not as a legal punishment, but as a political weapon.

And now, with Bita Hemmati facing execution alongside her husband, the regime appears ready to send its most horrifying signal yet: no one is beyond its reach, not even women who dared to stand against it.