Iran is putting people to death at a pace not seen there since the late 1980s, according to a new report by two rights groups. Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty say at least 1,639 people were executed in 2025—a 68% jump from the previous year and an average of four per day. Most were convicted of drug offenses (795) or murder (747), with 37 executed for rape, the BBC reports. At least 57 were sentenced on security-related charges, including two protesters, and 48 women were executed, the highest female tally in more than two decades.
"By creating fear through an average of four to five executions per day in 2025, authorities tried to prevent new protests and prolong their crumbling rule," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. The groups say ethnic minorities and other marginalized people were disproportionately among those hanged, and that more than half the executions followed Revolutionary Court rulings after what they call "grossly unfair" trials.
The groups warn that more executions are looming: at least 16 people tied to the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests face imminent execution, with dozens more already sentenced to death. The NGOs say at least seven people have been executed in connection with January's protests since the war with the US and Israel began, including a teen wrestler and a dual Iranian-Swedish citizen, France24 reports. They say that if the regime "survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more extensively as a tool of oppression and repression."
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
