Nothe day Italy Cecilia Sala celebrates freedom emerges a report by Iran Human Rights which sheds an increasingly dramatic light on the condition of women in the Islamic Republic. Hall, after spending 21 days in solitary confinement in Evin Prisonfinally took off from Tehran to arrive at Ciampino. The journalist, after the nightmare, will be able to resume her life and begin to denounce the distortions of the world again, while the Iranian regime continues to hit its most vulnerable citizens hard.
Women in Iran, victims of abuse and executed
Suffice it to say that only in the first months of 2024 were they executed at least 31 womenthe highest number ever recorded since IHR, Iran Human Rights, began its monitoring in 2008. Broadening the gaze, from 2010 to 2024, 241 women lost their lives at the hands of the state executioner. Numbers made even more heartbreaking by the stories behind each execution. Most of these women were not hardened criminalsbut victims of a system that has betrayed them twice: first as victims of abuse, then as condemned.
Women executed, accused of killing their husbands
70% of women executed for murder were accused of killing their husbands. A fact that hides an even more disturbing scenario: many of them, in fact, they had suffered domestic violence or sexual abuse and had acted out of desperation. The law of qisas, similar to the ancient law of retaliation, does not recognize these circumstances as mitigating circumstances, transforming victims into executioners.
Child brides
Among the most disconcerting data emerges that of child brides: nine of the executed women had been married off as minorsthree of them were not even 18 years old at the time of the alleged crime. A tragic mix between oppressive traditions and summary justice.
In early 2024, at least 31 women executed – the highest number since 2008 (Getty Images)
Gender apartheid
Discrimination also manifests itself in the management of executions: 74% of sentences are not even officially announced. Women die in the shadows, often abandoned by their own familiesin inhumane prison conditions. The situation is particularly serious in marginal provinces such as Sistan and Baluchistan, where women from ethnic minorities pay the highest price.
Cecilia Sala is freed, but Iranian activists remain in the crosshairs
Meanwhile, while we rightly celebrate the liberation of Cecilia Sala, other women risk their lives for their activism. Kurdish activists Verisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizifor example, symbols of a resistance that does not give in despite repression, await an uncertain fate.
The appeal to the international community
The director of IHR, Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, makes an appeal that cannot be ignored: the international community must break the silence on these systemic injustices. It’s not just about numbers, but about broken lives, denied rights, trampled dignity. The road to justice in Iran remains long and tortuous. But today, while a journalist is freed, Our thoughts go to all those women still awaiting justice in Iranian prisonssilent testimony to a system that shouldn’t exist.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED