A 24-year-old woman has been executed in Iran for killing her abusive older husband, human rights groups have reported. Rana Faraj-oghli, from Tabriz, was forced into marriage at the age of 16 to a man nearly 20 years her senior and said she endured years of domestic abuse.

According to the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights, her execution was carried out at dawn on December 3, 2025, in Tabriz Central Prison. Ms Faraj-oghli had been arrested two years earlier and sentenced to death following legal proceedings that activists say fell short of basic fair-trial guarantees, it has been reported.

Relatives and campaigners described her life after the forced marriage as unbearable. In court, Faraj-oghli reportedly said she did not even want a lawyer, explaining that her only feeling was “a desire for release from that life.”

She also described her existence in the marriage as “a life that felt no different from death.” In one reported statement, she requested only “to be freed from a life that was like death.”

Iranian state media has not reported her execution, a pattern activists say reflects efforts to conceal the scale of executions inside Iranian prisons.

Faraj-oghli’s death is part of a broader trend of rising executions of women in Iran. Human rights groups report that 57 women have been executed in the country in 2025, up from 34 in 2024.

According to figures compiled by the women’s committee of human rights organisations, at least 320 women have been executed in Iran since 2007, many in cases involving domestic violence, child marriage, or acts of self-defence.

Analysts say that executions in Iran have sharply accelerated under President Masoud Pezeshkian, with more than 2,600 people executed during his tenure. Activists say many of these cases, including Ms Faraj-oghli’s, highlight systemic failures in the judiciary, including restricted access to legal representation, coerced confessions, and disregard for the context of domestic abuse.

Ms Faraj-oghli’s case has also renewed attention on other women facing similar circumstances. One example is Goli Koukhan, a 25-year-old who was married at the age of 12 and is currently facing execution unless she raises £80,000 in blood money. Koukhan reportedly killed her husband after he beat her five-year-old son. Human rights monitors note that she had no legal representation, cannot read or write, and was immediately arrested after the incident.

Campaigners say these cases illustrate a recurring pattern in which survivors of abuse are criminalised rather than protected, particularly women forced into marriage as children.

They emphasise that the combination of child marriage, domestic violence, and harsh judicial practices puts vulnerable women at extreme risk, often leaving them with no legal or social recourse.

Faraj-oghli’s execution underscores the deadly consequences of such systemic injustice. Her case demonstrates the intersection of child marriage, long-term abuse, and a legal system that routinely fails to account for the circumstances of survivors. Advocates warn that without reform, cases like hers will continue to occur, with women facing capital punishment for acts committed in the context of coercion, abuse, and desperation.

The international human rights community continues to monitor Iran’s execution practices closely, calling for greater transparency, protection for survivors of domestic abuse, and the abolition of the death penalty for cases involving coercion or self-defence.

Ms Faraj-oghli’s death adds to mounting evidence of systemic gendered injustice in Iran and highlights the urgent need for reform to prevent further loss of life under circumstances of abuse.