Iranian authorities executed at least 1,639 people (of which 48 were women) last year, a record since 1989. Half of those executed were convicted of drug-related offenses.
O number of executions grew by 68% (1,639 people killed) compared to 2024 (975).
These are the data from the joint annual report by the organization Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Norway, and the Parisian organization Together against the death penalty (Ensemble contre la peine de mort, ECPM), which reports on 48 women hanged.
If the Islamic Republic “survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more intensely as an instrument of oppression and repression”, warns the report.
The two non-governmental organizations also warned that Iran’s use of capital punishment may increase due to the war unleashed by Israel and the USA.
The IHR — which requires two sources to confirm executions, most of which are not disclosed by official Iranian media — considers that the I estimated of hangings in 2025 represents a “minimum”.
The number recorded corresponds to an average of more than four executions per day.
According to the report, the number of executions is a record since that IHR began carrying out this survey in 2008 and the highest ever noted since 1989.
The organizations warn that “hundreds of detained protesters continue to risk the death penalty and execution” after being accused of capital crimes for participating in the January 2026 demonstrations against the authorities.
These, with human rights organizations reporting thousands of deaths and the detention of tens of thousands of people.
“By sowing fearcarrying out an average of four to five executions per day in 2025, the authorities tried to prevent further demonstrations“, analyzes the director of IHR, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
Since the beginning of the war launched by Israel and the USA, on February 28, the Iran has already hanged seven people in connection with the January demonstrations.
“In the Islamic Republic, the death penalty is used as a political instrument of oppression and repression, with ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups being overrepresented among those executed”, explains, in turn, the general director of the association Juntos contra a capital punishment, Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan.
A Kurdish minority in the west and the Baluchis in the southeast — who mostly follow the Sunni branch of Islam rather than the Shia branch dominant in Iran — are particularly targeted.
The report specifies that almost half of people executed in 2025 had been convicted of drug-related offenses.
At least 48 women were executed, the highest number recorded in more than 20 years, representing a 55% increase compared to 2024 (31 women hanged), according to NGOs.
21 of these women were executed for killing their husband or fiancé – according to the report.
