Iran carried out a record number of executions in 2025, according to two human rights organisations that say authorities executed at least 1,639 people last year. The groups described the total as the highest since 1989 and warned that the government could use capital punishment even more aggressively amid political unrest and war.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty said the figure marked a 68 per cent increase from the 975 executions recorded in 2024. They also said authorities hanged 48 women, the highest number recorded in more than 20 years. The organisations stressed that the total represents an absolute minimum because officials do not report many executions in Iranian state media. Based on that figure, Iran carried out more than four executions a day on average.
The report warned that if the Islamic Republic survives the current crisis, authorities may rely even more heavily on executions as a tool of oppression and repression. The groups also said hundreds of detained protesters still face the risk of death sentences after the January 2026 protests.
Authorities crushed those demonstrations in a crackdown that rights groups say killed thousands and led to tens of thousands of arrests. Iran Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said the government used executions to spread fear and stop new protests.
Even during the war against Israel and the United States that began on February 28, Iran reportedly hanged seven people linked to the January protests. Courts convicted six of them of membership in the banned opposition group People’s Mujahedin of Iran, while authorities accused one dual Iranian-Swedish citizen of spying for Israel.
The report said the death penalty in Iran disproportionately affects ethnic minorities and marginalised groups. It specifically identified the Kurdish minority in western Iran and the Baluch population in the southeast as frequent targets.
Authorities executed almost half of those put to death for drug-related offences. Meanwhile, the number of women executed rose sharply to 48, up 55 per cent from 31 in 2024. Of those women, 21 were executed for the murder of husbands or fiancés. Rights groups have long argued that many women in such cases are trapped in abusive relationships.
Authorities carried out almost all executions inside prisons, but public hangings more than tripled to 11 in 2025, the report said. Iran’s penal code allows other forms of capital punishment, yet in recent years, officials have carried out all known executions by hanging.
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Rights organisations, including Amnesty International, say Iran carries out the most executions per capita in the world and the second-highest total after China, where reliable figures are not publicly available.
