PARIS, Jan 6, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Iran in 2024 executed at least 31 women, an NGO said on Monday, warning that female prisoners were increasingly being caught in a surge in the use of capital punishment in the Islamic republic.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which closely tracks executions in Iran, said in a report that the figure for 2024 marked the highest number of women to be hanged in Iran since it started documenting the use of capital punishment in 2008.

It added that at least 241 women were executed from 2010 to 2024, mostly on drug and murder convictions, adding that 70 percent of those executed for murder had been convicted of killing a husband or partner, often in the context of domestic violence.

Activists are increasingly alarmed over the surge in hangings in Iran, accusing the Islamic authorities under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of using capital punishment as a tool to instil fear throughout society particularly in the wake of 2022-2023 nationwide protests.

IHR said in November that there has been a dramatic increase in executions in 2024, with at least 166 recorded in October alone, the highest number for a single month since it began recording executions.

"The execution of women in Iran not only reveals the brutal and inhumane nature of the death penalty but also exposes the deep-rooted gender discrimination and inequality within the judicial system," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

IHR said that of the 241 women it documented as being executed between 2010-2024, 114 women were executed for murder, while 107 women were executed on drug-related charges.

"Many women executed for murder were victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse who acted out of desperation," said IHR.

Iran's Islamic law of retribution known as qisas -- where another life must be taken after a killing unless the victim's family forgives or accepts a payment -- means that extenuating circumstances such as domestic violence may not be taken into account by a court.

"Iran's judicial system rarely considers these circumstances as mitigating factors in sentencing," said IHR.

As an example, IHR cited the case of Zahra Esmaili, a woman it said was forced to marry her neighbour, a ministry of intelligence official, after falling pregnant as a result of him raping her. He was physically violent towards her and her children, IHR said. She was convicted of murdering him in 2017 and sentenced to death.

"Her husband's family insisted on qisas with her mother-in-law personally carrying out the execution" in 2021, it said. Her lawyer later said that Esmaili had suffered from a heart attack after witnessing a group execution before hers but "they still hung her lifeless body," IHR said.

One of the most high-profile cases in recent years was the October 2014 hanging of 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was convicted of murdering a former intelligence officer she maintained had tried to sexually assault her.

Her story was the subject of the documentary "Seven Winters in Tehran" which was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2023 and won praise from critics.