December 13, 2025 — Dalena Reporters
In a case that has drawn renewed international scrutiny to Iran’s judicial use of capital punishment under Islamic law, Iranian authorities on Saturday, December 13, 2025, executed a woman convicted of killing her four-year-old stepdaughter in the country’s northwest, the judiciary confirmed.
The Iranian judiciary, citing its official Mizan Online news outlet, said the woman was executed after being found guilty of inflicting fatal injuries on her young stepchild, identified as Ava, who died in December 2023 from brain injuries resulting from physical abuse.
According to the reports, the defendant was sentenced in March 2024 under qisas — the Islamic law of retribution that allows the family of a victim to demand the death penalty — following her conviction for murder. That sentence was later upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court.
Officials said that the execution took place at dawn on Saturday in West Azerbaijan province, where the crime occurred. The chief justice of the province, Naser Atabati, stated that Ava’s mother had firmly demanded the implementation of the death sentence under qisas. The identity of the executed woman was not publicly disclosed by Iranian authorities.
The execution was reportedly carried out by hanging, the standard method Iran employs for capital punishment in murder and other serious criminal cases. Iran retains the death penalty for multiple crimes, including murder and rape, and frequently conducts executions in the early morning hours.
Iran is widely recognized as one of the world’s most prolific practitioners of capital punishment, ranking second only to China in the number of executions carried out annually, according to international human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
Human rights advocates have long condemned Iran’s application of qisas in homicide cases, noting that it places significant power in the hands of victims’ families to demand death sentences and that procedural safeguards can be limited. Critics argue this system often results in irreversible penalties, particularly in cases involving domestic violence, coercion, or unequal access to adequate legal defence.
The case has intensified debate over Iran’s use of capital punishment and its broader human rights record, especially in light of other recent executions of women and the systematic application of qisas in cases involving serious crimes. Human rights monitors have documented increasing numbers of executions in Iran this year, with some groups stating that the implementation of death sentences for women has risen sharply compared with previous years.
As the international community continues to scrutinize Iran’s judicial practices, this latest execution underscores the enduring complexities of retribution-based legal systems and the profound consequences for individuals and families entangled in them.