Iranian officials are moving forward with the execution of four protesters, which includes Bita Hemati, marking her as the first woman sentenced to death for her involvement in the ongoing anti-regime demonstrations. This news follows a particularly grim period in which the Iranian government executed or sentenced around 1,600 individuals to death over the past year.
Bita Hemati has been identified by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). She’s facing multiple charges stemming from the protests; however, an official date for her execution has not yet been announced.
Alongside Hemati, her husband Mohammadreza Majid Asr and two neighbors, Behrouz and Kourosh Zamaninezad, also await death sentences. These four individuals were found guilty following a rushed trial process and the seizure of their assets, which human rights activists claim lacked proper legal procedures.
A judge, Iman Afshari, accused the group of acting on behalf of hostile foreign entities, specifically the U.S. He cited various charges against them, including using explosives and harming law enforcement officers, as well as throwing projectiles from a rooftop during protests.
Additionally, Amir Hemmati, a relative of Bita, received a nearly six-year prison sentence for charges related to “colluding against national security” and propagating against the government.
All are currently detained in Tehran, the epicenter of large-scale protests against the Iranian leadership. These protests initially began to gain traction in January, involving students and other factions across the nation.
The NCRI has once again urged the United Nations and other international human rights organizations to act swiftly to save those sentenced to death, especially political prisoners caught up in the protests.
According to Iranian human rights monitors, in the first three months of this year alone, Iran conducted at least 656 executions, though this number may be understated due to an internet blackout that occurred in March. Only eight executions were reported at that time.
The total number executed in 2025 reached 1,639, a figure which included 48 women, as noted by various human rights groups. The report highlighted that many of these women were executed for crimes involving their spouses or fiancés.
The Iranian Center for Human Rights criticized the swift and unfair trials that have led to the sentencing of numerous individuals arrested during the unrest in January, emphasizing the reliance on confessions obtained under duress.
This announcement of impending executions comes shortly after the Iranian regime executed Saleh Mohammadi, a 19-year-old wrestler who was accused of murdering two law enforcement officers earlier in March.
