ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran executed six women and arrested 20 female activists, including eight Kurds, in August, while 26 others were sentenced to prison, flogging or death, Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said Sunday.
All six women sentenced to death were convicted of intentional murder and executed in prisons in Yasuj, Qazvin, Ilam, Karaj, Rasht and Isfahan, according to the rights group.
Hengaw recorded the arrest of 20 women by Iranian security forces, including eight Kurds and seven members of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority. The arrests took place in cities including Mahabad, Urmia, Chaldoran, Piranshahr, Divandarreh and Abdanan.
Hengaw also reported that 26 women were sentenced to a combined 132 years. One woman was sentenced to 31 lashes, while Taraneh Rahimi, a woman from Isfahan, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and death.
The figures come amid a broader increase in executions and criminal prosecutions in Iran. Iran executed at least 524 people in the first eight months of 2026, according to Norway-based Iran Human Rights, compared with 1,639 executions recorded throughout 2025.
The use of death sentences has also extended to people arrested during protests in January over the worsening economic situation and devaluation of the currency, which spread nationwide.
The January demonstrations began with shopkeepers and bazaar merchants in Tehran before spreading to students, activists and other groups. Rights groups reported thousands of arrests and a deadly security crackdown.
In late August, Iranian authorities sentenced 10 people to death and six others to a combined 256 years in prison over their alleged involvement in January protests in Isfahan, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
The defendants were arrested over the killing of members of the security forces during the demonstrations and were charged with offenses including “enmity against God,” destruction of public property, assembly and collusion, and propaganda against the regime.
In late August, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei warned that the response to people accused of undermining state security would be “far more decisive than in all previous periods.”
