Amnesty International Warns of Imminent Execution of 22-Year-Old Woman in Iran

Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organization advocating for human rights, has warned about the imminent execution of a female prisoner in Iran in the coming days. In its statement, the organization said that Zainab Sakanvand was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband at the age of 17 and is now 22 years old. According to Amnesty International, Ms. Sakanvand married another inmate in Urmia prison in recent years and became pregnant, which had previously delayed her execution. Based on this statement, the child of this woman was stillborn, and she was transferred from the hospital back to prison. This 22-year-old woman lived in West Azerbaijan province. According to Amnesty International, Ms. Sakanvand married at the age of 15 and claimed that she had been subjected to physical and verbal abuse by her husband for months before the murder, and her husband did not agree to a divorce. Amnesty International states that Zainab Sakanvand confessed to the murder of her husband at the police station and was then beaten by law enforcement officers for 20 days. The statement from Amnesty International was issued on October 8. The Islamic Republic of Iran has set the age of criminal responsibility at 15 for boys and 9 for girls, while international conventions such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child set the age of criminal responsibility at 18 for both genders. The Islamic Republic of Iran has accepted this convention 'conditionally.' Iran has one of the highest execution rates in the world, and for this reason, international organizations have consistently protested against the Islamic Republic. In this context, the execution is described as an 'irreversible punishment and a violation of the right to life.'