British politicians call for release of women from Iranian jails

Move is timed to coincide with International Women's Day

Activists join a solidarity protest for Iranian human rights activist Yasaman Aryani and other activists in jail, near the Iranian embassy in Paris, France. EPA

British politicians have called for the release of female prisoners of conscience in Iran, a move timed to coincide with International Women's Day.

More than 100 women have been executed since President Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013. Fifteen women died in 2019, 10 more than in the previous year.

Iran executes more people than any other country in the Middle East, according to rights group Amnesty International.

At least 251 people were hanged in Iran in 2019, a number sharply down from the previous year because of changes to the law on punishing drug-related crimes.

Those executed this year include a woman hanged in February, even after she died of a heart attack as she stood in line awaiting her turn behind 16 men, according to her lawyer.

Mother-of-two Zahra Ismaili had been convicted of killing her husband, despite protests from her supporters that she was a victim of violent domestic abuse.

David Alton, who sits in the UK’s House of Lords, described the execution as a “gruesome, barbaric” act.

He called on the UK and the EU to impose sanctions on senior judicial figures.

“Zahra is the third woman to be executed in Iran in less than a month,” he told an online conference organised by the exiled opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to mark International Women’s Day. He said her case highlighted the “appalling situation of women in Iran”.

Jailed Iranian lawyer and campaigner Nasrin Sotoudeh wrote to the UN Secretary General to protest against the execution of Ms Ismaili and others at Qarchak prison, where she was detained.

“As someone who has been closely involved in Zahra Esmaili’s case, I am certain that she did not commit murder,” she said in the letter to Antonio Guterres.

The NCRI says that 114 women have died since Mr Rouhani came to power in August 2013, based on a tally of official media, statements and its sources. Only China executes more people, according to Amnesty.