22 September 2026 | 16:52

READING: 2 minutes

Iranian women continue to lead the protests, and there has been a worrying increase in death sentences imposed on women. While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closely monitoring the case of the Rahimi sisters through its embassy in Tehran—one of whom has been sentenced to death—activist Parisa Nazari of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement has drawn attention to another pending capital case now before the Supreme Court: that of Leila Abolhasani, a 43‐year‐old esthetician and mother of two teenage children, arrested on 8 January in Shahin Shahr, Isfahan province, accused of participating in anti‐government demonstrations.

The Isfahan Revolutionary Court convicted Abolhasani on the charge of moharebeh, a term often translated as “waging war against God” and used to describe serious offenses such as taking up arms to terrorize citizens, damaging public property, or opposing the state, Nazari told Adnkronos. Leila’s family has appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that she was unjustly sentenced after documenting and filming with her phone the burning of a supermarket during the protests. Human rights lawyers say the death sentence appears inconsistent with the regime’s own legal definitions, since photographing a fire—even if deliberate—does not fall under moharebeh.

Nazari described the sentence as an act of intimidation aimed at Iranian women: a warning that people could be executed even for photographing events at protests. She showed a photo of Abolhasani and urged others to speak out, noting that relatives are trying to attract attention but that few inside Iran dare to speak with foreign media because of new laws restricting such contact. “Mobilization can sometimes act as a deterrent,” Nazari said, calling on others to publicize the case.