Victim of child marriage who killed her husband executed in Iran

An Iranian woman, convicted of murdering her husband whom she was married to when she was a minor, was hanged by the authorities on Wednesday (Dec 20),Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said.

The woman, identified asSamira Sabzian was executed at dawn inGhezel Hesar prison in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj. She had spent the last decade in theIranian prison, while the case meandered at a snail's pace.

"This morning, the death sentence against Samira Sabzian, a child bride convicted of the 'deliberate murder' of her husband, was carried out," IHR said in a statement.

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"Samira was a victim of years of gender apartheid, child marriage and domestic violence, and today she fell victim to the incompetent and corrupt regime's killing machine," said IHR director Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam.

Sabzian was only 15 years old when she was forcefully married away. Four years later, when her two children were aged seven and six months old, she killed her husband.

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Soon after, she was sentenced to death under what's known as qisas or retribution-in-kind. Notably, under the Islamic Penal Code, those accused of murder are sentenced to death, regardless of their motives and the circumstances of the crime.

The children's authority went to the paternal relatives and Sabzian was refrained from seeing them. Only last week, she met her children for the first time in over a decade.

The husband's family had the chance to commute the death sentence by accepting'diyah'or 'blood money'fromSabzian but they refused.Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and UAE have 'diyah' as part of their modern-day legal system.

Her death sentence once again highlights the plight of women in the Islamic nation. Last year, the Islamic country saw a street revolution after the murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini allegedly at the hands of Iran's morality police.

What started as anti-hijab protests, quickly turned into a battle for demanding complete women's rights, Consequently, the Iranian government came down heavily upon the protesters and used the compromised judiciary to hand out numerous death sentences.

The rights groups have raised alarm over the surge of executions in the country. Up until November this year, at least 115 had been put to death, according to Amnesty International.

(With inputs from agencies)