Child bride ‘is executed in Iran after killing her a lot older husband following years of home violence’

A child bride has been executed in Iran after killing her much older husband following years of domestic abuse, according to human rights monitors.

The death sentence against 24-year-old Rana Faraj Oghli is said to have been carried out at the notorious Tabriz Central Prison. 

The National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed that she was arrested two years ago for allegedly killing her husband and sentenced to death following proceedings that Iran’s own judicial summaries show fell short of basic fair-trial guarantees. 

She had been forced into marriage at 16 to a man nearly two decades her senior, and relatives said she endured years of domestic abuse and coercion.

In court, she told officials she did not want a lawyer and made only one request ‘to be freed from a life that was like death.’ 

State-run media outlets have not acknowledged her death on December 3, a pattern activists say reflects efforts to conceal the scale of executions inside Iranian prisons. 

Her death brings the number of women executed in Iran this year to 57, the highest recorded in the country. In 2024, the total was 34. 

According to figures compiled by the women’s committee of the group, at least 320 women have been executed since 2007, many after killings linked to domestic violence, child marriage or self-defence. 

Women in an Iranian prison. Rana Faraj Oghli is said to have been executed for killing her husband after years of domestic abuse

Analysts say the trend has sharply accelerated since President Masoud Pezeshkian took office, with more than 2,600 executions overall during his tenure.

Faraj Oghli’s execution has renewed alarm over the fate of Goli Koukhan, a 25-year-old who was also forced into marriage as a child and is now facing execution for killing her abusive husband unless she raises £80,000 in blood money by December.

Koukhan grew up in extreme poverty and was married off to her cousin at the age of 12. She became pregnant within a year and had her first child at 13. 

Activists say she suffered years of abuse and had no access to protection or social services.  

Her case began in 2018, when she found her husband beating their five-year-old son. She phoned a cousin for help; a fight broke out, and her husband died from the injuries. 

Koukhan called an ambulance and explained what had happened, but she and the cousin were immediately arrested.

During interrogations, she had no lawyer, and campaigners say she cannot read or write. 

Judges later imposed a qisas sentence, retribution in kind, meaning the victim’s family can demand her execution unless they accept compensation.

Meanwhile, 24 people were executed across the country over the weekend, according to Iran International.