The sixth “No to Execution on Saturdays” event in Munich this week drew attention to the situation of female human rights defenders sentenced to death in Iran.

As part of the event, an international petition was launched for Pakshan Azizi, who was sentenced to death on 23 July 2024.

Demonstrators called on the public to show solidarity against repressive state policies in Iran, defining the death penalty as an unfair and a clear violation of human rights.

The speakers called for the immediate revocation of the death sentences handed down to Pakshan Azizi, Warisha Moradi and Sharifa Mohammadi, who are at risk of imminent execution. They urged everyone to speak out to ensure justice is served.

Pakshan Azizi

Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Pakshan Azizi to death on 23 July, 2024. She was convicted of “armed rebellion against the state” (baghi) solely in relation to her peaceful human rights and humanitarian activities. For instance, between 2014 and 2022, she was involved in providing humanitarian support to women and children displaced following attacks by the Islamic State (IS) and sheltering in camps in northeast Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. On 8 January, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld her conviction and death sentence. Her request for judicial review was subsequently rejected by Branch Nine of the Supreme Court.

On 4 August 2023, Ministry of Intelligence agents arbitrarily arrested Pakhshan Azizi in Tehran and transferred her to section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison, which is under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence, and held her in prolonged solitary confinement for five months without access to a lawyer and her family. According to informed sources, during this time Pakhshan Azizi was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during interrogations. Agents repeatedly told her that she had no right to live and threatened to execute her. They also subjected her to gender-based violence in order to compel her to make forced “confessions” of having ties to Kurdish opposition groups, which she repeatedly denied. In early December 2023, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin prison, where she has been held since.

In an appeal on 7 February, Amnesty International said, ““The international community must immediately urge the Iranian authorities to halt the execution of arbitrarily detained humanitarian aid worker Pakhshan Azizi, who was sentenced to death following a grossly unfair trial before a Revolutionary Court last year.”

“Pakhshan Azizi was detained solely in relation to her peaceful human rights and humanitarian activities, including providing humanitarian support to women and children in northeast Syria who were displaced following attacks by the Islamic State armed group. Instead of facing imminent execution, she should be immediately and unconditionally released,” stated Amnesty International, pointing out that the Iranian authorities remain adamantly resolved to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instil fear among the population.

“The death penalty is abhorrent in all circumstances; but imposing it after a grossly unfair trial before a Revolutionary Court, in which Pakhshan Azizi’s allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, including gender-based violence, have gone uninvestigated, renders its use arbitrary and illustrates yet again the Iranian authorities’ shameless disregard for the right to life. Governments worldwide must speak out loudly now against this injustice to halt Pakhshan Azizi’s execution before it is too late.”