Iranian authorities executed 23-year-old Marzieh Neri at dawn on Saturday in the women's prison in Kazvin. Her death marks the end of a long legal process that had drawn international attention due to Neri's claims that she acted in self-defence.
Neri detailed the events of October 2021 during the trial, when she was 18. According to her version of events, her husband's business partner, who was drunk, attempted to sexually assault her. In self-defence, Neri stabbed the attacker with a kitchen knife, but her husband was killed in the ensuing struggle.
Following the incident, Neri sought refuge with her brother, but four days later she surrendered to the police. Despite her claims of self-defence, the judicial system did not accept her defence. The families of the deceased men had requested the application of qisas, a principle of retribution in Iranian law.
The court followed the families' requests and sentenced Neri to death. According to the organisation, Neri was forced into marriage when she was 17, under significant pressure from her family.
According to the organisation's data, Neri was the 14th woman executed in Iran since the beginning of 2026. Iran remains the country with the highest number of executions in the world, and her case has further focused attention on the strict penalties applied in its legal system.
