The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is alarmed at reports that woman human rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi has had her death sentence upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. This comes during a recent broader pattern of intensified repression against human rights defenders and activists.

Mohammadi’s lawyer Amir Raeesian said in an interview published on 16 August 2025 in Shargh magazine that “Sharifeh Mohammadi’s death sentence has been finalised.” He said, “Branch 39 of the Supreme Court, which had previously overturned Shari feh Mohammadi’s death sentence, has now confirmed the death sentence despite all the ambiguities and objections raised remaining unresolved.”

GCHR previously reported that Mohammadi was again sentenced to death on 13 February 2025, after the Supreme Court had overturned her initial death sentence on 13 October 2024, and ordered a retrial. The Campaign to Defend Mohammadi stated that her death sentence was issued based on her affiliation with a labour organisation more than a decade ago, but was really a reprisal for her peaceful labour activism. She was arrested on 05 December 2023 in Rasht and remains in prison there. Rights groups protested her sham trial and alleged that she was tortured and forced to give a confession.

The sentence was condemned by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor, who wrote, “Appalled to hear that Iran’s Supreme Court confirmed labour rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi’s death sentence after it had overturned it for lack of evidence. I strongly urge the Iranian authorities to stop the ruling, which clearly contradicts international HR law.”

Since late 2024, Iran has intensified its politically-motivated use of the death penalty and lengthy prison sentences against human rights defenders, particularly women labour activists and Kurdish minorities, marking an escalation of a longstanding pattern of repression.

Death sentences have increasingly targeted individuals linked to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement or labour activism, often following grossly unfair trials marked by torture, denial of due process and coerced confessions. The Supreme Court has upheld death sentences in several emblematic cases, including Pakhshan Azizi, whose judicial review was rejected in January 2025 and whose execution was only temporarily halted following public outcry. Meanwhile, Varisheh Moradi’s death sentence, issued in November 2024, is still under appeal with no resolution to date.

International experts and institutions have warned that executions are being used systematically as a tool of intimidation and repression. The situation has worsened amid heightened political tensions and the absence of judicial safeguards, placing dozens of activists at imminent risk of execution.

Earlier in August, Nobel Prize winner Narges Mohammadi did an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, in which she says that the Islamic Republic of Iran “has significantly intensified its crackdown on dissidents, human rights activists, and political prisoners.” She has been on medical furlough from prison for eight months but could be sent back anytime.

On 28 August 2025, she published on her X account, a letter she directed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran Prof. Mai Sato, in which she said, “I write to draw your urgent attention to the escalating unlawful and repressive measures being imposed against independent lawyers in Iran.”

On 11 July 2025, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement it was “alarmed by reports of serious threats against Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023. Ms. Mohammadi was awarded the prize for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” The statement also confirmed that Mohammadi called Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and informed him that she has received through her lawyers and through indirect channels warnings, which in her own words were described as a threat of “physical elimination” by agents of the government.

Recommendations:

GCHR calls on the Iranian authorities to:

1. Immediately release all human rights defenders, protesters and other prisoners who have been detained and sentenced in violation of their rights to freedom of assembly and expression;
2. Immediately suspend the executions of all those facing the death penalty simply for exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression, with particular attention to cases involving detainees lacking fair trial guarantees;
3. Ensure all detainees have continuous access to basic rights, including safe and hygienic living conditions, proper medical treatment for all those who are ill or injured, food, clean water, legal counsel, and regular contact with their families and attorneys; and
4. End the threats and targeting of human rights defenders and activists, including those advocating for women’s rights.