Zahra Tabari Faces Execution in Iran, UN and 400 Women Call for Her Release

UN experts and more than 400 prominent women have called on Iran not to execute Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old engineer and women’s rights activist.

Tabari was arrested in April and accused of collaborating with the banned People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran. In October, a Revolutionary Court in Rasht convicted her of «armed rebellion» after a trial lasting less than 10 minutes via video link. Her family said the verdict relied on limited and unreliable evidence. Iranian authorities have not commented.

UN special rapporteurs said the case shows «serious violations of international human rights law,» noting she was detained without a warrant, interrogated in solitary confinement, denied a lawyer of her choosing, and sentenced immediately after a brief hearing.

The appeal, signed by Nobel laureates and former world leaders, described her case as «punishable by death simply for supporting women’s resistance.» Another activist, Pakhshan Azizi, faces the death penalty on similar charges.

Iran Human Rights reports that 1,426 people, including 41 women, were executed in Iran in the first 11 months of 2025, a 70% increase from the previous year.