UN says Iran executed over 900 people in 2024, including dozens of women

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk appears in a video link to brief the first meeting of the U.N. Security Council of 2025 on the situation in the Middle East including the Palestinian question at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., January 3, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of people executed in Iran rose to 901 last year, including 31 women, some of whom were convicted of murdering their husbands after suffering abuse or being forced into marriage, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday.

Most of the executions were for drug-related offences, but political dissidents and people connected with mass protests in 2022 over the death in police custody of a 22-year-old woman were also among the victims, the U.N. statement said.