The Iran Human Rights Organization has reported a sharp increase in executions within Iran, with at least 166 people hanged in October alone, marking the highest monthly figure in over 20 years.

The wave of executions comes in the shadows of the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, a backdrop some rights advocates argue is being used to divert attention from the domestic situation.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based organization, said: “While the world’s attention is focused on the tensions between Iran and Israel, the Islamic Republic is using this opportunity to conduct the largest wave of executions in Iran’s prisons in two decades."

He called on the international community to respond with urgency, warning of potentially even higher execution rates in the coming months under the threat of a regional conflict.

Among those executed were Afghan, Baluch, and Kurdish citizens, and at least six women. Charges varied widely, encompassing intentional murder, drug-related offenses, and ambiguous charges like “enmity against God” and “corruption on earth” with two of the executions conducted publicly.

The group's report touched on the role capital punishment has played in Iran’s judicial system. Iran's use of the death penalty has consistently drawn criticism from global human rights organizations, with Amnesty International recently findings showing that nearly 75% of documented executions worldwide in 2023 took place in Iran.

In a report marking World Day Against the Death Penalty, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) documented at least 811 executions in Iran over the past year, a figure that includes Jamshid Sharmahd, a German-Iranian national whose execution last week sparked international outrage.

Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, also addressed the increase in executions in her first report, saying that Iran’s intensified use of the death penalty extends beyond recognized legal standards.

Citing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Sato added that the death penalty should be reserved for only the “most serious crimes,” expressing concern over charges like “corruption on earth” being used as grounds for execution.

According to the Iran Human Rights Organization, more than 350 people have been executed in the three months since Masoud Pezeshkian’s presidency began, an acceleration that coincides with growing tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and regional conflicts.

Sholeh Zamini, a women’s rights advocate (where is she based?), commented that Iran’s consistent refusal to allow UN special rapporteurs to conduct in-country investigations prevents an accurate assessment of these human rights violations.

“The Islamic Republic has always blocked UN rapporteurs, likely because it wishes to keep its human rights abuses out of the international spotlight,” Zamini noted.

As in previous years, Iran’s execution record has extended to ethnic and religious minorities, with Afghan citizens facing increasing rates of execution since the Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan.

The report shows that at least 49 Afghans were executed in the first ten months of 2024, a trend rights advocates attribute to both political motivations and racial discrimination within Iran’s justice system.

Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, a US-based human rights organization, sees the pattern of heightened executions as a response to internal instability which has remained high since the 2022 uprising.

“Historically, the government ramps up executions when it feels threatened or unstable. We saw this following the Iran-Iraq War and during the nuclear negotiations under President Hassan Rouhani, when the annual execution rate reached 1,050,” she explained.

Boroumand further highlighted an emerging trend of capital punishment extending to women. “It used to be mostly minorities, but now even regular citizens, including women, are receiving death sentences,” she said, pointing to what she described as a means of intimidating the broader population in times of unrest.

Following the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising after the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody in 2022, Iran’s leadership has increasingly wielded the death penalty as a means of suppressing dissent.

Amnesty International reported that Tehran’s intensifying reliance on capital punishment appears aimed at instilling fear and reinforcing the government’s control.