An Iranian child bride is due to be executed for murdering her husband after he abused her for several years. 21-year-old Razieh Ebrahimi was married off at the tender age of 14 and she had her first baby when she was only 15-years-old. By the time she turned 17, she was tired of her husband’s abuse and ended up killing him in a fit of rage.

Ebrahimi was arrested four years ago after she decided to shoot her husband in the head, as he was asleep. She later buried his body in the garden. Before being imprisoned in Ahvaz, she admitted to her crime, saying she snapped after putting up with years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her spouse.

International organizations like Human Rights Watch are fighting on Ebrahimi’s behalf to have her sentence repealed because they are against the brutal capital punishment that is prevalent in countries like Iran. Even though international law prohibits the execution of minors, in countries like Iran, boys as young as 15 and girls as young as nine can be executed for certain crimes.

Joe Stork, deputy director of Middle East and North Africa Human Rights Watch, believes the ordered to have Ebrahimi executed must be reversed.

“Every time an Iranian judge issues a death sentence for a child offender like Ebrahimi, he should remember he is flagrantly violating his legal responsibilities to administer justice fairly and equitably,” he said.

Reportedly, prison authorities tried to have her executed soon after she was arrested but when she told them that she was only 17-years old when she killed her husband, they brought her back to her cell. After certain changes were incorporated in Iran’s penal code recently, Ebrahimi’s lawyer Hassan Aghakini sought a retrial from the

Supreme Court but the court refused. According to Iranian law, survivors of murdered victim can pardon the killer but in this case, Ebrahimi’s in-laws have refused to do so.

Human Rights Watch has called on the Iranian government to ban death penalties for minors and impose a moratorium on Ebrahimi’s sentence. Since 2009, Iran has sentenced to death at least 10 minors, making it the country with the highest number of child executions.

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