ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - More than 1,500 people were executed in Iran in 2025, with Kurds making up the largest share among targeted minority groups, a human rights organization reported on Monday.

Kurdish and other minority prisoners in Iran have been subjected to a rising wave of executions, especially following the recent Israel-Iran conflict, a move human rights observers say is intended to suppress dissent and intimidate populations in minority-populated regions.

Despite making up only around 12.5 percent of Iran’s population, Kurds make up 15 percent of the total execution cases in Iran. 

Rights watchdogs have often criticized the executions as being politically or ideologically motivated.

“The number of prisoners executed in Iran since the beginning of 2025 has reached 1,503,” the Oslo-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization reported on Monday.  

Kurds accounted for the highest number among minority groups, with 231 people executed, followed by 196 Lor citizens, 138 Turkic citizens, and 128 Baloch citizens, the report said.

It further added that among the executed there were “45 women and 78 Afghans.” 

Hengaw stressed that in only the past two days, nine prisoners have been executed in Iranian prisons, who were mostly sentenced to death on charges of "premeditated murder" and "drug-related crimes."

In October, Hengaw founder Arsalan Yarahmedi told The New Region that Iran’s 2025 execution rate marked an unprecedented rate in the country for over 20 years.

In the same month, Amnesty International warned that Iran’s 2025 execution rate is the “highest figure recorded in decades” and said “thousands more are at risk,” accusing Tehran of weaponizing the death penalty against its own citizens.

In the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) protests in September 2022 and the 12-Day War with Israel in June, Iran has intensified the arrest and execution of individuals on charges of espionage, treason, and posing a threat to national security.

Multiple prisoners on charges of alleged espionage for Israel have been executed by the Iranian authorities since June, with little information made public about how their trials were conducted and the cases presented against them.