Iran

Iranian women and girls continue to face brutal state repression, which has intensified amid political unrest and conflict. Reported femicides  increased by 9 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, while the same year saw a surge in executions of women by the state. Rights monitors have documented the killing of at least 300 women during the regime’s violent crackdown on protests in early 2026, though estimates indicate the true death toll is significantly higher. Although enforcement of mandatory hijab laws has reportedly eased in some parts of the country, women and girls continue to be persecuted for challenging state restrictions on dress, speech, and movement. State repression, surveillance, and targeting of dissidents have reportedly expanded under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, raising renewed fears that restrictions on women and girls will tighten. Iranian women and girls are among the civilian casualties of the war with the US and Israel, including at least 165 girls reportedly killed in a strike on a primary school in Minab in February 2026. Schools, health facilities, and other civilian infrastructure have been damaged in the fighting, while attacks on water and energy infrastructure have worsened Iran’s long-standing environmental challenges. Conflict-related disruptions are compounding a years-long drought, the effects of which disproportionately impact women and girls who bear primary responsibility for water collection. The war is also deepening women’s economic exclusion, as rising unemployment and economic instability compound longstanding barriers to women’s workforce participation, including discriminatory hiring practices, wage disparities, and limited legal protections. As economic opportunities contract, women face heightened risks of poverty and economic dependence, potentially increasing vulnerability to domestic abuse.

As they have done for decades, women and girls in Iran continue to organize, document abuses, and advocate for social and political change. Iranian women—alongside Afghans—continue to push for the recognition of gender apartheid in the UN treaty on crimes against humanity. Yet, women remain largely absent from formal negotiations, with no apparent participation of any high-level women in US-Iran talks. The exclusion of women from decision-making is particularly consequential given the gendered impacts of the conflict, and risks producing insufficiently comprehensive agreements.

The collapse of the ceasefire between the US and Iran has given way to renewed fighting, as diplomatic efforts stall. US strikes have caused significant civilian harm, with attacks hitting densely populated areas of Tehran. Meanwhile, fighting in the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea ports—including attacks by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen—has disrupted global energy markets. The resurgence of fighting creates cascading consequences for women and girls across Iran and neighboring Gulf states, including physical harm, displacement, and disruptions to healthcare and essential services. Meanwhile, women remain largely absent from diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, limiting opportunities to address gendered humanitarian, protection, and accountability concerns.

Iranian authorities have reportedly executed nearly a thousand men, women, and children since January 2026—with the true number expected to be much higher—while thousands more have been detained. Iran’s escalating execution campaign is part of a broader crackdown on dissent, which is placing women human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and protesters at heightened risk of violent repression. Meanwhile, Iran’s hardliners are reportedly planning a new university hijab directive, marking a return to gender-based policies dictating women’s public appearance after enforcement seemingly eased in prior months.

The conflict is deepening Iran’s economic crisis and entrenching the country’s longstanding gender inequalities in the workforce. Renewed fighting, as well as Iran’s months-long internet blackout, intensified US sanctions, and disruptions to oil exports have exacerbated inflation and created shortages of essential goods. Women—who were already experiencing low economic participation rates and persistent barriers including discriminatory hiring practices, wage disparities, and limited legal protections—are disproportionately affected by rising unemployment and poverty, while facing heightened risk of domestic abuse given economic stressors.

 The conflict has worsened Iran’s—and the wider region’s—long-standing environmental challenges, with attacks on critical infrastructure and disruptions to energy and water systems compounding a severe drought and accelerating water insecurity. Experts warn that declining water access, deteriorating water quality, and unsustainable resource management could make Tehran’s water crisis permanent within the next five years, disproportionately impacting women and girls who bear primary responsibility for water collection. State repression has targeted women environmental defenders, with reports that Iranian forces beat women protesting extractive mining activities and defending access to local resources.

Four years after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising and subsequent brutal crackdown, Iranian women continue to challenge restrictions on their rights and freedoms. Women are defying compulsory hijab requirements and other forms of gendered-repression and state control, including by participating in anti-regime protests early in 2026. Women continue to demand greater rights, protections, and autonomy despite intensifying state repression.

CNN interview with GIWPS Executive Director, Ambassador Melanne Verveer reflecting on the Four Year Anniversary of Women, Life, Freedom Protests.