In the dark corridors of Iran's clerical despotism, ordinary women live in fear of the murderous morality police, the ever-lurking baton of the state, and the constant threat of arbitrary arrest. Meanwhile, the ruling elite exist in a parallel world of privilege, luxury, and impunity, a regime publicly preaching piety and modesty while privately indulging in decadence and corruption. The result is a grotesque parody of justice, where the law is used not to protect, but to persecute.
Few cases illustrate this cruelty more starkly than that of Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, a 67-year-old political prisoner sentenced to death this week, following a ten-minute trial in the city of Rasht. Her alleged crime was "cooperating" with the main opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). She is the 18th PMOI supporter to face a death sentence this year alone.
A highly educated woman, with a Master's degree in electrical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology and the University of Borås in Sweden, Ms. Tabari specialized in sustainable energy before her arrest. She suffers from chronic health problems, yet in Lakan Prison, she has been denied medication and medical care. Her "case file" consists of little more than a piece of cloth bearing the slogan "Woman, Resistance, Freedom" and an unpublished voice message, evidence so flimsy it would be laughed out of any legitimate court. But in Iran's kangaroo judiciary, this is enough to warrant execution. Her physical condition has deteriorated sharply under torture and psychological pressure. This is not justice; it is vengeance. Ms. Tabari's courage in the face of tyranny exposes the regime's true nature: fearful, vengeful, and obsessed with crushing the faintest spark of dissent.
Contrast her fate with another woman's ordeal. Zhaleh, arrested in 2023 for the supposed "crime" of having an affair, has now been sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court, while her male partner received only a flogging. It is barbarism dressed up as moral law, a throwback to medieval savagery masquerading as divine virtue.
And yet, as these women languish in prison or face the noose, the daughter of Ali Shamkhani, former Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and close aide to Supreme Leader Khamenei, hosted a lavish wedding in Tehran, wearing a strapless gown at a luxury hotel. The leaked footage provoked outrage across Iran. Social media users erupted: "The daughter of Ali Shamkhani had a lavish wedding in a strapless dress, while women are beaten for showing their hair!"
The hypocrisy is staggering. The same regime that flogs women for dancing or imprisons them for a loose hijab celebrates the decadence of its own ruling families. The very agents who beat girls in the streets for unveiled hair now serve the men whose daughters parade bare-shouldered before them. It is a spectacle of corruption, arrogance, and moral rot. As one Iranian dissident put it, "It's one rule for us and another for them — the essence of hypocrisy and authoritarianism."
The international community cannot look away. The spotlight must fall on the United Nations, whose credibility on women's rights is being shredded by its own hypocrisy. The UN proclaims its mission to advance gender equality, yet continues to give the Iranian regime a seat at the table, even leadership roles, in bodies meant to protect women. In 2010, Iran was elected by acclamation to the UN's Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), despite enforcing gender apartheid and refusing to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The absurdity deepens when one recalls the findings of Professor Javaid Rehman, the UN's own Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, who last year accused the regime of "atrocity crimes amounting to crimes against humanity and genocide." His July 2024 report detailed arbitrary executions, torture, and rape, noting that "women were among those executed — some reportedly raped before execution."
And still, the UN allows this monstrous regime to sit in judgment on women's rights. What message does that send to the women of Iran, to those like Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, sentenced to die for a slogan, or to the memory of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman murdered in 2022 by Iran's so-called morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab "improperly"?
Mahsa's death ignited the nationwide uprising, led by women, where millions took to the streets shouting: "Zan, Moqavemat, Azadi" — "Woman, Resistance, Freedom." Women burned their headscarves, cut their hair, and faced live fire, arrest, and torture. Hundreds were killed; thousands disappeared into Iran's vast prison system. And today, that same spirit of defiance endures in the courage of women like Zahra Shahbaz Tabari.
If Iran's women are the heroines of this struggle, it is fitting that the leading organized democratic opposition to the mullahs is also led by a woman, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Her Ten-Point Plan envisions a secular, democratic, non-nuclear Iran founded on equality, justice, and human rights, the antithesis of clerical tyranny. In a country where women are jailed for singing, beaten for dancing, and executed for their opinions, the leadership of a woman championing freedom is itself an act of profound defiance.
The hypocrisy of the mullahs, the corruption of their inner circle, and the farce of their participation in international forums on human rights must all be exposed. The UN cannot continue to host the butchers of Tehran while pretending to champion the rights of women. If it wishes to salvage its credibility, it must immediately expel Iran from all UN bodies linked to human rights and gender equality. Anything less makes it complicit in the very atrocities it condemns on paper.
The mullahs may wield the iron fist of repression, but the velvet glove of hypocrisy can no longer conceal their crimes. The women of Iran are leading a revolution of dignity and freedom. The world must not turn its back on them.
Struan Stevenson is the Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change (CiC). He was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an author and international lecturer on the Middle East.
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