According to the AFP News, Sabzian, who had been in prison for the past decade, was executed at dawn in Ghezel Hesar prison in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said.
A woman, Samira Sabzian, convicted of murdering her husband, whom she married while still a child has been hanged in Iran on Wednesday, defying an international campaign for clemency.
According to the AFP News, Sabzian, who had been in prison for the past decade, was executed at dawn in Ghezel Hesar prison in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said.
Her execution comes as concern grows over the number of people this year executed by Iran, where hundreds of people have been hanged mainly on drugs and murder charges, including more than a dozen women.
IHR said Sabzian was a "child bride" who had married her husband at the age of 15 and had been a victim of domestic violence, according to relatives.
The Hengaw rights group also confirmed the execution of the woman, now believed to be in her late 20s or early 30s, saying that she was originally from the city of Khorramabad in the western Lorestan province.
Amnesty International said it was "horrified" by the reports of the "chilling execution", saying the mother of two was "subjected to a forced and early marriage as a child".
The office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights said it was "alarmed" by the execution, saying Sabzian had been forced to marry her husband while aged 15.
"We again urge Iran to establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing death penalty," it added.
The execution has so far not been reported by media inside Iran.
Sabzian was arrested around a decade ago when she was aged 19 on charges of murdering her husband and then subsequently sentenced to death, IHR said.
She had two children who she had not seen after her arrest until a final meeting in prison earlier this month, IHR said.
"Samira was a victim of years of gender apartheid, child marriage and domestic violence, and today she fell victim to the incompetent and corrupt regime's killing machine," said IHR director Mahmood-Amiry Moghaddam.
Rights groups have raised alarm over a surge in executions in Iran this year, with at least 115 people put to death in November alone, according to Amnesty International.
"The international community must urgently call on Iran's authorities to immediately establish an official moratorium on executions," Amnesty said.
The British government had called on Iran to spare Sabzian's life.
“The UK calls on Iran to halt the planned execution of Samira Sabzian. Samira is a victim of child marriage,” Tariq Ahmad, Minister of State Foreign Commonwealth & Development Affairs (South Asia, MEastNAfrica, UN, Human Rights), said in a tweet on Tuesday.
“The UK co-sponsored a resolution at the UN demanding Iran end the use of the death penalty. Iran must cease its appalling treatment of women and girls.”
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