Hundreds of women across the globe are trapped in what can be described as the deadliest wait, living under the shadow of execution. A 2023 report from the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty reveals that between 500 and 1,000 women are currently on death row in at least 42 countries worldwide.
The Global Picture of Female Executions
The nations that carry out the most executions overall are also responsible for the highest number of executions of women. These include China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty International's 2024 data, at least two women were executed in Egypt, 30 in Iran, one in Iraq, nine in Saudi Arabia, and two in Yemen. The true figure is likely far higher, as countries like China, North Korea, and Vietnam are known for not publishing accurate data on executions.
The two most common crimes for which women receive the death sentence are murder and drug trafficking. Legal systems that impose a mandatory death penalty for murder, or those that fail to recognise severe mitigating factors like a history of gender-based violence, consistently see higher numbers of women sentenced to die.
In certain Gulf and South-East Asian nations, drug trafficking laws are particularly harsh, leading to a disproportionate number of women awaiting execution. While some women enter the drug trade voluntarily, many are driven by a desperate lack of choices, entrenched poverty, coercion, manipulation, and the basic need to provide for their families.
It is important to note that not all countries with the death penalty actively carry out executions. However, women condemned to death often face appalling prison conditions, including heightened security measures and prolonged periods in solitary confinement.
Five Faces of the Condemned
The human stories behind these statistics reveal a pattern of trauma, injustice, and legal failure.
Christa Pike, USA
Christa Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and one of 47 women facing execution in the US as of October 2025. In January 1995, Pike, then 18, along with two others, killed a fellow teenager. The crime was sensationalised due to satanic imagery, painting Pike as a demonic figure. This narrative overshadowed her profound personal trauma.
Pike was born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and suffered severe, repeated physical and sexual abuse from childhood. By 18, she had been raped twice and abused by multiple family members. She lives with bipolar disorder and severe post-traumatic stress. At her original trial, her state-appointed lawyers failed to present any of this mitigating evidence to the jury. Pike endured more than 28 years in solitary confinement until a lawsuit secured her better conditions. Her execution date is set for 30 September 2026.
Pakhshan Azizi, Iran
In July 2024, Branch 26 of the revolutionary court of Tehran sentenced 40-year-old Kurdish rights activist Pakhshan Azizi to death for 'armed rebellion against the state'. Her crime was providing humanitarian support to displaced women and children in camps in Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2022.
Arrested in August 2023, Azizi was held in solitary confinement for five months in Tehran's Evin prison without access to a lawyer or family. Reports indicate she was subjected to severe psychological and physical torture to extract a confession. In January 2025, Iran's supreme court upheld her death sentence. Iran is one of the world's most prolific executioners, and authorities have intensified its use, particularly against women, following the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' uprising.
Rosita Said, Indonesia
Rosita Said, 43, has been detained since August 2015 for drug trafficking. After a childhood of poverty and domestic violence, she moved to Jakarta for a better life. She met and married a man named Emeka Samuel, who later revealed his involvement in drugs. Feeling trapped and fearing the shame of another failed marriage, Said assisted him under coercion.
Her lawyer states the court ignored her gendered vulnerabilities and limited understanding of the crime. She was sentenced to death alongside Samuel. In Indonesia, drug offences are a leading cause of female incarceration, with 27% of women imprisoned for such crimes reporting influence by an intimate partner.
Lemi Limbu, Tanzania
Lemi Limbu was convicted in 2015 of murdering her infant daughter. In Tanzania, murder carries a mandatory death penalty, though no executions have occurred since 1994. Limbu is in her early 30s but has the developmental age of a child. Her life has been marked by extreme abuse; she was beaten by her father, repeatedly raped by men in her village, and gave birth at 15 after a rape.
She was arrested after her daughter was found strangled. At her first trial, she pleaded not guilty, claiming police beat her and threatened her at gunpoint to confess. Her original conviction was nullified, but she was retried and sentenced to death again in 2022. The court refused to hear evidence about her intellectual disabilities or history of abuse, a clear violation of international law.
Asiya Bibi, Pakistan
On 20 March 2024, a court in Lahore sentenced Asiya Bibi, 50, to death for blasphemy. She is illiterate and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her lawyer believes she sought help from a practitioner of black magic, who advised her to burn the Qur'an in an attempt to help her daughter find a husband.
Blasphemy laws in Pakistan, originating from the British colonial era, are increasingly used to settle personal vendettas. Cases have surged from 11 in 2020 to at least 475 in 2024. Bibi's lawyer fears she may die in prison due to the dire conditions faced by those accused of blasphemy. Her appeal is pending.
A System Failing Women
The cases of these five women underscore a global failure of justice systems. Mitigating circumstances—devastating histories of abuse, intellectual disability, coercion, and mental illness—are routinely overlooked. From the mandatory death penalties in Tanzania to the politicised charges in Iran, the path to execution for women is often paved with profound injustice, revealing a system that punishes the most vulnerable instead of protecting them.
