PARIS: A woman sentenced to death by Iran over the death of her husband, whom she married while a child, will not be hanged after she was “forgiven” by the family of the victim, the Iranian judiciary announced on Tuesday.

Goli Kouhkan, a member of the Baloch minority without documentation and now aged 25, had been set to be executed this month in a case that had caused widespread international concern.

UN rights experts last week urged Iran to halt the execution of Kouhkan, saying she was forced into marriage at the age of 12 to her cousin and at 13 gave birth to their son, with both mother and child suffering violent abuse from the husband.

“She was forgiven through the mediation of the judicial system and the consent of the deceased’s parents,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said, posting a video of the ceremony where the documents were signed and saying the parents had granted her a “new life”.

The UN experts and other rights groups had said that sparing Kouhkan’s life had been made conditional on her raising so-called blood money (known as diyah), which under sharia law means a person can be spared execution if money is paid for the life that has been taken.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2025