Women, children and members of Iran's oppressed Baluchi population were among those excecuted by the country's brutal regime.

Human rights groups accuse Iran's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of using capital punishment as a tool following nationwide protests.

The number of people executed in Iran rose to 901 last year, including 31 women, some of whom were convicted of murdering their husbands to fend off rape or after being forced into marriage, the U.N.