Iran sentenced a 23-year-old woman to death over a social media post that insulted Muhammad.
Najmeh Amini was sentenced to death last month after serving eight months in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, Iran, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday. The Islamic Penal Code says that anyone who insults their prophet is guilty of a capital offense.
Amini argues that she made the remarks while in a hallucinogenic state after consuming “mushrooms with a few friends.” The Islamic Penal Code allows for defenses such as being in a state of intoxication, slip of a tongue, or quoting someone else, but the judge presiding over Amini’s case challenged her intoxication claim.
“Then why, in that same hallucinatory state, did you not insult other individuals or opponents of the regime, such as America and Israel?” the judge asked, adding, “How, while under the influence of hallucinations, were you deliberate enough to know exactly which channel or social network to publish an offensive post in?”
Amini is not the only recent case in which a person was sentenced to death in Iran for insulting Muhammad. In 2023, two men were executed — Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare — for online remarks criticizing the prophet and for burning the Quran.
Both men were arrested in 2020 after accusations that they ran a Telegram channel called “Criticism of Superstition and Religion.” For the first two months of their imprisonment, they were held in solitary confinement and denied access to a lawyer. They were ultimately hanged at Arak Prison in Central Iran.
Last month, Amini begged human rights activists to help her avoid the despotic Iranian regime’s punishment.
“Greetings to the people of Iran. I am Najmeh Amini, 23 years old, speaking from the central prison of Mashhad. I am leaving this message for you on September 18, 2026,” she said.
“I am not trying to make a hero out of myself today; I only ask one thing: be my voice. I am an innocent girl, a young person with so many hopes and dreams. I have parents who are waiting for me — a family that wakes up every morning fearing my loss. I do not want the last remaining trace of me to be a few lines in a case file.”
She then explained that she wants the opportunity to defend her case.
“If my voice reaches outside the prison, please do not listen to it for just a moment and then forget it,” she said. “People, I only want justice and the opportunity to defend myself. I request that lawyers, legal scholars, human rights activists, and everyone who hears the voices of innocent people review my case file. I request that international human rights organizations and responsible bodies at the United Nations hear my voice and investigate and follow up on the status of my case.”
Amini maintains that one day Iran will become prosperous and free.
“But as long as I am alive, I hold one hope: that before the rope marks the end of my life, I see my prosperous and free Iran,” she said.
Last month, Saudi Arabia also sentenced Anohan Sivarasa, a 24-year-old Sri Lankan man, to death for a Facebook comment insulting Muhammad. Like Amini, several activists are coming to Sivarasa’s defense.