Mahboubeh Shahbani Begs the World to Do Something

Mahboubeh Shahbani is on death row in Iran, and she is not asking for herself. She is asking for the others.

An audio message came out of Vakilabad prison in Mashhad this week. Shahbani, 33, recorded it on a prisoner phone after her lawyer told her the death sentence was final. The recording was shared by Iran Human Rights, based in Norway, and the Center for Human Rights in Iran, based in the United States. Her voice is clear. She says she is worried for the others whose sentences have been upheld.

She was sentenced to death over protests earlier this year. The protests in January drew huge crowds across Iran. Security forces cracked down hard. A UN fact-finding mission said the crackdown amounted to crimes against humanity. It cited mass killings, torture, and arbitrary detention. The mission also said Iran has intensified its use of the death penalty against people linked to the protests.

Shahbani’s message is short and direct. She calls on the public, the UN, and human rights organizations. Not just for her, but for all the others whose sentences have been upheld and who have spent months sleeping in fear and stress at night. She calls on them to do something. She says the sentence handed down to her shows that many others are in danger of execution.

Here is the part that stays with me. She says she is not worried about herself. She is worried for the others. That is not a line you hear every day from someone facing the gallows. Most people would beg for their own life. She is begging for strangers.

The rights groups say at least nine women across Iran are at risk of execution on political and security charges. More than 70 people, including five women and three boys, remained at imminent risk of execution, according to the UN mission. At least thirty-one protesters have been executed following January’s brutal crackdown by security forces, with dozens of protesters sentenced to death and at imminent risk of execution, including women and children.

Two more men were executed on charges linked to the January protests around the same time Shahbani’s message went public. The executions were reported by multiple outlets. The pattern is clear. Iran is moving quickly on these cases.

Shahbani was convicted of carrying out actions to strengthen Israel, the US, and individuals affiliated with opposition groups, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. That is the charge that put her on death row. She was arrested for helping injured protesters in January, rights groups say. Two days after being notified of her sentence, she was transferred to a solitary confinement cell at Mashhad Central Prison.

The international community has spoken before. Forty-six states condemned Iran’s escalating use of the death penalty at the UN Human Rights Council this week. The intervention comes amid mounting international concern over executions linked to the January 2026 protests, with over 30 protesters executed following grossly unfair trials and dozens more at imminent risk of execution. On July 23, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran called on Iranian authorities to immediately halt all executions, including those in connection with the protests, and establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

None of that has stopped the hangings. More than 430 people, including at least 12 women, have been executed in Iran so far in 2026, according to Iran Human Rights. The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said it had documented 950 executions in Iran since the beginning of 2026, including at least 20 women and 30 protesters.

I keep thinking about that phone call from Vakilabad. A prisoner phone. A lawyer on the other end. A woman who knows what is coming, and still chooses to speak for the ones who have not heard their fate yet. She says conditions are extremely bad for the prisoners given the pressures they exert on us. She begs everyone to do whatever is in their power.

There is a quiet moment in this story where the numbers stop mattering. It is the moment you hear her say she is worried for the others. You realize she is not trying to win a reprieve. She is trying to wake people up.

The audio message is short. It does not have music. It does not have a call to action beyond the one she already made. Do something. Not just for me. For all the others.

I do not know what will happen to Mahboubeh Shahbani. I do not know what will happen to the nine women at risk of execution. I do not know what will happen to the 70 people the UN says are at imminent risk. I only know that she asked, and that the asking itself is a kind of courage most of us will never have to find.