Sakineh Ghasemi
Iranian prostitute executed by order of the Islamic Revolutionary Court
About Sakineh Ghasemi
Sakineh Ghasemi was an Iranian prostitute.
Sakineh Ghasemi, also known as Pari Bolandeh and commonly referred to as the tall fairy, was an Iranian sex worker. She was arrested after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the burning of the Shahr-e No neighbourhood, and was executed on 12 July 1979, along with two other sex workers, on charges of "waging war against God."
Arrest Following the revolution, prostitution was outlawed and parts of the red-light district of Shahr-e No were burnt down. Ghasemi was arrested along with other prostitutes including Simin BMW, Ashraf Chahar Cheshm, Shahla Abadani and Peri Siah.
Trial and sentencing According to a short report in the Kayhan newspaper, the only official source available, Ghasemi was tried in the "First Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court." According to some unofficial reports, Ghasemi was hanged in front of the cafe Shkvfhnv.
Ghasemi was buried on the same day as her execution in Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery. Her body is buried in "Plot 41, Row 87, Tomb 35".
Ghasemi's name is among 438 people whose execution was announced in a 1979 report of Amnesty International.
In literature "Tall Fairy" has found her way into popular and everyday language and even contemporary literature:
In the novel In The Province Of Temperature, author Houshang Golshiri describes her dancing. In the play Hamlet with Salad, written by Akbar Radi, the name of the characters is "fairy tall". Radi is quoted in the novel My Tribe: "They say that in Jamshid Street, they beat me up a lot, saying that I was a smuggler and a pawnbroker in a new city. Yes, one of them says the fairy was tall, she was martyred." The story of Children of the Soil refers to the abuse of begging girls by the character of the story, who is called the "tall fairy". Bloodthirsty by Mehdi Yazdani Khoram Seismic language by Nasser Najafi Jamshid Child Prison Conversations Poems of the life of a poet by Hussein Sharang
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Important facts
Frequently asked questions
Who was Sakineh Ghasemi?
Iranian prostitute executed by order of the Islamic Revolutionary Court
When was Sakineh Ghasemi born?
Sakineh Ghasemi was born in Qazvin.
When did Sakineh Ghasemi die?
Sakineh Ghasemi died on 12 July 1979 in Tehran.
What was Sakineh Ghasemi's occupation?
Sakineh Ghasemi was a prostitute.
What nationality was Sakineh Ghasemi?
Sakineh Ghasemi was Iranian.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Sakineh Ghasemi. https://biography.guide/sakineh-ghasemi/
MLA: "Sakineh Ghasemi." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/sakineh-ghasemi/.
Chicago: "Sakineh Ghasemi." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/sakineh-ghasemi/.
Data last updated: 2026-09-22 · Spot an error? Report a correction.
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