Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Encyclopedia
The state of human rights in Iran has been criticized both by Iran
ians and international human right activists, writers, and NGOs. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques and several resolutions.
The government of Iran is criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, and for actions that do not, such as the torture, rape, and killing of political prisoners, and the beatings and killings of dissidents and other civilians.
Alleged restrictions and punishments lawful in the Islamic Republic which violate international human rights norms include: harsh penalties for crimes; punishment of "victimless crimes" such as fornication
, homosexuality
; execution of offenders under 18 years of age; restrictions on freedom of speech
, and the press
, including the imprisonment of journalists; unequal treatment according to religion and gender
in the Islamic Republic's Constitution - especially attacks on members of the Bahá'í
religion.
Reported abuses falling outside of the laws of the Islamic Republic that have been condemned include the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, and the widespread use of torture to extract repudiations by prisoners of their cause and comrades on video for propaganda purposes. Also condemned has been firebombings of newspaper offices and attacks on political protesters by "quasi-official organs of repression," particularly "Hezbollahi
," and the murder of dozens of government opponents
in the 1990s, allegedly by "rogue elements" of the government.
Under the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran’s human rights record "has deteriorated markedly" according to the group Human Rights Watch, and following the 2009 election protests
there were reports of killing of demonstrators, the torture, rape and killing of detained protesters, and the arrest and publicized mass trials of dozens of prominent opposition figures in which defendants "read confessions that bore every sign of being coerced."
Officials of the Islamic Republic have responded to criticism by stating the IRI is not obliged to follow "the West's interpretation" of human rights," and that the Islamic Republic is a victim of "biased propaganda of enemies" which is "part of a greater plan against the world of Islam." According to Iranian officials, those who human rights activists say are peaceful political activists being denied due process rights are actually guilty of offenses against the national security of the country, and those protesters claiming Ahmadinejad stole the 2009 election are actually part of a foreign-backed plot to topple Iran's leaders.
s had been executed between 1971 and 1979, more than 7900 were executed between 1981 and 1985. ... the prison system was centralized and drastically expanded ... Prison life was drastically worse under the Islamic Republic than under the Pahlavis. One who survived both writes that four months under [warden] Ladjevardi
took the toll of four years under SAVAK
. In the prison literature of the Pahlavi era, the recurring words had been ‘boredom’ and ‘monotony’. In that of the Islamic Republic, they were ‘fear’, ‘death’, ‘terror’, ‘horror’, and most frequent of all ‘nightmare’ (‘kabos’).”
However, the vast majority of killings of political prisoners occurred in the first decade of the Islamic Republic, after which violent repression lessened. With the rise of the Iranian reform movement and the election of moderate Iranian president Mohammad Khatami
in 1997 numerous moves were made to modify the Iranian civil and penal codes in order to improve the human rights situation. The predominantly reformist parliament drafted several bills allowing increased freedom of speech, gender equality, and the banning of torture. These were all dismissed or significantly watered down by the Guardian Council
and leading conservative figures in the Iranian government at the time.
According to The Economist magazine,
and its human rights bodies, the Council of Europe
, European Parliament
and United States Congress
.
According to The Minority Rights Group
, in 1985 Iran became "the fourth country ever in the history of the United Nations" to be placed on the agenda of the General Assembly because of "the severity and the extent of this human rights record".
From 1984 to 2001, United Nations Commission on Human Rights
(UNCHR) passed resolutions about human rights violations against Iran's religious minorities especially the Bahá'ís. The UNCHR did not pass such a resolution in 2002, when the government of Iran extended an invitation to the UN "Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression" to visit the country and investigate complaints. However, according to the organization Human Rights Watch
, when these officials did visit the country, found human rights conditions wanting and issued reports critical of the Islamic government, not only did the government not implement their recommendations", it retaliated "against witnesses who testified to the experts."
In 2003 the resolutions began again with Canada
sponsoring a resolution criticizing Iran's "confirmed instances of torture, stoning as a method of execution and punishment such as flogging and amputations," following the death of an Iranian-born Canadian citizen, Zahra Kazemi
, in an Iranian prison.
The resolution has passed in the UN General Assembly every year since.
The European Union
has also criticized the Islamic Republic's human rights record, expressing concern in 2005, 2007 and on October 6, 2008 presenting a message to Iran's ambassador in Paris expressing concern over the worsening human rights situation in Iran. On 13 October 2005, the European Parliament
voted to adopt a resolution condemning the Islamic government's disregard of the human rights of its citizens. Later that year, Iran's government announced it would suspend dialogue with the European Union concerning human rights in Iran.
On February 9, 2010, the European Union and United States issued a joint statement condemning "continuing human rights violations" in Iran.
"taxi driver[s] rarely talk politics; the Iranian[s] will talk of nothing else."
A theory of why human rights abuse in the Islamic Republic is not as bad as some other countries comes from American journalist Elaine Sciolino
who speculated that
stated "we certainly have political prisoners [in Iran] and ... people who are in prison for their ideas." Two days later, however, he was contradicted by Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
, saying "we have no political prisoners in Iran" because Iranian law does not mention such offenses, ... "The world may consider certain cases, by their nature, political crimes, but because we do not have a law in this regard, these are considered ordinary offenses."
Iran's president President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other government officials have compared Iran's human rights record favorably to other countries, particularly countries that have criticized Iran's record. In a 2008 speech, he replied to a question about human rights by stating that Iran has fewer prisoners than the US and "the human rights situation in Iran is relatively a good one, when compared ... with some European countries and the United States."
In a 2007 speech to the United Nations, he commented on human rights only to say "certain powers" (unnamed) were guilty of violating it, "setting up secret prisons, abducting persons, trials and secret punishments without any regard to due process, .... " Islamic Republic officials have also attacked Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights.
.
or constitution calls for equal rights among races, ethnic groups (article 19). It calls for gender equality (article 20), and protection of the rights of women (article 21); freedom of expression (article 23); freedom of press and communication (article 24) and freedom of association (article 27). Three recognized religious minorities "are free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies."
However, along with these guarantees the constitution includes what one scholar calls "ominous Catch-22s
", such as “All laws and regulations must conform to the principles of Islam.” The rights of women, of expression, of communication and association, of the press - are followed by modifiers such as "within the limits of the law", "within the precepts of Islam", "unless they attack the principles of Islam", "unless the Law states otherwise", "as long as it does not interfere with the precepts of Islam."
The Iranian penal code distinguishes two types of punishments: Hudud
(fixed punishment) and the Qisas
(retribution
) or Diyya
(Blood money
or Talion Law
). Punishments falling within the category of Hududs are applied to people committing offenses against the State, such as adultery
, alcohol consumption, burglary
or petty theft, rebellions against Islamic authority, apostasy
and homosexual intercourse
(considered contrary to the spirit of Islam). Punishments include death by hanging
, stoning
or decapitation
, amputation
or flagellation
. Victims of private crimes, such as murder
or rape
, can exercise a right to retribution (Qisas) or decide to accept "blood money" (Diyyah or Talion Law).
Shariah also includes stoning and explicitly states that stones used must be small enough to not kill instantly. As of July 2010, The Iranian penal code authorizes stoning as a punishment. However, Iran says a new draft of the penal code that has removed stoning is currently under review by the Iranian parliament and has yet to be ratified.
The use of stoning as a punishment may be declining or banned altogether. In December 2002, Ayatollah Shahroudi
, head of the judicial system, reportedly sent judges a memorandum requesting the suspension of stoning and asking them to choose other forms of sanctions. In 2005, Amnesty International reported that Iran was about to execute a woman by stoning for adultery. Amnesty urged Tehran to give reprieve to the woman. Her sentence is currently on hold pending "consideration by the pardons commission." According to the Iranian officials "Stoning has been dropped from the penal code for a long time, and in the Islamic republic, we do not see such punishments being carried out", said judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad. He added that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were over-ruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out." According to Amnesty International, in July 2010, the Iranian parliament began considering a revision to its penal code that would ban stoning as a punishment.
In the inheritance law of the Islamic Republic there are several instances where the woman is entitled to half the inheritance of the man. For example:
According to Zahra Eshraghi, granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini,
Compulsory hijab
Post-pubescent women are required to cover their hair and body in Iran and can be arrested for failing to do so.
provides "officials with ample opportunity to censor
, restrict, and find offense."
Iranians
to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and accords non-Shia Muslims "full respect" (article 12). However the Bahá'í Faith
is banned. The Islamic Republic has stated Baha'is or their leadership are "an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular," that threaten Iran. The International Federation for Human Rights and others believe the government's policy of persecution of Bahá'ís
stems from some Bahá'í teachings challenging traditional Islamic religious doctrines - particularly the finality of Muhammad's prophethood
- and place Bahá'ís outside the Islamic faith
. Irreligious people are also not recognized and do not have basic rights such as education, becoming member of parliament etc.
Hudud
statutes grant different punishments to Muslims and non-Muslims for the same crime. In the case of adultery, for example, a Muslim man who is convicted of committing adultery with a Muslim woman receives 100 lashes; the sentence for a non-Muslim man convicted of adultery with a Muslim woman is death. In 2004, inequality of "blood money" (diyeh) was eliminated, and the amount paid by a perpetrator for the death or wounding a Christian, Jew, or Zoroastrian man, was made the same as that for a Muslim. However, the International Religious Freedom Report reports that Baha'is were not included in the provision and their blood is considered Mobah, (i.e. it can be spilled with impunity).
Freedom to convert from Islam to another religion
(apostasy), is prohibited and may be punishable by death. Article 23 of the constitution states, "the investigation of individuals' beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief." But another article, 167, gives judges the discretion "to deliver his judgment on the basis of authoritative Islamic sources and authentic fatwa (rulings issued by qualified clerical jurists)." The founder of the Islamic Republic, Islamic cleric Ruhollah Khomeini, who was a grand Ayatollah
, ruled "that the penalty for conversion from Islam, or apostasy, is death."
At least two Iranians - Hashem Aghajari
and Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari
- have been arrested and charged with apostasy (though not executed), not for converting to another faith but for statements and/or activities deemed by courts of the Islamic Republic to be in violation of Islam, and that appear to outsiders to be Islamic reformist political expression. Hashem Aghajari
, was found guilty of apostasy for a speech urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics; Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari was charged with apostasy for attending the 'Iran After the Elections' Conference
in Berlin Germany which was disrupted by anti-government demonstrators.
The small Protestant Christian minority in Iran have been subject to Islamic "government suspicion and hostility" according to Human Rights Watch at least in part because of their "readiness to accept and even seek out Muslim converts" as well as their Western origins. In the 1990s, two Muslim converts to Christianity who had become ministers were sentenced to death for apostasy and other charges.
Youcef Nadarkhani
is an Iranian Christian pastor who has been sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith.
complained that "broadly worded `security laws`" in Iran are used to ”to arbitrarily suppress and punish individuals for peaceful political expression, association, and assembly, in breach of international human rights treaties to which Iran is party." For example, "connections to foreign institutions, persons, or sources of funding" are enough to bring criminal charges such as "undermining national security" against individuals.
Ahmad Batebi
, a demonstrator in the July 1999 Student demonstrations
in Iran, was given a death sentence for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic System." (His sentence was later reduced to 15, and then ten years imprisonment.) A photograph of Batebi holding a bloody shirt aloft was printed on the cover of The Economist magazine.
or a girl under 9 lunar years of age. The Islamic Republic defines a child as someone who has not reached the age of puberty (bulugh) as stipulated by the Sharia
. Consequently there have been executions of offenders under the age of 18 in Iran, at least 23 executions have been recorded since 1990.
A bill to set the minimum age for the death penalty at 18 years was examined by the parliament
in December 2003, but it was not ratified by the Guardian Council of the Constitution
, the unelected body that has veto power over parliamentary bills. In a September 2008 interview President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was asked about the execution of minors and replied that "the legal age in Iran is different from yours. It’s not eighteen ... it’s different in different countries."
document criticizes "Parallel Institutions" (nahad-e movazi) in the Islamic Republic, "the quasi-official organs of repression that have become increasingly open in crushing student protests, detaining activists, writers, and journalists in secret prisons, and threatening pro-democracy speakers and audiences at public events." Under the control of the Office of the Supreme Leader
, these groups set up arbitrary checkpoints around Tehran, uniformed police often refraining from directly confronting these plainclothes agents. "Illegal prisons, which are outside of the oversight of the National Prisons Office, are sites where political prisoners are abused, intimidated, and tortured with impunity."
According to dissident Akbar Ganji
, what might appear to be "extra-legal" killings in Iran are actually not outside the penal code of the Islamic Republic since the code "authorises a citizen to assassinate another if he is judged to be ‘impious’," Some widely condemned punishments issued by the Islamic Republic - the torture of prisoners and the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 have been reported to follow at least some form of Islamic law and legal procedures, though they have also not been publicly acknowledged by the government.
Extra-legal acts may work in tandem with official actions, such as in the case of the newsweekly Tamadone Hormozgan in Bandar Abbas, where authorities arrested seven journalists in 2007 for “insulting Ayatollah Khomeini,” while government organisations and Quranic schools organized vigilantes to "ransacked and set fire" to the paper's offices.
for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information" and the "compulsion of individuals to testify, confess, or take an oath." It also states that "any testimony, confession, or oath obtained under duress is devoid of value and credence."
Nonetheless human rights groups and observers have complained that torture is frequently used on political prisoners in Iran. In a study of torture in Iran published in 1999, Iranian-born political historian Ervand Abrahamian
included Iran along with "Stalinist Russia
, Maoist China, and early modern Europe" of the Inquisition
and witch hunts, as societies that "can be considered to be in a league of their own" in the systematic use of torture.
Torture techniques used in the Islamic Republic include:
Two "innovations" in torture not borrowed from the Shah's regime were
According to Abrahamian, torture became commonly used in the Islamic Republic because of its effectiveness in inducing political prisoners to make public confessions. Recorded and edited on videotape, the standard statements by prisoners included not only confessions to subversion and treason, but praise of the Islamic Revolution and denunciation or recantation of their former beliefs, former organization, former co-members, i.e. their life. These recantations served as powerful propaganda for both the Iranian public at large - who by the 1980s almost all had access to television and could watch prime time programs devoted to the taped confessions - and the recanters' former colleagues, for whom the denunciations were demoralizing and confusing. From the moment they arrived in prison, through their interrogation prisoners were asked if they were willing to give an "interview." (mosahebah) "Some remained incarcerated even after serving their sentences simply because they declined the honor of being interviewed."
Scholars disagree over whether at least some forms of torture have been made legal according to the Qanon-e Ta'zir (Discretionary Punishment Law) of the Islamic Republic. Abrahamian argues statutes forbidding ‘lying to the authorities’ and ability of clerics to be both interrogators and judges, applying an "indefinite series of 74 lashings until they obtain `honest answers`" without the delay of a trial, make this a legal form of torture. Another scholar, Christoph Werner, claims he could find no Ta'zir law mentioning lying to authorities but did find one specifically banning torture in order to obtain confessions.
Abrahamian also argues that a strong incentive to produce a confession by a defendant (and thus to pressure the defendant to confess) is the Islamic Republic's allowing of a defendant’s confession plus judges "reasoning" to constitute sufficient proof of guilt. He also states this is an innovation from the traditional sharia standard for (some) capital crimes of `two honest and righteous male witnesses`.
Several bills passed the Iranian Parliament
that would have had Iran joining the international convention on banning torture in 2003 when reformists controlled Parliament, but were rejected by the Guardian Council
.
Chronicle of Higher Education International, reports that the widespread practice of raping
women imprisoned for engaging in political protest has been effective in keeping female college students "less outspoken and less likely to take part" in political demonstrations. The journal quotes an Iranian college student as saying, "most of the girls arrested are raped in jail. Families can't cope with that."
there were many executions and killing of opponents during the early years of the Islamic Republic. Between January 1980 and the overthrow of President Abolhassan Banisadr
in June 1981, at least 906 government opponents were executed. From June 1981 to June 1985, another 8000+ were executed. Critics complained of brief trials lacking defense attorneys, juries, transparency or opportunity for the accused to defend themselves. In 1988 several thousand political prisoners were executed, estimates ranging somewhere between 8000 and 30,000. Since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
there have been far fewer government sanctioned killings in Iran.
, Mohammad Mokhtari
, Majid Sharif
), a political leader (Dariush Forouhar
) and his wife in the span of two months, in what became known as the Chain murders
or 1998 Serial Murders of Iran. of Iranians who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way. Altogether more than 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens are thought to have been killed over the course of several years. The deputy security official of the Ministry of Information, Saeed Emami
was arrested for the killings and later committed suicide, many believe higher level officials were responsible for the killings. According to Iranterror.com, "it was widely assumed that [Emami] was murdered in order to prevent the leak of sensitive information about Ministry of Intelligence and Security operations, which would have compromised the entire leadership of the Islamic Republic."
The attempted murder and serious crippling of Saeed Hajjarian
, a Ministry of Intelligence operative-turned-journalist and reformer, is believed to be in retaliation for his help in uncovering the chain murders of Iran and his help to the Iranian reform movement in general. Hajjarian was shot in the head by Saeed Asgar, a member of the Basij
in March, 2000.
At the international level, a German court ordered the arrest of a standing minister of the Islamic Republic - Minister of Intelligence Ali Fallahian
- in 1997 for directing the 1992 murder of three Iranian-Kurdish dissidents and their translator at a Berlin restaurant, known as the Mykonos restaurant assassinations
.
Two minority religious figures killed during this era were Protestant
Christians Reverend Mehdi Dibaj
, and Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr
. On January 16, 1994, Rev. Mehdi, a convert to Christianity
was released from prison after more than ten years of confinement, "apparently as a result of the international pressure." About six months later he disappeared after leaving a Christian conference in Karaj
and his body was found July 5, 1994 in a forest West of Tehran
. Six months earlier the man responsible for leading a campaign to free him, Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr
, had met a similar end, disappearing on January 19, 1994. His body was found in the street in Shahr-e Rey, a Tehran suburb.
Of the approximately 12,000 prisoners killed most were members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a group that was invading Iran with a military force and air support from Saddam Hussien's Iraq at about the same time as the executions and was widely disliked by Iranians as a result. A minority were members of other leftist organizations who opposed the invasion.
Among those Iranians not associated with the PMOI or armed resistance who have died under suspicious circumstances while in prison are
).
Although it is a signatory to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which states that "[the] sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.”, Iran continues to execute children for various offenses.
In 2008 at 346 confirmed executions were carried out in Iran.
In 2009, 252 people were officially executed but 300 more executions were unacknowledged by the government according to Human rights groups,
In the first half of 2011, human rights groups estimated that an average of two people a day were being executed. Officially the executions are related to drug trafficking, but independent observers have questioned this claim.
were sparked by an attack by an estimated 400 paramilitary Hezbollah vigilantes on a student dormitory in retaliation for a small, peaceful student demonstration against the closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam earlier that day. "At least 20 people were hospitalized and hundreds were arrested," in the attack.
On March 8, 2004, the "parallel institution" of the Basij
issued a violent crackdown on the activists celebrating International Women's Day
in Tehran.
are criminal and punishable by life imprisonment or death after multiple offenses, and the same sentences apply to convictions for treason
and apostasy
. Those accused by the state of homosexual acts are routinely flogged and threatened with execution.
Iran is one of seven countries in the world that apply the death penalty for homosexual acts; all of them justify this punishment with Islamic law. The Judiciary does not recognize the concept of sexual orientation
, and thus from a legal standpoint there are no homosexuals or bisexuals, only heterosexuals committing homosexual acts.
For some years after the Iranian Revolution
, transgender
people were classified by the Judiciary as being homosexual and were thus subject to the same laws. However, in the mid-1980s the Judiciary began changing this policy and classifying transgender individuals as a distinct group, separate from homosexuals, granting them legal rights. Gender identity disorder
is officially recognized in Iran today, and the Judiciary permits sexual reassignment surgery for those who can afford it. In the early 1960s, Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a ruling permitting gender reassignment, which has since been reconfirmed by Ayatollah Khamenei.
Currently, Iran has between 15,000 and 20,000 transsexuals, according to official statistics, although unofficial estimates put the figure at up to 150,000. Iran carries out more gender change operations than any country in the world besides Thailand
. Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa authorising them nearly 25 years ago. Whereas homosexuality is considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure. While the government seeks to keep its approval quiet, state support has increased since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. His government has begun providing grants of £
2,250 for operations and further funding for hormone therapy. It is also proposing loans of up to £2,750 to allow those undergoing surgery to start their own businesses.
, who was executed by the state for 'inappropriate sexual relations', despite evidence she was most probably a rape victim.
Differences in blood money for men and women include victims and offenders. In 2003, the parents of Leila Fathi, an 11-year-old village girl from Sarghez who was raped and murdered, were asked to come up with the equivalent of thousands of US dollars to pay the blood money (diyya
) for the execution of their daughter's killers because a woman's life is worth half that of a man's life.
Amnesty International
and others report that 202 Bahá’ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution, with many more imprisoned, expelled from schools and workplaces, denied various benefits or denied registration for their marriages. Iranian Bahá'ís have also regularly had their homes ransacked or been banned from attending university or holding government jobs, and several hundred have received prison sentences for their religious beliefs, most recently for participating in study circles
. Bahá'í cemeteries have been desecrated and property seized and occasionally demolished, including the House of Mírzá Buzurg, Bahá'u'lláh's father. The House of the Báb in Shiraz
has been destroyed twice, and is one of three sites to which Bahá'ís perform pilgrimage
.
The Islamic Republic has often stated that arrested Baha'is are being detained for "security issues" and are members of "an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular." Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, replies that "the best proof" that Bahais are being persecuted for their faith, not for anti-Iranian activity "is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam ..."
. An estimated 25,000 Jews remain in the country, although approximately 75% of Iran's Jewish population has emigrated during and since the Islamic revolution of 1979 and Iran-Iraq war In the early days after the Islamic revolution in 1979, several Jews were executed on charges of Zionism and relations with Israel. Jews in Iran have constitutional rights equal to other Iranians, although they may not hold government jobs or become army officers. They have freedom to follow their religion, but are not granted the freedom to proselytize. Despite their small numbers, Jews are allotted one representative in parliament.
According to Amir Cyrus Razzaghi, "The government goes to extra lengths to differentiate between the government of Israel, with whom they have fundamental issues, and the Jewish people, especially Iranian Jews… There is a genuine interest to keep the Jewish community in Iran to demonstrate to the world that the government is anti-Israel and not anti-Jewish. Iran's official government-controlled media published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1994 and 1999. Jewish children still attend Jewish schools where Hebrew and religious studies are taught, but Jewish principals have been replaced by Muslim ones, the curricula are government-supervised, and the Jewish Sabbath
is no longer recognized. There are 18 synagogues in Tehran
, Iranian capital. According Jewish journalist Roger Cohen
:
Jewish situation in Iran is hard to determine because of contradictory and biased sources; Roger Cohen
himself was criticized by Jewish groups in USA.
, "hundreds of clerics have been arrested, some defrocked, other left the ranks of the religion on their own, but most of them, including some popular political or intellectual figures such as Hojjatoleslam Abdollah Noori
, a former Interior Minister or Hojjatoleslam Yousefi Eshkevari
, an intellectual, or Hojjatoleslam Mohsen Kadivar
", are "middle rank clerics."
or irreligious people in Iran, including atheists
, agnostics
, sceptics
.
Under the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, beginning in 2005, Iran’s human rights record "has deteriorated markedly" according to the group Human Rights Watch
. The number of offenders executed increased from 86 in 2005 to 317 in 2007. Months-long arbitrary detentions of "peaceful activists, journalists, students, and human rights defenders" and often charged with “acting against national security,” has intensified under President Ahmadinejad
In December 2008, the United Nations General Assembly voted to expressed "deep concern" for Iran's human rights record - particularly "cases of torture; the high incidence of executions and juvenile executions ... ; the persecution of women seeking their human rights; discrimination against minorities and attacks on minority groups like the Baha'is in state media ..." Following the protests over the June 2009 presidential elections, dozens were killed, hundreds arrested - including dozens of opposition leaders - several journalists arrested or beaten, foreign media barred from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations, and Web sites and bloggers threatened. Basij or Revolutionary Guard were reportedly responsible for at least some of the slain protesters.
In 2011 a report was released by the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran stating that human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic appear to be increasing, and that hundreds of prisoners have been secretly executed in the Islamic republic. The report listed "torture, cruel, or degrading treatment of detainees, the imposition of the death penalty in the absence of proper judicial safeguards, [and] the status of women," as alleged abuses by the Islamic Republic justice system, and criticised the detention conditions of, and denial of rights to, opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi and their spouses. Iran's deputy ambassador to the United Nations condemned the report as "poorly sourced, exaggerated and outdated allegations".
As of July 30, 2009, dozens have reportedly been killed and hundreds arrested since the June 2009 elections. The official government tally is 2,500 people arrested and 20 or 30 killed.
The number of protestors remaining in detention according to government officials is either 140, 200 (Kazem Jalali
), or 300 (Ali Reza Jamshidi on state-run Press TV
).
Human rights workers put the estimated dead at well over 100, and international observers believe the number detained is far higher than 140 or 200.
According to the human rights group International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
, doctors in three Tehran hospitals registered the bodies of 34 protesters on June 20 alone, and other doctors have provided similar accounts and estimated a death toll of at least 150 based on corpses they saw. Another report relayed on Web sites and to human rights workers is that that early in July 2009 family members of missing demonstrators were taken to a morgue in southwest Tehran where they saw “hundreds of corpses.” The family members "were not allowed to retrieve bodies unless they certified that the deaths were of natural causes."
Reports of abuse of detainees include "detainees being beaten to death by guards in overcrowded, stinking holding pens." Detainees "fingernails ripped off or ... forced to lick filthy toilet bowls." Among those killed in detention was Mohsen Rouhalamini
, the son of an adviser to the conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai.
In response to complaints President Ahmadinejad issued a letter calling for “Islamic mercy” for detainees, and supreme leader Ali Khamenei
has personally intervened to close the "especially notorious" Kahrizak detention center
.
report, after May 2006 widespread demonstrations related to Iran newspaper cockroach cartoon controversy
in Iranian Azerbaijan hundreds were arrested and some reportedly killed by the security forces, although official sources downplayed the scale of arrests and killings. Further arrests occurred, many around events and dates significant to the Azerbaijani community such as the Babek Castle gathering in Kalayber in June, and a boycott of the start of the new academic year over linguistic rights for the Azerbaijani community."
, the Iranian government has been attempting to depoliticize Iran's student body or make it supportive of the government by stopping students that hold contrary political views from attending higher education, despite the acceptance of those students by their universities. According to Human Rights Watch
, this practice has been coupled with academic suspensions, arrests, and jail terms.
According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
, women’s rights advocates for the One Million Signatures
Campaign have been "beaten, harassed and persecuted for peacefully demonstrating" and collecting signatures on behalf of their Campaign.
Some Iranian victims include:
's 2010 press freedom survey . According to the Reporters Without Borders
Press Freedom Index for 2007, Iran ranked 166th out of 169 nations. Only three other countries - Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan - had more restrictions on news media freedom than Iran.
According to the International Press Institute
and Reporters Without Borders
, the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Supreme National Security Council
had imprisoned 50 journalists in 2007 and had all but eliminated press freedom. RWB has dubbed Iran the "Middle East's biggest prison for journalists."
85 newspapers, including 41 dailies, were shut down from 2000 to the end of 2002 following the passing of the "April 2000 press law." There are currently 10 journalists in prison. The "red lines" of press censorship in Iran are said to be questioning rule by clerics (velayat-e faqih) and direct attacks on the Supreme Leader
. Red lines have also drawn against writing that "insults Islam, is sexually explicit, "politically subversive," or is allegedly "confusing public opinion."
Journalists are frequently warned or summoned if they are perceived as critical of the government, and topics such as U.S. relations and the country's nuclear program are forbidden subjects for reporting.
In February 2008 the journalist Yaghoob Mirnehad was sentenced to death on charges of "membership in the terrorist Jundallah
group as well as crimes against national security." Mirnehad was executed on July 5, 2008.
In November 2007 freelance journalist Adnan Hassanpour received a death sentence for "undermining national security," "spying," "separatist propaganda" and being a mohareb (fighter against God). He refused to sign a confessions, and it is theorized that he was arrested for his work with US-funded radio stations Radio Farda
and Voice of America
. Hassanpour's sentence was overturned on September 4, 2008, by the Tehran Supreme Court. Hassanpour still faces espionage charges.
In June 2008 the Iranian Ministry of Labor stated that the 4,000 member journalists' union, founded in 1997, was "fit for dissolution."
's film Silence Between Two Thoughts was seized by Iranian authorities, and Payami smuggled a digital copy out of Iran which was subsequently screened
in several film festivals.
called on the Iranian government "to stop persecuting people" involved in the "One Million Signatures
" campaign or "Campaign for Equality" - an attempt to collect one million signatures "for a petition to push for an end to discrimination against women." According to AI, "Dozens of women have been arrested," suffered harassment, intimidation and imprisonment. One campaigner, Delaram Ali
, 23, "was sentenced to nearly three years in prison and 10 lashes for participation in an illegal gathering." Her punishment has been suspended while her case is re-examined.
Blogger and political activist Samiye Tohidlou
was sentenced to 50 lashes for her activities during protests at the 2009 presidential campaign
. Activist Peyman Aref was sentenced to 74 lashes for writing an "insulting" open letter to President Ahmadinejad, in which he criticised the president's crackdown on politically active students. An unnamed Iranian journalist based in Tehran commented: "Lashing Aref for insulting Ahmadinejad is shocking and unprecedented."
an Iranian American scholar in Iran visiting her 93-year-old mother, was detained in Evin Prison
and kept in solitary confinement for more than 110 days. She was one of several visiting Iranian Americans prohibited from leaving Iran in 2007. In December 2008, the presidents of the American National Academy of Sciences
issued a warning to "American scientists and academics" against traveling to Iran without ‘clear assurances’ that their personal safety ‘will be guaranteed and that they will be treated with dignity and respect’, after Glenn Schweitzer, who has coordinated the academies’ programs in Iran for the past decade, was detained and interrogated.
Reporters Without Borders also believes that it is the Iranian "government’s desire to rid the Iranian Internet of all independent information concerning the political opposition, the women’s movement and human rights”. Where the government cannot legally stop sites it uses advanced blocking software to prevent access to them. In a report released 11 March 2010, Reporters Without Borders
labeled three governments — China, Iran and Tunisia — "Enemies of the Internet," for stepped up efforts to censor the Internet and jail dissidents. However, more detailed Google
research list excluded Iran from Top 10 censorship list (Brazil, USA, UK, etc.).
Political prisoners who recently died in prison under "suspicious circumstances" include:
revealed an October 2005 confidential letter from Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Iran to identify Bahá'ís and to monitor their activities and in November 2005 the state-run and influential Kayhan
newspaper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei
, ran nearly three dozen articles defaming the Bahá'í Faith.
Due to these actions, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights stated on March 20, 2006 that she "also expresses concern that the information gained as a result of such monitoring will be used as a basis for the increased persecution of, and discrimination against, members of the Bahá'í faith, in violation of international standards. … The Special Rapporteur is concerned that this latest development indicates that the situation with regard to religious minorities in Iran is, in fact, deteriorating."
In March and in May 2008, "senior members" forming the leadership of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested by officers from the Ministry of Intelligence and taken to Evin prison
.
They have not been charged, and they seem to be prisoners of conscience.
The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has stated that they are concerned for the safety of the Bahá'ís, and that the recent events are similar to the disappearance of 25 Bahá'í leaders in the early 1980s.
Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi
and many of his followers were arrested in Tehran on October 8, 2006. According to mardaninews website, judicial authorities have reportedly released no information concerning Boroujerdi's prosecution and “associates” of Ayatollah Boroujerdi have told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran “that his heart and kidney conditions are grave but he has had no access to specialist care.”
(CEDAW) since the convention contradicted the Islamic Sharia
law in Clause A of its single article.
In a report released Oct. 20, 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
called "discriminatory provisions" against women in criminal and civil laws in Iran "in urgent need of reform," and said gender-based violence was "widespread."
Today Show report by Matt Lauer.
"Guidance Patrols" (gasht-e ershâd) — often referred to as "religious police" in Western media — enforce Islamic moral values and dress codes. Reformist politicians have criticized the unpopular patrols but the patrols ‘interminable’ according to Iranian judicial authorities who have pointed out that in the Islamic Republic the president does not have control over the enforcement of dress codes.
. International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran states that of the 32 executions of juvenile offenders that have taken place in the world since January 2005, 26 occurred in Iran. In 2007 Iran executed eight juvenile offenders.
In July of that year, Amnesty International
issued a comprehensive 46 page report titled Iran: The last executioner of children noting Iran had executed more children between 1990 and 2005 than any other state, adding that "after Iran, the USA has been responsible for the next highest number of executions of child offenders."
Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Article 6.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares: “Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age” and the article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that: “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.
In January 2005, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors states' compliance with the CRC, urged Iran to immediately stay all executions of child offenders and to abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases. In the summer of 2006, the Iranian Parliament reportedly passed a bill establishing special courts for children and adolescents. However, it has not yet been approved by the Council of Guardians, which supervises Iran's legislation to ensure conformity with Islamic principles. During the past four years, the Iranian authorities have reportedly been considering legislation to ban the death penalty for child offenders. Recent comments by a judiciary spokesperson indicates that the proposed law would only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes, and not all crimes committed by children.
In spite of these efforts, the number of child offenders executed in Iran has risen during the past two years. As of July 2008, Stop Child Executions Campaign
has recorded over 130 children facing executions in Iran.
In late 2007, Iranian authorities hanged Makwan Mouludzadeh in Kermanshah prison for crimes he is alleged to have committed when he was 13 years of age. According to Human Rights Watch, this was despite the fact that his accusers had recanted their statements and Mouladzadeh had repudiated his confession as being coerced by the police, and despite the fact that the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, had ordered a unit of the Judiciary to investigate the case and refer it back to the Penal Court of Kermanshah, before any final decision on an execution.
A 2004 case that gained international attention was the hanging of 16-year-old school girl Atefah Sahaaleh
.
in 1979.
, but it is "housed in a government building and headed by the chief of the judiciary," and not considered particularly concerned with human rights abuses according to Nobel peace prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi
and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center
.
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ians and international human right activists, writers, and NGOs. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques and several resolutions.
The government of Iran is criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, and for actions that do not, such as the torture, rape, and killing of political prisoners, and the beatings and killings of dissidents and other civilians.
Alleged restrictions and punishments lawful in the Islamic Republic which violate international human rights norms include: harsh penalties for crimes; punishment of "victimless crimes" such as fornication
Fornication
Fornication typically refers to consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. For many people, the term carries a moral or religious association, but the significance of sexual acts to which the term is applied varies between religions, societies and cultures. The...
, homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
; execution of offenders under 18 years of age; restrictions on freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, and the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
, including the imprisonment of journalists; unequal treatment according to religion and gender
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
in the Islamic Republic's Constitution - especially attacks on members of the Bahá'í
Persecution of Bahá'ís
The persecution of Bahá'ís is the religious persecution of Bahá'ís in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Bahá'í Faith originated and the location of one of the largest Bahá'í populations in the world...
religion.
Reported abuses falling outside of the laws of the Islamic Republic that have been condemned include the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, and the widespread use of torture to extract repudiations by prisoners of their cause and comrades on video for propaganda purposes. Also condemned has been firebombings of newspaper offices and attacks on political protesters by "quasi-official organs of repression," particularly "Hezbollahi
Hezbollah of Iran
The Hezbollah, or Party of God, is an Iranian movement formed at the time of the Iranian Revolution to assist the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his forces in consolidating power...
," and the murder of dozens of government opponents
Chain murders of Iran
The Chain Murders of Iran , or Serial Murders, were a series of murders and disappearances from 1988-1998 by Iranian government operatives of Iranian dissident intellectuals who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way.The victims included more than 80 writers, translators,...
in the 1990s, allegedly by "rogue elements" of the government.
Under the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran’s human rights record "has deteriorated markedly" according to the group Human Rights Watch, and following the 2009 election protests
2009 Iranian election protests
Protests following the 2009 Iranian presidential election against the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi occurred in major cities in Iran and around the world starting June 13, 2009...
there were reports of killing of demonstrators, the torture, rape and killing of detained protesters, and the arrest and publicized mass trials of dozens of prominent opposition figures in which defendants "read confessions that bore every sign of being coerced."
Officials of the Islamic Republic have responded to criticism by stating the IRI is not obliged to follow "the West's interpretation" of human rights," and that the Islamic Republic is a victim of "biased propaganda of enemies" which is "part of a greater plan against the world of Islam." According to Iranian officials, those who human rights activists say are peaceful political activists being denied due process rights are actually guilty of offenses against the national security of the country, and those protesters claiming Ahmadinejad stole the 2009 election are actually part of a foreign-backed plot to topple Iran's leaders.
History
The Islamic revolution is thought by at least one scholar to have a significantly worse human rights record than the Pahlavi Dynasty it overthrew. According to political historian Ervand Abrahamian, “whereas less than 100 political prisonerPolitical prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s had been executed between 1971 and 1979, more than 7900 were executed between 1981 and 1985. ... the prison system was centralized and drastically expanded ... Prison life was drastically worse under the Islamic Republic than under the Pahlavis. One who survived both writes that four months under [warden] Ladjevardi
Asadollah Lajevardi
Asadollah Lajevardi, was the warden of the Evin Prison in Tehran Iran from June 1981 until 1985 when he was replaced due to complaints of other clergy. He was assassinated by supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran on August 22, 1998.-Career:Asadollah Lajevardi was born in Tehran on 1935...
took the toll of four years under SAVAK
SAVAK
SAVAK was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah on the recommendation of the British Government and with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور...
. In the prison literature of the Pahlavi era, the recurring words had been ‘boredom’ and ‘monotony’. In that of the Islamic Republic, they were ‘fear’, ‘death’, ‘terror’, ‘horror’, and most frequent of all ‘nightmare’ (‘kabos’).”
However, the vast majority of killings of political prisoners occurred in the first decade of the Islamic Republic, after which violent repression lessened. With the rise of the Iranian reform movement and the election of moderate Iranian president Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...
in 1997 numerous moves were made to modify the Iranian civil and penal codes in order to improve the human rights situation. The predominantly reformist parliament drafted several bills allowing increased freedom of speech, gender equality, and the banning of torture. These were all dismissed or significantly watered down by the Guardian Council
Guardian Council
The Guardian Council of the Constitution , also known as the Guardian Council or Council of Guardians, is an appointed and constitutionally-mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in the Islamic Republic of Iran....
and leading conservative figures in the Iranian government at the time.
According to The Economist magazine,
The Tehran spring of ten years ago has now given way to a bleak political winter. The new government continues to close down newspapers, silence dissenting voices and ban or censor books and websites. The peaceful demonstrations and protests of the KhatamiKhatami-Politicians:* Mohammad Khatami , Iranian reformist President, former President of Iran * Mohammad Reza Khatami , Iranian reformist politician, Vice Speaker of Iranian Parliament and brother of Mohammad Khatami...
era are no longer tolerated: in January 2007 security forces attacked striking bus drivers in TehranTehranTehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
and arrested hundreds of them. In March police beat hundreds of men and women who had assembled to commemorate International Women's DayInternational Women's DayInternational Women's Day , originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and...
.
International criticism
Since the founding of the Islamic Republic, human rights violations of religious minorities have been the subject of resolutions and decisions by the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and its human rights bodies, the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
and United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
.
According to The Minority Rights Group
Minority Rights Group International
Minority Rights Group International is an organisation founded with the objective of promoting respect for the human rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples around the world...
, in 1985 Iran became "the fourth country ever in the history of the United Nations" to be placed on the agenda of the General Assembly because of "the severity and the extent of this human rights record".
From 1984 to 2001, United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
(UNCHR) passed resolutions about human rights violations against Iran's religious minorities especially the Bahá'ís. The UNCHR did not pass such a resolution in 2002, when the government of Iran extended an invitation to the UN "Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression" to visit the country and investigate complaints. However, according to the organization Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, when these officials did visit the country, found human rights conditions wanting and issued reports critical of the Islamic government, not only did the government not implement their recommendations", it retaliated "against witnesses who testified to the experts."
In 2003 the resolutions began again with Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
sponsoring a resolution criticizing Iran's "confirmed instances of torture, stoning as a method of execution and punishment such as flogging and amputations," following the death of an Iranian-born Canadian citizen, Zahra Kazemi
Zahra Kazemi
Zahra "Ziba" Kazemi-Ahmadabadi was an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer, residing in Montreal, Canada, who died in the custody of Iranian officials following her arrest....
, in an Iranian prison.
The resolution has passed in the UN General Assembly every year since.
The European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
has also criticized the Islamic Republic's human rights record, expressing concern in 2005, 2007 and on October 6, 2008 presenting a message to Iran's ambassador in Paris expressing concern over the worsening human rights situation in Iran. On 13 October 2005, the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
voted to adopt a resolution condemning the Islamic government's disregard of the human rights of its citizens. Later that year, Iran's government announced it would suspend dialogue with the European Union concerning human rights in Iran.
On February 9, 2010, the European Union and United States issued a joint statement condemning "continuing human rights violations" in Iran.
Relative openness
One observation made by non-governmental sources of the state of human rights in the Islamic Republic is that it is not so severe that the Iranian public is afraid to criticize its government publicly to strangers. In SyriaSyria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
"taxi driver[s] rarely talk politics; the Iranian[s] will talk of nothing else."
A theory of why human rights abuse in the Islamic Republic is not as bad as some other countries comes from American journalist Elaine Sciolino
Elaine Sciolino
Elaine Sciolino is a Paris correspondent and former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times, writing from France since 2002.-Biography:...
who speculated that
Shiite Islam thrives on debate and discussion ... So freedom of thought and expression is essential to the system, at least within the top circles of religious leadership. And if the mullahMullahMullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
s can behave that way among themselves in places like the holy city of QomQomQom is a city in Iran. It lies by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 957,496, in 241,827 families. It is situated on the banks of the Qom River....
, how can the rest of a modern-day society be told it cannot think and explore the world of experience for itself?
Perspective of the Islamic Republic
Iranian officials have not always agreed on the state of human rights in Iran. In April 2004, reformist president Mohammad KhatamiMohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...
stated "we certainly have political prisoners [in Iran] and ... people who are in prison for their ideas." Two days later, however, he was contradicted by Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi is a moderate Iraqi-Iranian politician and Twelver Shi'a Marja. Hashemi Shahroudi was the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has caused objections to his serving as the head of Iran's Judiciary System upon his...
, saying "we have no political prisoners in Iran" because Iranian law does not mention such offenses, ... "The world may consider certain cases, by their nature, political crimes, but because we do not have a law in this regard, these are considered ordinary offenses."
Iran's president President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other government officials have compared Iran's human rights record favorably to other countries, particularly countries that have criticized Iran's record. In a 2008 speech, he replied to a question about human rights by stating that Iran has fewer prisoners than the US and "the human rights situation in Iran is relatively a good one, when compared ... with some European countries and the United States."
In a 2007 speech to the United Nations, he commented on human rights only to say "certain powers" (unnamed) were guilty of violating it, "setting up secret prisons, abducting persons, trials and secret punishments without any regard to due process, .... " Islamic Republic officials have also attacked Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights.
Explanations for violations
Among the explanation for violations of human rights in the Islamic Republic are:Theological differences
The legal and governing principles upon which the Islamic Republic of Iran is based differ in some respects from the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human RightsUniversal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
.
- Sharia law, as interpreted in the Islamic Republic (and by many Muslims), calls for inequality of rights between genders, religions, sexual orientation, as well as for other internationally criticised practices such as stoning as a method of execution. In 1984, Iran's representative to the United Nations, Sai Rajaie-Khorassani, declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be representing a "secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which could not be implemented by Muslims and did not "accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran" which would "therefore not hesitate to violate its provisions."
- According to scholar Ervand Abrahamian, in the eyes of Iranian officials, "the survival of the Islamic Republic - and therefore of Islam itself - justified the means used," and trumped any right of the individual. In a fatwaFatwaA fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in early 1988, he declared Iran's Islamic government "a branch of the absolute governance of the Prophet of God" and "among the primary ordinances of Islam," having "precedence over all secondary ordinances such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage."
Rights under the constitution
The Iranian fundamental lawConstitution of Islamic Republic of Iran
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted by referendum on October 24, 1979, and went into force on December 3 of that year, replacing the Constitution of 1906. It was amended on July 28, 1989. The constitution has been called a "hybrid" of "authoritarian, theocratic and...
or constitution calls for equal rights among races, ethnic groups (article 19). It calls for gender equality (article 20), and protection of the rights of women (article 21); freedom of expression (article 23); freedom of press and communication (article 24) and freedom of association (article 27). Three recognized religious minorities "are free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies."
However, along with these guarantees the constitution includes what one scholar calls "ominous Catch-22s
Catch-22 (logic)
A Catch-22, coined by Joseph Heller in his novel Catch-22, is a logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs something that can only be acquired with an action that will lead him to that very situation he is already in; therefore, the acquisition of this thing becomes...
", such as “All laws and regulations must conform to the principles of Islam.” The rights of women, of expression, of communication and association, of the press - are followed by modifiers such as "within the limits of the law", "within the precepts of Islam", "unless they attack the principles of Islam", "unless the Law states otherwise", "as long as it does not interfere with the precepts of Islam."
Provisions in violation of Human Rights
The Iranian penal code is derived from the Shari'a and is not always in compliance with international norms of human rights.The Iranian penal code distinguishes two types of punishments: Hudud
Hudud
Hudud is the word often used in Islamic literature for the bounds of acceptable behaviour and the punishments for serious crimes...
(fixed punishment) and the Qisas
Qisas
Qisas is an Islamic term meaning "retaliation," and follows the principle of an eye for an eye, or lex talionis, first set forth by Hammurabi, and subsequently included in the Old Testament and later legal codes...
(retribution
Retributive justice
Retributive justice is a theory of justice that considers that punishment, if proportionate, is a morally acceptable response to crime, with an eye to the satisfaction and psychological benefits it can bestow to the aggrieved party, its intimates and society....
) or Diyya
Diyya
Diyya is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom.-Islamic and Arab tradition:The Qur'an specifies the principle of Qisas Diyya (plural: Diyyat; ) is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and...
(Blood money
Blood money (term)
Blood money is money or some sort of compensation paid by an offender or his family group to the family or kin group of the victim.-Particular examples and uses:...
or Talion Law
An eye for an eye
The meaning of the principle, an eye for an eye, is that a person who has injured another person receives the same injury in compensation. The exact Latin to English translation of this phrase is actually "The law of retaliation." At the root of this principle is that one of the purposes of the...
). Punishments falling within the category of Hududs are applied to people committing offenses against the State, such as adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
, alcohol consumption, burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
or petty theft, rebellions against Islamic authority, apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
and homosexual intercourse
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
(considered contrary to the spirit of Islam). Punishments include death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
, stoning
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
or decapitation
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
, amputation
Amputation
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
or flagellation
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
. Victims of private crimes, such as murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
or rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, can exercise a right to retribution (Qisas) or decide to accept "blood money" (Diyyah or Talion Law).
Harsh punishments
Following traditional shariah punishment for thieves, courts in Iran have sometimes sentenced offenders to amputation of both "the right hand and left foot cut off, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the condemned to walk, even with a cane or crutches." This was the fate, for example, of five convicted robbers in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province in January 2008 according to the news agency ISNA.Shariah also includes stoning and explicitly states that stones used must be small enough to not kill instantly. As of July 2010, The Iranian penal code authorizes stoning as a punishment. However, Iran says a new draft of the penal code that has removed stoning is currently under review by the Iranian parliament and has yet to be ratified.
The use of stoning as a punishment may be declining or banned altogether. In December 2002, Ayatollah Shahroudi
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi is a moderate Iraqi-Iranian politician and Twelver Shi'a Marja. Hashemi Shahroudi was the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has caused objections to his serving as the head of Iran's Judiciary System upon his...
, head of the judicial system, reportedly sent judges a memorandum requesting the suspension of stoning and asking them to choose other forms of sanctions. In 2005, Amnesty International reported that Iran was about to execute a woman by stoning for adultery. Amnesty urged Tehran to give reprieve to the woman. Her sentence is currently on hold pending "consideration by the pardons commission." According to the Iranian officials "Stoning has been dropped from the penal code for a long time, and in the Islamic republic, we do not see such punishments being carried out", said judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad. He added that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were over-ruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out." According to Amnesty International, in July 2010, the Iranian parliament began considering a revision to its penal code that would ban stoning as a punishment.
Gender issues
The Iranian legislation does not accord the same rights to women as to men in all areas of the law.- In the section of the penal code devoted to blood money, or DiyyaDiyyaDiyya is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom.-Islamic and Arab tradition:The Qur'an specifies the principle of Qisas Diyya (plural: Diyyat; ) is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and...
, the value of woman's life is half that of a man ("for instance, if a car hit both on the street, the cash compensation due to the woman's family was half that due the man's") - The testimony of a male witness is equivalent to that of two female witnesses.
- A woman needs her husband's permission to work outside the home or leave the country.
In the inheritance law of the Islamic Republic there are several instances where the woman is entitled to half the inheritance of the man. For example:
- If a man dies without offspring, his estate is inherited by his parents. If both the parents are alive, the mother receives 1/3 and the father 2/3 of the inheritance, unless the mother has a hojab (relative who reduces her part, such as brothers and sisters of the deceased (article 886)), in which case she shall receive 1/6, and the father 5/6. (Article 906)
- If the dead man's closest heirs are aunts and uncles, the part of the inheritance belonging to the uncle is twice that belonging to the aunt. (Article 920)
- When the heirs are children, the inheritance of the sons is twice that of the daughters. (Article 907)
- If the deceased leaves ancestors and brothers and sisters (kalaleh), 2/3s of the estate goes to the heirs which have relationship on the side of the father; and in dividing up this portion the males take twice the portion of the females; however, the 1/3 going to the heirs on the mother’s side is divided equally. (Article 924)
According to Zahra Eshraghi, granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini,
"Discrimination here [in Iran] is not just in the constitution. As a woman, if I want to get a passport to leave the country, have surgery, even to breathe almost, I must have permission from my husband."
Compulsory hijab
Post-pubescent women are required to cover their hair and body in Iran and can be arrested for failing to do so.
Freedom of expression and media
The 1985 press law prohibits "discourse harmful to the principles of Islam" and "public interest", as referred to in Article 24 of the constitution, which according to Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
provides "officials with ample opportunity to censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, restrict, and find offense."
Freedom and equality of religion
The constitution recognizes the freedom of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Iranians
Demographics of Iran
Iran's population increased dramatically during the later half of the 20th century, reaching about 75 million by 2011. In recent years, however, Iran's birth rate has dropped significantly. Studies project that Iran's rate of population growth will continue to slow until it stabilizes above 100...
to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and accords non-Shia Muslims "full respect" (article 12). However the Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
is banned. The Islamic Republic has stated Baha'is or their leadership are "an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular," that threaten Iran. The International Federation for Human Rights and others believe the government's policy of persecution of Bahá'ís
Persecution of Bahá'ís
The persecution of Bahá'ís is the religious persecution of Bahá'ís in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Bahá'í Faith originated and the location of one of the largest Bahá'í populations in the world...
stems from some Bahá'í teachings challenging traditional Islamic religious doctrines - particularly the finality of Muhammad's prophethood
Seal of the Prophets
Seal of the Prophets is a title given to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by a verse in the Qur'an. Muslims traditionally agree upon that Muhammad received the final revelation in the form of the Qur'an for all mankind, for all time....
- and place Bahá'ís outside the Islamic faith
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
. Irreligious people are also not recognized and do not have basic rights such as education, becoming member of parliament etc.
Hudud
Hudud
Hudud is the word often used in Islamic literature for the bounds of acceptable behaviour and the punishments for serious crimes...
statutes grant different punishments to Muslims and non-Muslims for the same crime. In the case of adultery, for example, a Muslim man who is convicted of committing adultery with a Muslim woman receives 100 lashes; the sentence for a non-Muslim man convicted of adultery with a Muslim woman is death. In 2004, inequality of "blood money" (diyeh) was eliminated, and the amount paid by a perpetrator for the death or wounding a Christian, Jew, or Zoroastrian man, was made the same as that for a Muslim. However, the International Religious Freedom Report reports that Baha'is were not included in the provision and their blood is considered Mobah, (i.e. it can be spilled with impunity).
Freedom to convert from Islam to another religion
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
(apostasy), is prohibited and may be punishable by death. Article 23 of the constitution states, "the investigation of individuals' beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief." But another article, 167, gives judges the discretion "to deliver his judgment on the basis of authoritative Islamic sources and authentic fatwa (rulings issued by qualified clerical jurists)." The founder of the Islamic Republic, Islamic cleric Ruhollah Khomeini, who was a grand Ayatollah
Ayatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...
, ruled "that the penalty for conversion from Islam, or apostasy, is death."
At least two Iranians - Hashem Aghajari
Hashem Aghajari
Hashem Aghajari also Seyyed Hashem Aghajari is an Iranian historian, university professor and a critic of the Islamic Republic's government who was sentenced to death in 2002 for apostasy for a speech he gave on Islam urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics...
and Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari
Yousefi Eshkevari
Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari is an Iranian cleric, researcher, journalist, reformist and former political prisoner. He has been described as "an active supporter of the revolution" who became "an outspoken and influential critic of the current Iranian version of theocracy." In 2002 he...
- have been arrested and charged with apostasy (though not executed), not for converting to another faith but for statements and/or activities deemed by courts of the Islamic Republic to be in violation of Islam, and that appear to outsiders to be Islamic reformist political expression. Hashem Aghajari
Hashem Aghajari
Hashem Aghajari also Seyyed Hashem Aghajari is an Iranian historian, university professor and a critic of the Islamic Republic's government who was sentenced to death in 2002 for apostasy for a speech he gave on Islam urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics...
, was found guilty of apostasy for a speech urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics; Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari was charged with apostasy for attending the 'Iran After the Elections' Conference
'Iran After the Elections' Conference
The "Iran After the Elections" Conference was a three-day social and cultural conference on reform in Iran organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and held in Berlin on April 7 and 8, 2000...
in Berlin Germany which was disrupted by anti-government demonstrators.
The small Protestant Christian minority in Iran have been subject to Islamic "government suspicion and hostility" according to Human Rights Watch at least in part because of their "readiness to accept and even seek out Muslim converts" as well as their Western origins. In the 1990s, two Muslim converts to Christianity who had become ministers were sentenced to death for apostasy and other charges.
Youcef Nadarkhani
Youcef Nadarkhani
Youcef Nadarkhani is an Iranian Christian pastor who has been sentenced to die in Tehran...
is an Iranian Christian pastor who has been sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith.
Political freedom
In a 2008 report, the organization Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
complained that "broadly worded `security laws`" in Iran are used to ”to arbitrarily suppress and punish individuals for peaceful political expression, association, and assembly, in breach of international human rights treaties to which Iran is party." For example, "connections to foreign institutions, persons, or sources of funding" are enough to bring criminal charges such as "undermining national security" against individuals.
Ahmad Batebi
Ahmad Batebi
Ahmad Batebi is a former prisoner of conscience. During his studies at the University of Tehran he gained international fame for his appearance on the July 17, 1999 cover of The Economist magazine, holding up a shirt splattered with the blood of a fellow protester.The photo, which has been called...
, a demonstrator in the July 1999 Student demonstrations
Iran student riots, July 1999
Iranian Student Protests of July, 1999 were, before the 2009 Iranian election protests, the most widespread and violent public protests to occur in Iran since the early years of the Iranian Revolution.The protests began on July 8 with peaceful demonstrations in Tehran against the closure of the...
in Iran, was given a death sentence for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic System." (His sentence was later reduced to 15, and then ten years imprisonment.) A photograph of Batebi holding a bloody shirt aloft was printed on the cover of The Economist magazine.
Children's rights
The Islamic Republic does exempt children from criminal responsibility, but defines children not as someone under 18 years of age but as a boy under 15 lunar yearsLunar calendar
A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...
or a girl under 9 lunar years of age. The Islamic Republic defines a child as someone who has not reached the age of puberty (bulugh) as stipulated by the Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
. Consequently there have been executions of offenders under the age of 18 in Iran, at least 23 executions have been recorded since 1990.
A bill to set the minimum age for the death penalty at 18 years was examined by the parliament
Majlis of Iran
The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
in December 2003, but it was not ratified by the Guardian Council of the Constitution
Guardian Council
The Guardian Council of the Constitution , also known as the Guardian Council or Council of Guardians, is an appointed and constitutionally-mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in the Islamic Republic of Iran....
, the unelected body that has veto power over parliamentary bills. In a September 2008 interview President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was asked about the execution of minors and replied that "the legal age in Iran is different from yours. It’s not eighteen ... it’s different in different countries."
Extralegal violations of human rights
A 2005 Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
document criticizes "Parallel Institutions" (nahad-e movazi) in the Islamic Republic, "the quasi-official organs of repression that have become increasingly open in crushing student protests, detaining activists, writers, and journalists in secret prisons, and threatening pro-democracy speakers and audiences at public events." Under the control of the Office of the Supreme Leader
Supreme leader
A supreme leader typically refers to a figure in the highest leadership position of an entity, group, organization, or state, who exercises strong or all-powerful authority over it. In religion, the supreme leader or supreme leaders is God or Gods...
, these groups set up arbitrary checkpoints around Tehran, uniformed police often refraining from directly confronting these plainclothes agents. "Illegal prisons, which are outside of the oversight of the National Prisons Office, are sites where political prisoners are abused, intimidated, and tortured with impunity."
According to dissident Akbar Ganji
Akbar Ganji
Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist and writer. He has been described as "Iran’s preeminent political dissident", and a "wildly popular pro-democracy journalist" who has crossed press censorship "red lines" regularly...
, what might appear to be "extra-legal" killings in Iran are actually not outside the penal code of the Islamic Republic since the code "authorises a citizen to assassinate another if he is judged to be ‘impious’," Some widely condemned punishments issued by the Islamic Republic - the torture of prisoners and the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 have been reported to follow at least some form of Islamic law and legal procedures, though they have also not been publicly acknowledged by the government.
Extra-legal acts may work in tandem with official actions, such as in the case of the newsweekly Tamadone Hormozgan in Bandar Abbas, where authorities arrested seven journalists in 2007 for “insulting Ayatollah Khomeini,” while government organisations and Quranic schools organized vigilantes to "ransacked and set fire" to the paper's offices.
Torture and mistreatment of prisoners
Article 38 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic forbids "all forms of tortureTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information" and the "compulsion of individuals to testify, confess, or take an oath." It also states that "any testimony, confession, or oath obtained under duress is devoid of value and credence."
Nonetheless human rights groups and observers have complained that torture is frequently used on political prisoners in Iran. In a study of torture in Iran published in 1999, Iranian-born political historian Ervand Abrahamian
Ervand Abrahamian
Ervand Abrahamian is a historian of Middle Eastern and particularly Iranian history.An Armenian born in Iran and raised in England, he received his M.A. at Oxford University and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He teaches at the City University of New York where he is Distinguished Professor of...
included Iran along with "Stalinist Russia
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, Maoist China, and early modern Europe" of the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
and witch hunts, as societies that "can be considered to be in a league of their own" in the systematic use of torture.
Torture techniques used in the Islamic Republic include:
whipping, sometimes of the back but most often of the feet with the body tied on an iron bed; the qapani; deprivation of sleep; suspension from ceiling and high walls; twisting of forearms until they broke; crushing of hands and fingers between metal presses; insertion of sharp instruments under the fingernails; cigarette burns; submersion under water; standing in one place for hours on end; mock executions; and physical threats against family members. Of these, the most prevalent was the whipping of soles, obviously because it was explicitly sanctioned by the sharia.
Two "innovations" in torture not borrowed from the Shah's regime were
the ‘coffin’, and compulsory watching of - and even participation in - executions. Some were placed in small cubicles, [50cm x 80cm x 140cm (20 inches x 31.5 inches x 55 inches)] blindfolded and in absolute silence, for 17-hour stretches with two 15-minute breaks for eating and going to the toilet. These stints could last months - until the prisoner agreed to the interview. Few avoided the interview and also remained sane. Others were forced to join firing squads and remove dead bodies. When they returned to their cells with blood dripping from their hands, Their roommates surmised what had transpired. ...."
According to Abrahamian, torture became commonly used in the Islamic Republic because of its effectiveness in inducing political prisoners to make public confessions. Recorded and edited on videotape, the standard statements by prisoners included not only confessions to subversion and treason, but praise of the Islamic Revolution and denunciation or recantation of their former beliefs, former organization, former co-members, i.e. their life. These recantations served as powerful propaganda for both the Iranian public at large - who by the 1980s almost all had access to television and could watch prime time programs devoted to the taped confessions - and the recanters' former colleagues, for whom the denunciations were demoralizing and confusing. From the moment they arrived in prison, through their interrogation prisoners were asked if they were willing to give an "interview." (mosahebah) "Some remained incarcerated even after serving their sentences simply because they declined the honor of being interviewed."
Scholars disagree over whether at least some forms of torture have been made legal according to the Qanon-e Ta'zir (Discretionary Punishment Law) of the Islamic Republic. Abrahamian argues statutes forbidding ‘lying to the authorities’ and ability of clerics to be both interrogators and judges, applying an "indefinite series of 74 lashings until they obtain `honest answers`" without the delay of a trial, make this a legal form of torture. Another scholar, Christoph Werner, claims he could find no Ta'zir law mentioning lying to authorities but did find one specifically banning torture in order to obtain confessions.
Abrahamian also argues that a strong incentive to produce a confession by a defendant (and thus to pressure the defendant to confess) is the Islamic Republic's allowing of a defendant’s confession plus judges "reasoning" to constitute sufficient proof of guilt. He also states this is an innovation from the traditional sharia standard for (some) capital crimes of `two honest and righteous male witnesses`.
Several bills passed the Iranian Parliament
Majlis of Iran
The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
that would have had Iran joining the international convention on banning torture in 2003 when reformists controlled Parliament, but were rejected by the Guardian Council
Guardian Council
The Guardian Council of the Constitution , also known as the Guardian Council or Council of Guardians, is an appointed and constitutionally-mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence in the Islamic Republic of Iran....
.
Chronicle of Higher Education International, reports that the widespread practice of raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
women imprisoned for engaging in political protest has been effective in keeping female college students "less outspoken and less likely to take part" in political demonstrations. The journal quotes an Iranian college student as saying, "most of the girls arrested are raped in jail. Families can't cope with that."
Killings during the first decade
As with many revolutionsRevolutionary terror
Revolutionary terror ) refers to the institutionalized application of force to counterrevolutionaries, particularly during the French Revolution from the years 1793 to 1794...
there were many executions and killing of opponents during the early years of the Islamic Republic. Between January 1980 and the overthrow of President Abolhassan Banisadr
Abolhassan Banisadr
Abulhassan Banisadr is an Iranian politician, economist and human rights activist who served as the first President of Iran from 4 February 1980 after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy until his impeachment on 21 June 1981 by the Parliament of Iran...
in June 1981, at least 906 government opponents were executed. From June 1981 to June 1985, another 8000+ were executed. Critics complained of brief trials lacking defense attorneys, juries, transparency or opportunity for the accused to defend themselves. In 1988 several thousand political prisoners were executed, estimates ranging somewhere between 8000 and 30,000. Since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
there have been far fewer government sanctioned killings in Iran.
Extra-judicial killings
In the 1990s there were a number of unsolved murders and disappearances of intellectuals and political activists who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way. In 1998 these complaints came to a head with the killing of three dissident writers (Mohammad Jafar PouyandehMohammad Jafar Pouyandeh
Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, was an Iranian author and "one of the active translators of the country" who is most famous for being one of the victims of the Chain murders of Iran....
, Mohammad Mokhtari
Mohammad Mokhtari
Mohammad Mokhtari was an Iranian writer who was murdered on the outskirts of Tehran in the course of the Chain Murders of Iran. He left his residence at five o'clock in the afternoon of December 2 1998, reportedly to buy light bulbs on Jordan Boulevard in north Tehran...
, Majid Sharif
Majid Sharif
Majid Sharif was an Iranian translator and journalist who was one of the victims of the Chain murders of Iran. He was a follower of the late Islamist modernist leftist theoretician Ali Shariati...
), a political leader (Dariush Forouhar
Dariush Forouhar
Dariush Forouhar was a founder and leader of the Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran , a pan-Iranist opposition party in Iran and served as Minister of Labor in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979...
) and his wife in the span of two months, in what became known as the Chain murders
Chain murders of Iran
The Chain Murders of Iran , or Serial Murders, were a series of murders and disappearances from 1988-1998 by Iranian government operatives of Iranian dissident intellectuals who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way.The victims included more than 80 writers, translators,...
or 1998 Serial Murders of Iran. of Iranians who had been critical of the Islamic Republic system in some way. Altogether more than 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens are thought to have been killed over the course of several years. The deputy security official of the Ministry of Information, Saeed Emami
Saeed Emami
Saeed Emami was the Iranian deputy minister of intelligence under Ali Fallahian, and an intelligence officer under Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi. The Islamic government accused him of having independently organized the assassinations of dissidents shortly after he allegedly committing...
was arrested for the killings and later committed suicide, many believe higher level officials were responsible for the killings. According to Iranterror.com, "it was widely assumed that [Emami] was murdered in order to prevent the leak of sensitive information about Ministry of Intelligence and Security operations, which would have compromised the entire leadership of the Islamic Republic."
The attempted murder and serious crippling of Saeed Hajjarian
Saeed Hajjarian
Saeed Hajjarian is an Iranian intellectual, prominent journalist, pro-democracy activist and university lecturer. He has been an intelligence official, a member of Tehran's city council, and advisor to president Mohammad Khatami...
, a Ministry of Intelligence operative-turned-journalist and reformer, is believed to be in retaliation for his help in uncovering the chain murders of Iran and his help to the Iranian reform movement in general. Hajjarian was shot in the head by Saeed Asgar, a member of the Basij
Basij
The Basij is a paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the Islamic Revolution's leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The force consists of young Iranians who have volunteered, often in exchange for official benefits...
in March, 2000.
At the international level, a German court ordered the arrest of a standing minister of the Islamic Republic - Minister of Intelligence Ali Fallahian
Ali Fallahian
Hojatoleslam Ali Fallahian, is an Iranian politician and cleric. He has served as a member of the 3rd Assembly of Experts of the IRI and as the Minister of Intelligence of Islamic Republic of Iran in cabinet of President Hashemi Rafsanjani...
- in 1997 for directing the 1992 murder of three Iranian-Kurdish dissidents and their translator at a Berlin restaurant, known as the Mykonos restaurant assassinations
Mykonos restaurant assassinations
In the Mykonos restaurant assassinations , Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany on 17 September 1992.In the Mykonos trial, the German court...
.
Two minority religious figures killed during this era were Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
Christians Reverend Mehdi Dibaj
Mehdi Dibaj
Mehdi Dibaj was an Iranian Christian convert from Sunni Islam, pastor and Christian martyr.Dibaj became a Christian as a young man and joined the Jama'at-e Rabbani Church, the Iranian branch of the Assemblies of God. After the 1979 Iranian revolution he encountered difficulties...
, and Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr
Haik Hovsepian Mehr
Haik Hovsepian , was an Iranian bishop and Christian martyr. He was the Bishop of the Jama'at-e Rabbani church until his death...
. On January 16, 1994, Rev. Mehdi, a convert to Christianity
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
was released from prison after more than ten years of confinement, "apparently as a result of the international pressure." About six months later he disappeared after leaving a Christian conference in Karaj
Karaj
Karaj is a city in and the capital of Karaj County, Alborz Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 1,377,450, in 385,955 families, , making it the fifth-largest city in Iran after Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz.) It is situated west of Tehran, at the foothills of the Alborz...
and his body was found July 5, 1994 in a forest West of Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
. Six months earlier the man responsible for leading a campaign to free him, Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr
Haik Hovsepian Mehr
Haik Hovsepian , was an Iranian bishop and Christian martyr. He was the Bishop of the Jama'at-e Rabbani church until his death...
, had met a similar end, disappearing on January 19, 1994. His body was found in the street in Shahr-e Rey, a Tehran suburb.
Deaths in custody
In what has been called "an act of violence unprecedented in Iranian history" the Iranian government summarily, extrajudicially, and secretly executed thousands of political prisoners held in Iranian jails in the summer of 1988. According to Human Rights Watch the majority of prisoners had had unfair trials by the revolutionary courts, and in any case had not been sentenced to death. The "deliberate and systematic manner in which these extrajudicial executions took place constitutes a crime against humanity." The Iranian government has never "provided any information" on the executions because it has never acknowledged their existence. However there is indication that government believed the prisoners were being tried according to Islamic law before being executed. According to reports of prisoners who escaped execution, the prisoners were all given a quick legal proceeding - however brief and unfair - with Mojahideen found guilty condemned as moharebs (those who war against God) and leftists as mortads (apostates from Islam).Of the approximately 12,000 prisoners killed most were members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a group that was invading Iran with a military force and air support from Saddam Hussien's Iraq at about the same time as the executions and was widely disliked by Iranians as a result. A minority were members of other leftist organizations who opposed the invasion.
Among those Iranians not associated with the PMOI or armed resistance who have died under suspicious circumstances while in prison are
- Ali-Akbar Saidi Sirjani an Iranian writer, poet and journalist who died in prison in November 1994.
- In June 2003, Zahra KazemiZahra KazemiZahra "Ziba" Kazemi-Ahmadabadi was an Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer, residing in Montreal, Canada, who died in the custody of Iranian officials following her arrest....
, a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist, died while in custody in Tehran's Evin prison. "Iranian authorities arrested her as she was photographing Evin prison. A few days later, Kazemi fell into a coma and died." Doctors examining her body determined that she died from a fractured skull and had been beaten, tortured, and raped.
Capital punishment
Iran retains the death penalty for a large number of offenses, among them cursing the Prophet, certain drug offenses, murder, and certain hadd crimes, including adultery, incest, rape, fornication, drinking alcohol, “sodomy,” same-sex sexual conduct between men without penetration, lesbianism, “being at enmity with God” (mohareb), and “corruption on earth” (Mofsed-e-filarzMofsed-e-filarz
Mofsed-e-filarz is the title of capital crime in the Islamic Republic of Iran, that has been translated in English language sources variously as "spreading corruption on earth", "spreading corruption that threatens social and political well-being", "corrupt of the earth; one who is...
).
Although it is a signatory to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which states that "[the] sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.”, Iran continues to execute children for various offenses.
In 2008 at 346 confirmed executions were carried out in Iran.
In 2009, 252 people were officially executed but 300 more executions were unacknowledged by the government according to Human rights groups,
In the first half of 2011, human rights groups estimated that an average of two people a day were being executed. Officially the executions are related to drug trafficking, but independent observers have questioned this claim.
Political freedom
The Islamic government has not hesitated to crush peaceful political demonstrations. The Iran student riots, July 1999Iran student riots, July 1999
Iranian Student Protests of July, 1999 were, before the 2009 Iranian election protests, the most widespread and violent public protests to occur in Iran since the early years of the Iranian Revolution.The protests began on July 8 with peaceful demonstrations in Tehran against the closure of the...
were sparked by an attack by an estimated 400 paramilitary Hezbollah vigilantes on a student dormitory in retaliation for a small, peaceful student demonstration against the closure of the reformist newspaper, Salam earlier that day. "At least 20 people were hospitalized and hundreds were arrested," in the attack.
On March 8, 2004, the "parallel institution" of the Basij
Basij
The Basij is a paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the Islamic Revolution's leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The force consists of young Iranians who have volunteered, often in exchange for official benefits...
issued a violent crackdown on the activists celebrating International Women's Day
International Women's Day
International Women's Day , originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and...
in Tehran.
LGBT issues
Homosexual acts and adulteryAdultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
are criminal and punishable by life imprisonment or death after multiple offenses, and the same sentences apply to convictions for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
and apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
. Those accused by the state of homosexual acts are routinely flogged and threatened with execution.
Iran is one of seven countries in the world that apply the death penalty for homosexual acts; all of them justify this punishment with Islamic law. The Judiciary does not recognize the concept of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, and thus from a legal standpoint there are no homosexuals or bisexuals, only heterosexuals committing homosexual acts.
For some years after the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
people were classified by the Judiciary as being homosexual and were thus subject to the same laws. However, in the mid-1980s the Judiciary began changing this policy and classifying transgender individuals as a distinct group, separate from homosexuals, granting them legal rights. Gender identity disorder
Gender identity disorder
Gender identity disorder is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe persons who experience significant gender dysphoria . It describes the symptoms related to transsexualism, as well as less severe manifestations of gender dysphoria...
is officially recognized in Iran today, and the Judiciary permits sexual reassignment surgery for those who can afford it. In the early 1960s, Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a ruling permitting gender reassignment, which has since been reconfirmed by Ayatollah Khamenei.
Currently, Iran has between 15,000 and 20,000 transsexuals, according to official statistics, although unofficial estimates put the figure at up to 150,000. Iran carries out more gender change operations than any country in the world besides Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa authorising them nearly 25 years ago. Whereas homosexuality is considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure. While the government seeks to keep its approval quiet, state support has increased since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. His government has begun providing grants of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
2,250 for operations and further funding for hormone therapy. It is also proposing loans of up to £2,750 to allow those undergoing surgery to start their own businesses.
Gender inequality
Unequal value for women's testimony compared to that of a man, and traditional attitudes towards women's behavior and clothing as a way of explaining rape have made conviction for rape of women difficult if not impossible in Iran. One widely criticized case was that of Atefah SahaalehAtefah Sahaaleh
Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh was a 16-year-old Mazandarani Iranian schoolgirl from the town of Neka, Iran who was executed a week after being sentenced to death by Haji Rezai, head of Neka's court on charges of adultery and "crimes against chastity"...
, who was executed by the state for 'inappropriate sexual relations', despite evidence she was most probably a rape victim.
Differences in blood money for men and women include victims and offenders. In 2003, the parents of Leila Fathi, an 11-year-old village girl from Sarghez who was raped and murdered, were asked to come up with the equivalent of thousands of US dollars to pay the blood money (diyya
Diyya
Diyya is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom.-Islamic and Arab tradition:The Qur'an specifies the principle of Qisas Diyya (plural: Diyyat; ) is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and...
) for the execution of their daughter's killers because a woman's life is worth half that of a man's life.
Bahá'í issues
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and others report that 202 Bahá’ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution, with many more imprisoned, expelled from schools and workplaces, denied various benefits or denied registration for their marriages. Iranian Bahá'ís have also regularly had their homes ransacked or been banned from attending university or holding government jobs, and several hundred have received prison sentences for their religious beliefs, most recently for participating in study circles
Bahá'í study circle
The term study circle has become common terminology in the Bahá'í Faith to describe a specific type of gathering for the study of the Bahá'í teachings, with an emphasis on "promoting the well-being of humanity."...
. Bahá'í cemeteries have been desecrated and property seized and occasionally demolished, including the House of Mírzá Buzurg, Bahá'u'lláh's father. The House of the Báb in Shiraz
Shiraz, Iran
Shiraz is the sixth most populous city in Iran and is the capital of Fars Province, the city's 2009 population was 1,455,073. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river...
has been destroyed twice, and is one of three sites to which Bahá'ís perform pilgrimage
Bahá'í pilgrimage
A Bahá'í pilgrimage currently consists of visiting the holy places in Haifa, Akká, and Bahjí at the Bahá'í World Centre in Northwest Israel. Bahá'ís do not have access to other places designated as sites for pilgrimage....
.
The Islamic Republic has often stated that arrested Baha'is are being detained for "security issues" and are members of "an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular." Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, replies that "the best proof" that Bahais are being persecuted for their faith, not for anti-Iranian activity "is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam ..."
Jewish issues
Jews have lived in Iran for nearly 3,000 years and Iran is host to the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside of IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. An estimated 25,000 Jews remain in the country, although approximately 75% of Iran's Jewish population has emigrated during and since the Islamic revolution of 1979 and Iran-Iraq war In the early days after the Islamic revolution in 1979, several Jews were executed on charges of Zionism and relations with Israel. Jews in Iran have constitutional rights equal to other Iranians, although they may not hold government jobs or become army officers. They have freedom to follow their religion, but are not granted the freedom to proselytize. Despite their small numbers, Jews are allotted one representative in parliament.
According to Amir Cyrus Razzaghi, "The government goes to extra lengths to differentiate between the government of Israel, with whom they have fundamental issues, and the Jewish people, especially Iranian Jews… There is a genuine interest to keep the Jewish community in Iran to demonstrate to the world that the government is anti-Israel and not anti-Jewish. Iran's official government-controlled media published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1994 and 1999. Jewish children still attend Jewish schools where Hebrew and religious studies are taught, but Jewish principals have been replaced by Muslim ones, the curricula are government-supervised, and the Jewish Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
is no longer recognized. There are 18 synagogues in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, Iranian capital. According Jewish journalist Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen is a British-born journalist and author. He is a columnist for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in fifteen different countries.- Biography :...
:
Perhaps I have a bias toward facts over words, but I say the reality of Iranian civility toward Jews tells us more about Iran -- its sophistication and culture -- than all the inflammatory rhetoric. That may be because I'm a Jew and have seldom been treated with such consistent warmth as in Iran.
Jewish situation in Iran is hard to determine because of contradictory and biased sources; Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen is a British-born journalist and author. He is a columnist for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in fifteen different countries.- Biography :...
himself was criticized by Jewish groups in USA.
Non-government Muslim Shia issues
Muslim clerical opponents of the Islamic Republic's political system have not been spared imprisonment. According to an analyst quoted by Iran Press ServiceIran Press Service
Iran Press Service was an independent, private news gathering and disseminating service based in Paris, France. The agency has often published articles critical of the Iranian government, and is thought to be supported by exiles in Europe....
, "hundreds of clerics have been arrested, some defrocked, other left the ranks of the religion on their own, but most of them, including some popular political or intellectual figures such as Hojjatoleslam Abdollah Noori
Abdollah Noori
Abdollah Noori is an Iranian reformist politician and cleric. Despite his "long history of service to the Islamic Republic," he became the most senior Islamic politician to be sentenced to prison since the Iranian Revolution when he was sentenced to five years in prison for political and religious...
, a former Interior Minister or Hojjatoleslam Yousefi Eshkevari
Yousefi Eshkevari
Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari is an Iranian cleric, researcher, journalist, reformist and former political prisoner. He has been described as "an active supporter of the revolution" who became "an outspoken and influential critic of the current Iranian version of theocracy." In 2002 he...
, an intellectual, or Hojjatoleslam Mohsen Kadivar
Mohsen Kadivar
Mohsen Kadivar is an Iranian philosopher, University lecturer, cleric and activist. A political dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal critic of the doctrine of clerical rule, also known as Velayat-e Faqih , and a strong advocate of democratic and liberal reforms in Iran...
", are "middle rank clerics."
Darvish issues
Iran's Darvish are a persecuted minority. As late as the early 1900s, wandering darvish were a common sight in Iran. They are now much fewer in number and suffer from official opposition to the Sufi religion.Unreligious people
According official Iranian census from 2006 there has been 205.317 unreligiousIrreligion
Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...
or irreligious people in Iran, including atheists
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, agnostics
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
, sceptics
Religious skepticism
Religious skepticism is a type of skepticism relating to religion, but should not be confused with atheism. Religious skeptics question religious authority and are not necessarily anti-religious but are those skeptical of a specific or all religious beliefs or practices. Some are deists, believing...
.
Ethnic minorities
Iran is a signatory to the convention to the elimination of racism. UNHCR found several positive aspects in the conduit of the Islamic republic with regards to ethnic minorities, positively citing its agreement to absorb Afghan refugees and participation from mixed ethnicities. However, the committee while acknowledging that teaching of minority languages and literature in schools is permitted, requested that Iran include more information in its next periodic report concerning the measures it has adopted to enable persons belonging to minorities to have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue and to have it used as a medium of instruction.Current situation
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
. The number of offenders executed increased from 86 in 2005 to 317 in 2007. Months-long arbitrary detentions of "peaceful activists, journalists, students, and human rights defenders" and often charged with “acting against national security,” has intensified under President Ahmadinejad
In December 2008, the United Nations General Assembly voted to expressed "deep concern" for Iran's human rights record - particularly "cases of torture; the high incidence of executions and juvenile executions ... ; the persecution of women seeking their human rights; discrimination against minorities and attacks on minority groups like the Baha'is in state media ..." Following the protests over the June 2009 presidential elections, dozens were killed, hundreds arrested - including dozens of opposition leaders - several journalists arrested or beaten, foreign media barred from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations, and Web sites and bloggers threatened. Basij or Revolutionary Guard were reportedly responsible for at least some of the slain protesters.
In 2011 a report was released by the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran stating that human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic appear to be increasing, and that hundreds of prisoners have been secretly executed in the Islamic republic. The report listed "torture, cruel, or degrading treatment of detainees, the imposition of the death penalty in the absence of proper judicial safeguards, [and] the status of women," as alleged abuses by the Islamic Republic justice system, and criticised the detention conditions of, and denial of rights to, opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi and their spouses. Iran's deputy ambassador to the United Nations condemned the report as "poorly sourced, exaggerated and outdated allegations".
Crackdown on 2009 election protests
The number of protestors remaining in detention according to government officials is either 140, 200 (Kazem Jalali
Kazem Jalali
Kazem Jalali is a member of the Majlis in the Islamic Republic of Iran for three progressive period from the city of Shahrood. He is presently the spokesman for the foreign relations committee of the Majlis....
), or 300 (Ali Reza Jamshidi on state-run Press TV
Press TV
Press TV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Iranian government. Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran, with bureaux in Beirut , Damascus , London , Seoul and Washington DC ....
).
Human rights workers put the estimated dead at well over 100, and international observers believe the number detained is far higher than 140 or 200.
According to the human rights group International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran is a non-government organization that works to bring international attention on what it views as the Iranian government’s repression of human rights and civil liberties in Iran. It is based in the United States...
, doctors in three Tehran hospitals registered the bodies of 34 protesters on June 20 alone, and other doctors have provided similar accounts and estimated a death toll of at least 150 based on corpses they saw. Another report relayed on Web sites and to human rights workers is that that early in July 2009 family members of missing demonstrators were taken to a morgue in southwest Tehran where they saw “hundreds of corpses.” The family members "were not allowed to retrieve bodies unless they certified that the deaths were of natural causes."
Reports of abuse of detainees include "detainees being beaten to death by guards in overcrowded, stinking holding pens." Detainees "fingernails ripped off or ... forced to lick filthy toilet bowls." Among those killed in detention was Mohsen Rouhalamini
Mohsen Rouhalamini
Mohsen Rouhalamini was a graduate student in the computer engineering department at the University of Tehran. He died in July, 2009 at the Kahrizak detention center following his arrest in connection with protests of the 2009 presidential election in Iran...
, the son of an adviser to the conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai.
In response to complaints President Ahmadinejad issued a letter calling for “Islamic mercy” for detainees, and supreme leader Ali Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
has personally intervened to close the "especially notorious" Kahrizak detention center
Kahrizak detention center
Kahrizak detention center is a detainment facility operated by the Judicial system of Iran in southern Tehran.-Before 2009 election protests:...
.
Freedom of expression
According to Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
report, after May 2006 widespread demonstrations related to Iran newspaper cockroach cartoon controversy
Iran newspaper cockroach cartoon controversy
The cockroach cartoon controversy of "Iran weekly magazine" arose over a cartoon, published in the Iranian holiday-magazine of Iran-e-jomee, drawn by the cartoonist Mana Neyestani, an ethnic Iranian Azeri...
in Iranian Azerbaijan hundreds were arrested and some reportedly killed by the security forces, although official sources downplayed the scale of arrests and killings. Further arrests occurred, many around events and dates significant to the Azerbaijani community such as the Babek Castle gathering in Kalayber in June, and a boycott of the start of the new academic year over linguistic rights for the Azerbaijani community."
, the Iranian government has been attempting to depoliticize Iran's student body or make it supportive of the government by stopping students that hold contrary political views from attending higher education, despite the acceptance of those students by their universities. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, this practice has been coupled with academic suspensions, arrests, and jail terms.
According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran is a non-government organization that works to bring international attention on what it views as the Iranian government’s repression of human rights and civil liberties in Iran. It is based in the United States...
, women’s rights advocates for the One Million Signatures
One Million Signatures
One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws , also known as Change for Equality, is a campaign by women in Iran to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their country.Activists of the movement...
Campaign have been "beaten, harassed and persecuted for peacefully demonstrating" and collecting signatures on behalf of their Campaign.
Some Iranian victims include:
- Hossein Kazemeyni BoroujerdiHossein Kazemeyni BoroujerdiAyatollah Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi is an Iranian Shia Muslim cleric who advocates the separation of religion and government and has been imprisoned several times by the Iranian government....
- Mansour OsanlouMansour OsanlouMansour Osanloo is a leading trade union activist in Iran where he has been imprisoned several times from 2005 to 2008. Osanloo is currently held in Evin Prison, serving a five-year prison sentence...
, president of the Executive Committee of the transport workers' trade unionSyndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus CompanyThe Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company is a trade union centered around the Greater Tehran region. It has a membership of over 17,000 labourers; most of whom work for the United Bus Company of Tehran . Initially established in 1968, its activity has been intermittent...
in TehranTehranTehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, was arrested in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in connection with industrial action and protest by his union. - Mohammad Sadiq KaboudvandMohammad Sadiq KaboudvandMohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand is an Iranian Kurdish activist and journalist. He was the editor of Payam-e Mardom. He is also the founder of Kurdistan Human Rights Organization . Founded in 2005, the organization is a politically and religiously independent body...
- Farzad KamangarFarzad KamangarFarzad Kamangar was a 32-year-old Iranian Kurdish teacher, poet, journalist, human rights activist and social worker from the city of Kamyaran, Iran who was executed on May 9, 2010. - The Accusations and the Courts :Kamangar was prosecuted on charges of mohareb "enmity towards God"...
- Mansour Osanloo
- Emad Baghi
- Hadi GhabelHadi GhabelHadi Ghabel is an Iranian cleric and member of the central council of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front. He was imprisoned on April 7, 2008 to begin a 40- month jail term following prosecution and conviction by the Special Court for the Clergy...
Freedom of the press
Iran was ranked "Not Free" in Freedom HouseFreedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
's 2010 press freedom survey . According to the Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
Press Freedom Index for 2007, Iran ranked 166th out of 169 nations. Only three other countries - Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan - had more restrictions on news media freedom than Iran.
According to the International Press Institute
International Press Institute
International Press Institute is a global organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of journalism practices. Founded in October 1950, the IPI has members in over 120 countries....
and Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
, the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Supreme National Security Council
Supreme National Security Council
Supreme National Security Council is the national security council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the current secretary of which is Saeed Jalili. This institution was founded during the 1989 revision of the constitution...
had imprisoned 50 journalists in 2007 and had all but eliminated press freedom. RWB has dubbed Iran the "Middle East's biggest prison for journalists."
85 newspapers, including 41 dailies, were shut down from 2000 to the end of 2002 following the passing of the "April 2000 press law." There are currently 10 journalists in prison. The "red lines" of press censorship in Iran are said to be questioning rule by clerics (velayat-e faqih) and direct attacks on the Supreme Leader
Supreme leader
A supreme leader typically refers to a figure in the highest leadership position of an entity, group, organization, or state, who exercises strong or all-powerful authority over it. In religion, the supreme leader or supreme leaders is God or Gods...
. Red lines have also drawn against writing that "insults Islam, is sexually explicit, "politically subversive," or is allegedly "confusing public opinion."
Journalists are frequently warned or summoned if they are perceived as critical of the government, and topics such as U.S. relations and the country's nuclear program are forbidden subjects for reporting.
In February 2008 the journalist Yaghoob Mirnehad was sentenced to death on charges of "membership in the terrorist Jundallah
Jundallah
Jundallah, or Jondollah , also known as People's Resistance Movement of Iran , is an organization based in Balochistan that claims to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran. It was founded by Abdolmalek Rigi who was captured and executed in Iran in 2010...
group as well as crimes against national security." Mirnehad was executed on July 5, 2008.
In November 2007 freelance journalist Adnan Hassanpour received a death sentence for "undermining national security," "spying," "separatist propaganda" and being a mohareb (fighter against God). He refused to sign a confessions, and it is theorized that he was arrested for his work with US-funded radio stations Radio Farda
Radio Farda
Radio Farda is the Iranian Branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's broadcast services. It broadcasts 24 hours a day in the Persian language from its headquarters Prague, Czech Republic. Radio Farda first aired December 2002. Radio Farda broadcasts political, cultural, social, and art news...
and Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
. Hassanpour's sentence was overturned on September 4, 2008, by the Tehran Supreme Court. Hassanpour still faces espionage charges.
In June 2008 the Iranian Ministry of Labor stated that the 4,000 member journalists' union, founded in 1997, was "fit for dissolution."
Artistic freedom
In 2003, Iranian ex-patriate director Babak PayamiBabak Payami
-Biography:Born in Tehran in 1966, Baback Payami studied cinema at the University of Toronto during the early 90's. In 1998, he returned to Iran after an almost two decade to produce and direct his debut "One More Day" or “Secret Ballot”. This flim describes what happens on election day when an...
's film Silence Between Two Thoughts was seized by Iranian authorities, and Payami smuggled a digital copy out of Iran which was subsequently screened
in several film festivals.
Political freedom
On February 28, 2008, Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
called on the Iranian government "to stop persecuting people" involved in the "One Million Signatures
One Million Signatures
One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws , also known as Change for Equality, is a campaign by women in Iran to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their country.Activists of the movement...
" campaign or "Campaign for Equality" - an attempt to collect one million signatures "for a petition to push for an end to discrimination against women." According to AI, "Dozens of women have been arrested," suffered harassment, intimidation and imprisonment. One campaigner, Delaram Ali
Delaram Ali
Delaram Ali is a leading Iranian women's rights activist.In July 2007, she was charged with "participation in an illegal gathering", "propaganda against the system," and "disturbing the public order". Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced her to 39 months of jail and 10 lashes...
, 23, "was sentenced to nearly three years in prison and 10 lashes for participation in an illegal gathering." Her punishment has been suspended while her case is re-examined.
Blogger and political activist Samiye Tohidlou
Samiye Tohidlou
Samiye Tohidlou is an Iranian blogger and political activist. She was sentenced to 50 lashes for her activities in protest of the 2009 presidential election in Iran....
was sentenced to 50 lashes for her activities during protests at the 2009 presidential campaign
Iranian presidential election, 2009
Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election...
. Activist Peyman Aref was sentenced to 74 lashes for writing an "insulting" open letter to President Ahmadinejad, in which he criticised the president's crackdown on politically active students. An unnamed Iranian journalist based in Tehran commented: "Lashing Aref for insulting Ahmadinejad is shocking and unprecedented."
Freedom of movement
On May 8, 2007 Haleh EsfandiariHaleh Esfandiari
Haleh Esfandiari is an Iranian American academic and the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Her areas of expertise include Middle Eastern women's issues, contemporary Iranian intellectual currents and politics, and...
an Iranian American scholar in Iran visiting her 93-year-old mother, was detained in Evin Prison
Evin Prison
Evin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
and kept in solitary confinement for more than 110 days. She was one of several visiting Iranian Americans prohibited from leaving Iran in 2007. In December 2008, the presidents of the American National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
issued a warning to "American scientists and academics" against traveling to Iran without ‘clear assurances’ that their personal safety ‘will be guaranteed and that they will be treated with dignity and respect’, after Glenn Schweitzer, who has coordinated the academies’ programs in Iran for the past decade, was detained and interrogated.
Internet freedom
The Internet has grown faster in Iran than any other Middle Eastern country since 2000 but the government has censored dozens of websites it considers "non-Islamic" and harassed and imprisoned online journalists. By 2009, Iran had 32.2 million of Internet users or 48.5% of the population, according to ITC. As of October 2005, there are estimated to be about 700,000 Iranian blogs - 20 bloggers were imprisoned in 2004, but as of the end of 2006 none were in prison.Reporters Without Borders also believes that it is the Iranian "government’s desire to rid the Iranian Internet of all independent information concerning the political opposition, the women’s movement and human rights”. Where the government cannot legally stop sites it uses advanced blocking software to prevent access to them. In a report released 11 March 2010, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
labeled three governments — China, Iran and Tunisia — "Enemies of the Internet," for stepped up efforts to censor the Internet and jail dissidents. However, more detailed Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
research list excluded Iran from Top 10 censorship list (Brazil, USA, UK, etc.).
Deaths in custody
In the past few years several people have died in custody in the Islamic Republic, raising fears that "prisoners in the country are being denied medical treatment, possibly as an extra punishment." Two prisoners who died, allegedly after having "committed suicide" while in jail in northwestern Iran — but whose families reported no signs of behavior consistent with suicidal tendencies — are:- Zahra Bani YaghoubZahra Bani YaghoubZahra Bani Yaghoub was an Iranian medical doctor, who died unexpectedly in a prison in Hamedan, after she was arrested by the Moral Police...
, (aka Zahra Bani-Ameri), a 27-year-old female physician died in October 2007 while in custody in the town of Hamedan. - Ebrahim Lotfallahi, also 27, died in a detention center in the town of SanandajSanandajSanandaj , also Romanized as Senneh and Sinneh) is a city in and the capital of Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 311,446, in 81,380 families....
in January 2008. "On January 15, officials from the detention center contacted Lotfallahi’s parents and informed them that they had buried their son in a local cemetery."
Political prisoners who recently died in prison under "suspicious circumstances" include:
- Akbar MohammadiAkbar MohammadiAkbar Mohammadi was an Iranian student at Tehran University involved in the 18th of Tir crisis, also known as the July 1999 Iran student protests, Iran's biggest pro-democracy demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution...
, a student activist, died in Evin prison on July 30, 2006, after waging a hunger strike. Originally sentenced to death for his participation in the pro-democracy July 1999 student riotsIran student riots, July 1999Iranian Student Protests of July, 1999 were, before the 2009 Iranian election protests, the most widespread and violent public protests to occur in Iran since the early years of the Iranian Revolution.The protests began on July 8 with peaceful demonstrations in Tehran against the closure of the...
, his sentence had been reduced to 15 years in prison. "Several sources told Human Rights Watch that after his arrest in 1999, Mohammadi was severely tortured and ill-treated, leading to serious health problems." - Valiullah Faiz MahdaviValiullah Faiz MahdaviValiullah Faiz Mahdavi was a former member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran who died in prison in Iran in September 2006. He died after a nine-day hunger strike without medical attention...
, also died after starting a hunger strike when his appeal for a temporary relief from prison was denied. His cause of death was officially listed as suicide. - Omid Reza Mir SayafiOmid Reza Mir SayafiOmid Reza Mir Sayafi , a 29-year old Iranian blogger and journalist died in Evin Prison in Tehran on March 18, 2009.Mir Sayafi was the first blogger to have died while in prison for his publication...
, a blogger, died in Evin PrisonEvin PrisonEvin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
18 March 2009, less than six weeks after starting a 30-month sentence. - Amir Hossein Heshmat SaranAmir Hossein Heshmat SaranAmir Hussein Heshmat Saran was the founder of the Iran National Unity Front political party. Sentenced to prison for this act he died incarcerated and is thought by some human rights groups to be one of a series of political prisoners whose deaths have "occurred as a result of insufficient...
, died "in suspicious circumstances" on 6 March 2009 after five years in prison for establishing the United National Front political party. - Abdol Reza Rajabi, a member of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), died unexpectedly in Reja'i Shahr Prison on 30 October 2008. He was transferred from Evin to Raja’i Shahr Prison before the news of his death was announced.
Bahá'í issues
Around 2005 the situation of Bahá'ís is reported to have worsened; the United Nations Commission on Human RightsUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
revealed an October 2005 confidential letter from Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Iran to identify Bahá'ís and to monitor their activities and in November 2005 the state-run and influential Kayhan
Kayhan
Kayhan is an influential newspaper in Iran. Directly under the supervision of the Office of the Supreme Leader, it is regarded to be "the most conservative Iranian newspaper."...
newspaper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
, ran nearly three dozen articles defaming the Bahá'í Faith.
Due to these actions, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights stated on March 20, 2006 that she "also expresses concern that the information gained as a result of such monitoring will be used as a basis for the increased persecution of, and discrimination against, members of the Bahá'í faith, in violation of international standards. … The Special Rapporteur is concerned that this latest development indicates that the situation with regard to religious minorities in Iran is, in fact, deteriorating."
In March and in May 2008, "senior members" forming the leadership of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested by officers from the Ministry of Intelligence and taken to Evin prison
Evin Prison
Evin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
.
They have not been charged, and they seem to be prisoners of conscience.
The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has stated that they are concerned for the safety of the Bahá'ís, and that the recent events are similar to the disappearance of 25 Bahá'í leaders in the early 1980s.
Muslim Shia issues
One opponent of theocracy, AyatollahAyatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...
Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi
Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi
Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi is an Iranian Shia Muslim cleric who advocates the separation of religion and government and has been imprisoned several times by the Iranian government....
and many of his followers were arrested in Tehran on October 8, 2006. According to mardaninews website, judicial authorities have reportedly released no information concerning Boroujerdi's prosecution and “associates” of Ayatollah Boroujerdi have told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran “that his heart and kidney conditions are grave but he has had no access to specialist care.”
He only receives painkillers for his diseases inside prison. In addition to his physical health, his psychological well-being has also deteriorated due to ill-treatment and lengthy solitary confinement episodes. He has lost 30 kilograms in prison,`
Ethnic issues
According to Amnesty international's 2007 report, "Ethnic and religious minorities" in the Islamic Republic "remained subject to discriminatory laws and practices which continued to be a source of social and political unrest".Gender inequality
In 2003, Iran elected not to become a member of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against WomenConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women is an international convention adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly....
(CEDAW) since the convention contradicted the Islamic Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law in Clause A of its single article.
In a report released Oct. 20, 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
called "discriminatory provisions" against women in criminal and civil laws in Iran "in urgent need of reform," and said gender-based violence was "widespread."
Compulsory hijab
In Spring 2007, Iranian police launched a crackdown against women accused of not covering up enough, arresting hundreds of women, some for wearing too tight an overcoat or letting too much hair peek out from under their veil. The campaign in the streets of major cities is the toughest such crackdown since the Islamic revolution. More than one million Iranians (mostly women) have been arrested in the past year (May 2007-May 2008) for violating the state dress code according to a May 2008 NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Today Show report by Matt Lauer.
"Guidance Patrols" (gasht-e ershâd) — often referred to as "religious police" in Western media — enforce Islamic moral values and dress codes. Reformist politicians have criticized the unpopular patrols but the patrols ‘interminable’ according to Iranian judicial authorities who have pointed out that in the Islamic Republic the president does not have control over the enforcement of dress codes.
Child executions in Iran
Iran "leads the world in executing juvenile offenders – persons under 18 at the time of the crime" according to Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
. International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran states that of the 32 executions of juvenile offenders that have taken place in the world since January 2005, 26 occurred in Iran. In 2007 Iran executed eight juvenile offenders.
In July of that year, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
issued a comprehensive 46 page report titled Iran: The last executioner of children noting Iran had executed more children between 1990 and 2005 than any other state, adding that "after Iran, the USA has been responsible for the next highest number of executions of child offenders."
Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Article 6.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares: “Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age” and the article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides that: “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age”.
In January 2005, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors states' compliance with the CRC, urged Iran to immediately stay all executions of child offenders and to abolish the use of the death penalty in such cases. In the summer of 2006, the Iranian Parliament reportedly passed a bill establishing special courts for children and adolescents. However, it has not yet been approved by the Council of Guardians, which supervises Iran's legislation to ensure conformity with Islamic principles. During the past four years, the Iranian authorities have reportedly been considering legislation to ban the death penalty for child offenders. Recent comments by a judiciary spokesperson indicates that the proposed law would only prohibit the death penalty for certain crimes, and not all crimes committed by children.
In spite of these efforts, the number of child offenders executed in Iran has risen during the past two years. As of July 2008, Stop Child Executions Campaign
Stop Child Executions Campaign
Stop Child Executions is a non-profit organization co-founded by Nazanin Afshin-Jam that aims to put an end to executions of minors in Iran. The organization campaigns to raise awareness about the issue and to put pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, both in Iran and...
has recorded over 130 children facing executions in Iran.
In late 2007, Iranian authorities hanged Makwan Mouludzadeh in Kermanshah prison for crimes he is alleged to have committed when he was 13 years of age. According to Human Rights Watch, this was despite the fact that his accusers had recanted their statements and Mouladzadeh had repudiated his confession as being coerced by the police, and despite the fact that the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, had ordered a unit of the Judiciary to investigate the case and refer it back to the Penal Court of Kermanshah, before any final decision on an execution.
A 2004 case that gained international attention was the hanging of 16-year-old school girl Atefah Sahaaleh
Atefah Sahaaleh
Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh was a 16-year-old Mazandarani Iranian schoolgirl from the town of Neka, Iran who was executed a week after being sentenced to death by Haji Rezai, head of Neka's court on charges of adultery and "crimes against chastity"...
.
Significant activists
The following individuals represent a partial list of individuals who are currently, or have in the past, significantly attempted to improve the human rights situation in Iran after the revolutionIranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
in 1979.
- Shirin EbadiShirin EbadiShirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
- Akbar GanjiAkbar GanjiAkbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist and writer. He has been described as "Iran’s preeminent political dissident", and a "wildly popular pro-democracy journalist" who has crossed press censorship "red lines" regularly...
- Mehrangiz KarMehrangiz KarMehrangiz Kar is a prominent Iranian lawyer, human right activist and author of the book Crossing the Red Line, as well as many articles.Mehrangiz Kar is a celebrated activist of women's rights in Iran....
Organizations
Iran has an Islamic Human Rights CommissionIslamic Human Rights Commission
The Islamic Human Rights Commission is a non-profit organization. Its stated mission is to, "... work with different organizations from Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds, to campaign for justice for all peoples regardless of their racial, confessional or political background.". The group is...
, but it is "housed in a government building and headed by the chief of the judiciary," and not considered particularly concerned with human rights abuses according to Nobel peace prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center
Defenders of Human Rights Center
The Defenders of Human Rights Center is Iran's leading human rights organization.-Organization:...
.
See also
- Universal Declaration of Human RightsUniversal Declaration of Human RightsThe Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
- Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in IslamCairo Declaration on Human Rights in IslamThe Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam is a declaration of the member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference adopted in Cairo in 1990, which provides an overview on the Islamic perspective on human rights, and affirms Islamic Shari'ah as its sole source...
- Defenders of Human Rights CenterDefenders of Human Rights CenterThe Defenders of Human Rights Center is Iran's leading human rights organization.-Organization:...
, Iran's leading Human Rights organization. - International Campaign for Human Rights in IranInternational Campaign for Human Rights in IranInternational Campaign for Human Rights in Iran is a non-government organization that works to bring international attention on what it views as the Iranian government’s repression of human rights and civil liberties in Iran. It is based in the United States...
- Freedom of speech in Iran
- Judicial system of IranJudicial system of IranA nationwide judicial system in Iran was first implemented and established by Abdolhossein Teymourtash under Reza Shah, with further changes during the second Pahlavi era....
- Ethnic minorities in IranEthnic minorities in IranThis article focuses on ethnic minorities in Iran and their related political issues.-Overview:Iran is an ethnically diverse country, and interethnic relations are generally amicable. Persians form the majority of the population...
- Religion in IranReligion in IranMost Iranians are Muslims. Around 89% belong to Shi'a branch of Islam, the official state religion, and about 9% belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. The remaining 2% are non-Muslim religious minorities, including Bahá'ís, Mandeans, Yarsanis, Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians...
- Status of religious freedom in IranStatus of religious freedom in IranFreedom of religion in Iran is a debated subject. Iran is an Islamic republic —the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran mandates that the official religion of Iran is Islam and the Twelver Ja'fari school, and also mandates that other Islamic schools are to be accorded full respect, and...
- History of Islamic Republic of Iran
- Stop Child Executions CampaignStop Child Executions CampaignStop Child Executions is a non-profit organization co-founded by Nazanin Afshin-Jam that aims to put an end to executions of minors in Iran. The organization campaigns to raise awareness about the issue and to put pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, both in Iran and...
- 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners
- Be Like OthersBe Like OthersBe Like Others is a 2008 documentary film written and directed by Tanaz Eshaghian about transsexuals in Iran. It explores issues of gender and sexuality while following the personal stories of some of the patients at a Tehran clinic...
, a documentary film about transsexuality in Iran - International rankings of Iran
Notable prisons
- Evin PrisonEvin PrisonEvin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
- Gohardasht PrisonGohardasht PrisonGohardasht Prison is a prison in Gohardasht, a town in the northern outskirt of Karaj, approximately 20 km west of Tehran and is also known as "Rajai Shahr"....
- Kahrizak detention centerKahrizak detention centerKahrizak detention center is a detainment facility operated by the Judicial system of Iran in southern Tehran.-Before 2009 election protests:...
- Prison 59Prison 59Prison 59 is an unofficial detention centre on Vali-e Asr Avenue in Tehran, Iran, under the administration of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps...
- Prison 209Prison 209Prison 209 is an unofficial and secret detention centre in Tehran, Iran, and operates under the administration of the VEVAK...
- Towhid PrisonTowhid PrisonTowhid Prison is an unofficial detention centre in Tehran, Iran. The word towhid refers to one of the five pillars of Islam, monotheism...
Notable prisoners
- Drs. Kamiar and Arash AlaeiKamiar and Arash Alaei incidentDr. Kamiar Alaei and his brother Dr. Arash Alaei are two Iranian HIV/AIDS doctors who were detained in Tehran's Evin prison from June 2008 though Dec 2010 and August 2011, respectively...
- Delara DarabiDelara DarabiDelara Darabi was an Iranian Gilaki female, who was sentenced to death by hanging when she was only 16 years old. She was convicted of murdering her father's female cousin in 2003...
- Ateqeh Rajabi
- Nazanin Fatehi
- Reza AlinejadReza AlinejadReza Alinejad was one of countless alleged Iranian juvenile offenders who was sentenced to death by hanging at the age of 17...
Further reading
- Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran, University of California Press, 1999,
- Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors : the Elusive Face of Iran, Free Press, 2000, 2005
- Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening : A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House, 2006
External links
- Iran: Human Rights in the spotlight on the 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, 5 February 2009
- Amnesty International report 2010 on Iran
- REALITE-EU Human Rights Violations and Torture in Iran 2009
- Iran Human Rights
- Amnesty International's Concerns about Iran
- Amnesty International 2005 report
- Freedom House: Freedom in the World Country Report: Iran
- Freedom House: Freedom of the Press 2010 Report: Iran
- Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2011: Iran
- Human Rights Watch - Iran Documents
- Human Rights Watch's Developments in Iran
- Human Rights Watch 2005 report
- Various human rights news stories at Iran Focus
- Freedom of Expression violations in Iran, IFEXInternational Freedom of Expression ExchangeThe International Freedom of Expression eXchange , founded in 1992, is a global network of around 90 non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression....
- Human rights violations against Iranian Azeri Turks
- Guardian Newspaper - Special Report - Death of a Teenager
- Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
- Foundation for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy in Iran
- Translation of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran Mission for Establishment of Human Rights in Iran (MEHR Iran)
- Translation of the Iranian Civil Code by Alavi and Associates