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From the Imperial
Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...
(1925 to 1979), through the
Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...
(1979), to the era of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979 to current), government treatment of Iranian citizens' rights has been criticized by Iranians, by international
human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
activists, by writers, by NGOs and the United States. While the monarchy under the rule of the shahs was widely attacked by most Western watchdog organizations for having an abysmal human rights record, the government of the Islamic Republic which succeeded it is considered still worse by many. The Pahlavi dynasty— Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi—has sometimes been described as a "royal dictatorship", or "one man rule", and employed
secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic ...
,
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
, and executions to stifle political dissent. During Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's reign, estimates of the number of political prisoners executed vary from less than 100 to 300. Under the Islamic Republic, the prison system was centralized and drastically expanded; in one early period (1981–1985), more than 7900 people were executed. The Islamic Republic has been criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, but not international human rights norms (harsh penalties for crimes, punishment of victimless crimes, restrictions on
freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
and
the press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...
, restrictions on
freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedo ...
, etc.); and for "extrajudicial" actions that follow neither, such as firebombings of newspaper offices, and beatings, torture, rape, and killing without trial of political prisoners and dissidents/civilians.


Pahlavi dynasty (1925 to 1979)

The
Imperial State of Iran Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, T ...
, the government of Iran during the
Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...
, lasted from 1925 to 1979. The use of torture and abuse of prisoners varied at times during the Pahlavi reign, according to one history, but both of two monarchs Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi employed censorship,
secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic ...
,
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
, and executions.


Reza Shah era

The reign of Reza Shah was authoritarian and dictatorial at a time when authoritarian governments and
dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...
s were common in both the region and the world, and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt ...
was some years away. Freedom of the press, workers' rights, and political freedoms were restricted under Reza Shah. Independent newspapers were closed down,
political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
even the loyal Revival party were banned. The government banned all trade unions in 1927, and arrested 150 labor organizers between 1927 and 1932. Physical force was used against some kinds of prisoners common criminals, suspected spies, and those accused of plotting regicide. Burglars in particular were subjected to the
bastinado Foot whipping, falanga/falaka or bastinado is a method of inflicting pain and humiliation by administering a beating on the soles of a person's bare feet. Unlike most types of flogging, it is meant more to be painful than to cause actual injury ...
(beating the soles of the feet), and the
strappado The strappado, also known as corda, is a form of torture in which the victim's hands are tied behind his back and the victim is suspended by a rope attached to the wrists, typically resulting in dislocated shoulders. Weights may be added to ...
(suspended in the air by means of a rope tied around the victims arms) to "reveal their hidden loot". Suspected spies and assassins were "beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to the qapani" (the binding of arms tightly behind the back) which sometimes caused a joint to crack. But for political prisoners who were primarily
Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
there was a "conspicuous absence of torture" under Reza Shah's rule. The main form of pressure was solitary confinement and the withholding of "books, newspapers, visitors, food packages, and proper medical care". While often threatened with the qapani, political prisoners "were rarely subjected to it."


Mohammad Reza Shah era

Mohammad Reza became monarch after his father was deposed following the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. Political prisoners (mostly Communists) were released by the occupying powers, and the shah (crown prince at the time) no longer had control of the parliament. But after an attempted assassination of the Shah in 1949, he was able to declare martial law, imprison communists and other opponents, and restrict criticism of the royal family in the press. Following the pro-Shah coup d'état that overthrew the Prime Minister
Mohammad Mosaddegh Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 16th Majlis. He was a member of ...
in 1953, the Shah again cracked down on his opponents, and political freedom waned. He outlawed Mosaddegh's political group the National Front, and arrested most of its leaders.''Iran in Revolution: The Opposition Forces'' by E Abrahamian – MERIP Reports Over 4000 political activists of the Tudeh party were arrested,Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Tortured Confessions'', (University of California), 1999, pp. 89–90 (including 477 in the armed forces), forty were executed, another 14 died under torture and over 200 were sentenced to life imprisonment. During the height of its power, the shah's secret police
SAVAK SAVAK ( fa, ساواک, abbreviation for ''Sâzemân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniat-e Kešvar'', ) was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service in Iran during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty. SAVAK operated from 1957 until prim ...
had virtually unlimited powers. The agency closely collaborated with the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
. According to Amnesty International's Annual Report for 1974–1975 "the total number of political prisoners has been reported at times throughout the year 975to be anything from 25,000 to 100,000."


1971–77

In 1971, a guerrilla attack on a
gendarmerie Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...
post (where three police were killed and two guerrillas freed, known as the " Siahkal incident") sparked "an intense guerrilla struggle" against the government, and harsh government countermeasures.
Guerrillas Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tacti ...
embracing "
armed struggle War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
" to overthrow the Shah, and inspired by international
Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...
anti-imperialist Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
revolutionaries (
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...
,
Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...
, and
Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
), were quite active in the first half of the 1970s when hundreds of them died in clashes with government forces and dozens of Iranians were executed.Abrahamian, ''Tortured Confessions'' (1999), pp. 135–36, 167, 169 According to
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
, the Shah carried out at least 300 political executions. Torture was used to locate arms caches, safe houses and accomplices of the guerrillas, and also ln attempts to induce enemies of the state to become supporters. In 1975, the human rights group Amnesty International whose membership and international influence grew greatly during the 1970s issued a report on treatment of political prisoners in Iran that was "extensively covered in the European and American Press". By 1976, this repression was softened considerably thanks to publicity and scrutiny by "numerous international organizations and foreign newspapers" as well as the newly elected President of the United States,
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
.


Islamic Revolution

The 1978–79
Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...
overthrowing the Pahlavi government started with demonstrations in October 1977 and ended on 11 February 1979 with the defeat of the Shah's troops. During the revolution, protestors were fired upon by troops and prisoners were executed. The real and imaginary human rights violations contributed directly to the Shah's demise, (as did his scruples in not violating human rights as much as his general urged him to, according to some). The deaths of the popular and influential modernist Islamist leader Ali Shariati and the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's son Mostafa, in 1977, were believed to be assassinations perpetrated by SAVAK by many Iranians.Taheri, ''The Spirit of Allah'', (1985), pp. 182–83. On 8 September 1978, ( Black Friday) troops fired on religious demonstrators in Zhaleh (or Jaleh) Square. The clerical leadership announced that "thousands have been massacred by Zionist troops" (i.e. Israel troops rumored to be aiding the Shah),Taheri, ''The Spirit of Allah'', (1985), p. 223.
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and ho ...
reported 4000 had been killed,E. Baqi, `Figures for the Dead in the Revolution`, ''Emruz'', 30 July 2003 (quoted in ''A History of Modern Iran'', p. 160–61) and another European journalist reported that the military left behind a `carnage`. Johann Beukes, author of ''Foucault in Iran, 1978–1979'', notes that "Foucault seems to have adhered to this exaggerated death count at Djaleh Square, propagated by the revolting masses themselves. Thousands were wounded, but the death toll unlikely accounted to more than hundred casualties". According to the historian
Abbas Amanat Abbas Amanat ( fa, عباس امانت) is an Iranian-born American historian, scholar, author, editor, and professor. He serves as the William Graham Sumner Professor of History at Yale University and Director of the Yale Program in Iranian Stu ...
: Post-revolutionary accounting by Emadeddin Baghi, of the government Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, found 88 people killed on Black Friday: 64 (including two females) in Jaleh Square, and 24 (including one woman) in other parts of the capital."A Question of Numbers"
IranianVoice.org, 8 August 2003 Rouzegar-Now Cyrus Kadivar
According to the military historian
Spencer C. Tucker Spencer C. Tucker is a Fulbright scholar, retired university professor, and author of works on military history. He taught history at Texas Christian University for 30 years and held the John Biggs Chair of Military History at the Virginia Milita ...
, 94 were killed on Black Friday, consisting of 64 protesters and 30 government security forces. According to the
Iranologist Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...
Richard Foltz, 64 protesters died at Jaleh Square.


Islamic Republic, (since 1979)


Post-revolution


New Constitution

The new constitution of the Islamic Republic was adopted by referendum in December 1979. Although Ayatollah Khomeini was the undisputed leader of the revolution, he had many supporters who hoped the revolution would replace the Shah with democracy. Consequently, the constitution combined conventional liberal democratic mandates for an elected president and legislature, and
civil and political rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
for its citizens, with theocratic elements Khomeini desired. But it was theocracy that was pre-eminent. The constitution vested sovereignty in God, mandated non-elected governing bodies/authorities to supervise the elected ones, and subordinated the civil/political rights to the laws/precepts/principles of Islam, Some of the ways that basics of law in Iran clashed with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after 1979 included: * The use Classical Islamic law (
Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
), such as **victimless crimes: '“insulting the prophet,” “apostasy,” adultery, same-sex relations (all potentially punishable by death), drinking of alcoholic beverages, failure (for a woman) to wear hijab, **harsh punishments: stoning to death, amputation, lashing, retribution (or ''qisas'', aka "
Eye for an eye "An eye for an eye" ( hbo, עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, ) is a commandment found in the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. The principle exists also in Babylonian law. In Roman c ...
")Iranian Civil Code
NATLEX . Retrieved 21 August 2006.
which can include blinding the offender. **unequal rights for women in several areas: a woman is not valued the same as a man in blood money (''
diya Diya may refer to: * ''Diya (film)'', 2018 Tamil- and Telugu-language film * Diya (Islam), Islamic term for monetary compensation for bodily harm or property damage * Diya (lamp), ghee- or oil-based candle often used in South Asian religious ceremo ...
''), in inheritance, in court testimony (making conviction for rape of women difficult if not impossible in Iran), a woman needs her husband's permission to work outside the home or leave the country.Human Rights in Iran 2007 MEHR.org
p.4,5
covering of hair is compulsory. **Trans-women are viewed as majorly prostitutes and face judgment and danger from the law due to this. **restrictions on religious freedom and equality: ***Only Shia Muslims are eligible to become Supreme Leader or President. (non-Shia Muslims did not have equal rights with Shia). ***Religiously based punishments include
blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...
. ***Non-Muslims are encouraged to convert to Islam, but conversion from Islam to another religion (apostasy) is prohibited, and may be punishable by death; This is widely thought to explain the brutal treatment of Baháʼís who descend from Iranian Shia and hold that the
Báb The Báb (b. ʿAlí Muḥammad; 20 October 1819 – 9 July 1850), was the messianic founder of Bábism, and one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith. He was a merchant from Shiraz in Qajar Iran who, in 1844 at the age of 25, claimed ...
is the
Mahdi The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a descendant of Muhammad w ...
of Shia Islam and his revelations supersede the Quran. (The IRI insist the Bahai are traitors and subversives.) ***a Muslim man committing adultery with a Muslim woman is subject to 100 lashes, a non-Muslim man death. ***Others subject to religious discrimination include Protestant Christians, (at least in part because of their "readiness to accept and even seek out Muslim converts"); dervishes, irreligious, and otherwise orthodox Shia charged with apostasy for questioning the IRI doctrine of obeying the political "guardianship" of the Supreme Leader. **
Children's rights Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.
: The age of maturity and criminal responsibility in international norms is 18 years, but mainstream Shia Jaʽfari jurisprudence (and the Iranian Civil Code) hold that a female becomes an adult at the age of 8 years and 9 months (i.e. 9 lunar years), and a male at 14 years and 7 months (i.e. 15 lunar years); a disparity that has led to the execution in Iran of large numbers of (what international law says are) juvenile offenders. *The laws of the IRI do not follow " sharia exactly and some slight modifications to it have made since 1979 that slightly improve the IRI human rights record: **in 2002, authorities placed a moratorium on execution by stoning, but as of 2018, women were still being sentenced to stoning in Iran. **in 2004 blood money was made more equal. Under traditional Islamic law, "blood money" (''
diya Diya may refer to: * ''Diya (film)'', 2018 Tamil- and Telugu-language film * Diya (Islam), Islamic term for monetary compensation for bodily harm or property damage * Diya (lamp), ghee- or oil-based candle often used in South Asian religious ceremo ...
'', financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage) varies based on the gender and religion of the victim (Muslims and men being worth more). The International Religious Freedom Report reports that in 2004 the IRI parliament and Guardian Council reformed the law to equalized diya (also diyeh) between Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian men. (Baháʼí men were excluded, since according to law there is no "blood money" for Baháʼí since their blood is considered ''Mobah'', i.e. it can be spilled with impunity). **on 10 February 2012, Iran's parliament raised the minimum age for adulthood to 18 (solar years).


Velayat-e faqih and regime self-preservation

*The IRI has a number of laws and clauses in the constitution in violation of human rights provisions whose connection to classical sharia may be tenuous but that do mention protecting "principles of Islam" and have been used since 1979 to protect the government from dissent. **Restrictions on expression and media. The 1985 press law established press courts with the power to impose criminal penalties on individuals and to order closures of newspapers and periodicals, involved in "discourse harmful to the principles of Islam" and "public interest". **Restrictions on political freedom. Article 27 of the constitution limits "Public gatherings and marches" to those that "are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam," and according to
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...
, "broadly worded 'security laws'" in Iran are used "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. *In addition, some provisions of the constitution are believed to give the government license to go outside the constitution's ''own'' protections of civil and political rights, (for example article 167 of the constitution gives judges the discretion "to deliver his judgment on the basis of authoritative Islamic sources and authentic
fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...
(rulings issued by qualified clerical jurists))." Under the Islamic Republic, assassinations and other killings, beatings, rapes, torture and imprisonment of dissidents by government forces without any sort of due process were often described as "extrajudicial". But former Revolutionary Guard turned dissident Akbar Ganji argues these were 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'". (Historian
Ervand Abrahamian Ervand Abrahamian; hy, Երուանդ Աբրահամեան (born 1940) is an Iranian-American historian of the Middle East. He is Distinguished Professor of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York a ...
writes that 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.) According to 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. *Finally, in early 1988, shortly before his death, Imam Khomeini issued a fatwa ruling that Iran's Islamic government was "a branch of the Prophet's absolute Wilayat" and so important to Islam that it was one of "the primary (first order) rules of Islam" and that "ordinances of the law even praying, fasting and Hajj" were secondary ordinances over which Islamic government had "precedence". He wrote: "The Islamic State could prevent implementation of everything – devotional and non- devotional – that ... seems against Islam's interests".''Keyhan'', January 8, 1988; quoted in This doctrine -- ''velayat-e motlaqaye faqih'' ("the absolute authority of the jurist") -- indicated (according to Abrahamian) that "the survival of the Islamic Republic" and Islam itself were indeed tied together. It indicated to another scholar (Elizabeth Mayer) that the Islamic Republic was "freed ... to do as it chose — even if this meant violating fundamental pillars of the religion ..." (and, of course, the Iranian constitution) — and that ''velayat-e motlaqaye faqih'', not sharia law, explained "the prevalence of torture and punishment of political dissent" in the Islamic Republic.


First decade

The vast majority of killings of political prisoners occurred in the first decade of the Islamic Republic, after which violent repression lessened. After the revolution, the new regime worked to consolidate its rule. Human rights groups estimated the number of casualties suffered by protesters and prisoners of the Islamic government to be several thousand. The first to be executed were members of the old system – senior generals, followed by over 200 senior civilian officials. Their trials were brief and lacked defense attorneys, juries, transparency or the opportunity for the accused to defend themselves. By January 1980 "at least 582 persons" had been executed. In mid-August 1979, several dozen newspapers and magazines opposing Khomeini's idea of theocratic rule by jurists were shut down. Schirazi, p. 51.
Moin ''Moin'', ''moi'' or ''mojn'' is a Low German, Frisian, High German ( or ), Danish () and Kashubian () greeting from East Frisia, Northern Germany, the eastern and northern Netherlands, Southern Jutland in Denmark and parts of Kashubia. It ...
, pp. 219–20.
Political parties were banned (the National Democratic Front in August 1979, the Muslim People's Republican Party in January 1980), a purge of universities started in March 1980. Between January 1980 and June 1981 another 900 executions (at least) took place, for everything from drug and sexual offenses to "corruption on earth", from plotting counter-revolution and spying for Israel to membership in opposition groups. And in the year after that, at least 8,000 were executed. According to estimates provided by the military historian
Spencer C. Tucker Spencer C. Tucker is a Fulbright scholar, retired university professor, and author of works on military history. He taught history at Texas Christian University for 30 years and held the John Biggs Chair of Military History at the Virginia Milita ...
, in the period of 1980 to 1985, between 25,000 to 40,000 Iranians were arrested, 15,000 Iranians were tried and 8,000 to 9,500 Iranians were executed. Somewhere between 3000 and 30,000 political prisoners were executed between July and early September 1988 on orders of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. While the government attempted to keep the executions secret, by 2020 UN Special Rapporteurs had sent a letter to the IRI describing the killings as "crimes against humanity".


1990s and the Chain Murders

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 Pouyandeh Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh (also spelled Mohammad-Jafar Pooyandeh or Mohammad Jafar Poyandeh, fa, محمد جعفر پوینده) (7 June 1954 – 8 or 9 December 1998) was an Iranian writer, translator and activist. He was a member of the Iranian ...
, 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."Killing of three rebel writers turns hope into fear in Iran"
Douglas Jehl, ''The New York Times'', 14 December 1998 p. A6
Altogether more than 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens are thought to have been killed over the course of several years. While reformist journalists and media were able to uncover the murders, the man responsible for much of the exposing of the chain murders— Saeed Hajjarian, a Ministry of Intelligence operative-turned-journalist and reformer—came close to being murdered and ended up seriously crippled by a member of the
Basij The Basij ( fa, بسيج, lit. "The Mobilization"), Niru-ye Moghāvemat-e Basij ( fa, نیروی مقاومت بسیج, "Resistance Mobilization Force"), full name Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin ( fa, سازمان بسیج مستضعفین, "The ...
; and the deputy security official of the Ministry of Information,
Saeed Emami Saeed Emami ( fa, سعید امامی; né Saeed Eslami; (1958–1999) was the Iranian deputy minister of intelligence under Ali Fallahian, and adviser to the Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi. He was appointed as deputy minister in security affairs an ...
blamed for the killings died in prison, allegedly committing suicide, though many believe he was killed and that "higher level officials were responsible for the killings". With the rise of the Iranian reform movement and the election of moderate Iranian president
Mohammad Khatami Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 ...
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 The Guardian Council, (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, fa, شورای نگهبان, Shourā-ye Negahbān) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence i ...
and leading conservative figures in the Iranian government at the time.


Early 21st century and mass protests

By 2007, ''The Economist'' magazine wrote:
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 Khatami era are no longer tolerated: in January 2007 security forces attacked striking bus drivers in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
and arrested hundreds of them. In March police beat hundreds of men and women who had assembled to commemorate
International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wo ...
.
Several major recent protest movements — the July 1999 Iran student protests,
2009 Iranian presidential election protests After incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, protests broke out in major cities across Iran in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The protests con ...
, 2017–18 Iranian protests, 2019–2020 Iranian protests — have been met with violent crackdowns from the "parallel institution" of the
Basij The Basij ( fa, بسيج, lit. "The Mobilization"), Niru-ye Moghāvemat-e Basij ( fa, نیروی مقاومت بسیج, "Resistance Mobilization Force"), full name Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin ( fa, سازمان بسیج مستضعفین, "The ...
, with mass arrests, live ammunition, show trials. The November 2019 protests led to hundreds of civilian deaths and thousands of injuries, and a nationwide internet blackout by the government, "reported abuse and torture in detention", and the "greenlighting" of "these rampant abuses" by the Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia '' marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third presiden ...
.Estimates of the killed vary from 200 to 1500. From 2018 to 2020 human rights complaints included a high rate of executions, the targeting of "journalists, online media activists, and human rights defenders" by the "security apparatus and Iran's judiciary" in "blatant disregard of international and domestic legal standards", including "decades-long prison sentences" for human rights defenders, "excessive force ... arbitrary mass arrests and serious due process violations" in response to economic protests by the public.


=2022 Mahsa Amini protests

= In September 2022 a new round of "nationwide" protest began that has "spread across social classes, universities, the streets ndschools", and been called "the biggest threat" to the government of Iran since its founding with the
Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...
. The unrest began with the
Death of Mahsa Amini On 16 September 2022, the 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini,; ku, ژینا ئەمینی, Jîna Emînî died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious mo ...
at the hands of Iranian morality Islamic police, after she was detained for allegedly wearing hijab incorrectly. at least 448 people, including 60 minors, have been killed as a result of the government's intervention in the protests. An estimated 18,170 have been arrested throughout 134 cities and towns, and at 132 universities.


Perspective of the Islamic Republic

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 did not "accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran" and whose provisions the IRI would "not hesitate to violate". Officials of the Islamic Republic have responded to criticism by stating that Iran has "the best human rights record" in the Muslim world (2012); that it is not obliged to follow "the West's interpretation" of human rights (2008); 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" (2008). While in 2004 reformist president Mohammad Khatami stated that Iran certainly has "people who are in prison for their ideas." In general Iranian officials have denied Iran has political prisoners (Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi in 2004), or claimed that Iran's human rights record is better than that of countries that criticize it (President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),
in 2007 and 2008),Tehran Times. Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has criticized discrimination against Muslim minorities in Western countries. 6 March 2008
or better than Israel's.


Relative openness

One observation made by some non-governmental individuals about 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. While in neighboring Syria "taxi driver rarely talk politics; the Iranian will talk of nothing else." Explanations for why this is include the importance of "debate and discussion" among clerics in
Shiite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...
Islam that has spilled over into the Iranian public (journalist Elaine Sciolino), and that "notions of democracy and human rights" now have much deeper roots among Iranians than under the Shah (Akbar Ganji, Arzoo Osanloo,
Hooman Majd Hooman Majd (born 1957) is an Iranian-born American journalist, author, and political commentator who writes on Iranian affairs. He is based in New York City, and regularly travels to Iran. Early life Hooman Majd was born in 1957 in Tehran, Ira ...
), in fact are "almost hegemonic" (Arzoo Osanloo), so that it is much harder to spread fear among them, even to the point that if Iranian intelligence services "were to arrest anyone who speaks ill of the government in private, they simply couldn't build cells fast enough to hold their prisoners" (journalist Hooman Majd).


Comparison

The Islamic revolution is thought 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 prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...
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 slamic Republic warden Ladjevardi took the toll of four years under SAVAK.source: Anonymous "Prison and Imprisonment", ''Mojahed'', 174–256 (20 October 19838 August 1985). 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’)."


Human rights bodies and sources of information

Since the founding of the Islamic Republic, human rights violations have been the subject of resolutions and decisions by the United Nations and its human rights bodies, and by the
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it has 46 member states, with a p ...
,
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...
and
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
. In early 1980 Iran became one of the few countries (where conditions were bad enough) to ever be investigated by a UN country rapporteur under the UN Special Procedures section. Four years later the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) 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. It was a subsidiary body of ...
appointed a Special Representative on Iran to study its human rights situation and as of 2001 three men have filled that role. In addition to the UN Commission, more information on human rights violations has been provided by Human Rights NGOs and memoires by political prisoners who were released and which became available in the 1990s. 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". In response, not only has the Islamic Republic not implement recommendations to improve conditions (according to the UNCHR), but it has retaliated "against witnesses who testified to the experts." The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) has repeatedly passed resolutions criticizing human rights violations against Iran's religious minorities—especially the Baháʼís—as well as the Islamic Republic's "instances of torture,
stoning Stoning, or lapidation, is a method of capital punishment where a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt trauma. It has been attested as a form of punishment for grave misdeeds since ancient times. The Torah and Ta ...
as a method of execution and punishment such as
flogging Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...
and amputations", and the situation of a hunger striker ( Farhad Meysami).UN Experts Call On Iran To Guarantee Rights Of Detained Activists
/ref> In addition, non-governmental human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the
Center for Human Rights in Iran The Center for Human Rights in Iran (formerly the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran; ICHRI) is an American non-government organization that aims to promote human rights in Iran. The group started in late 2007 when several human right ...
, have issued reports and expressed concern over issues such as the treatment of religious minorities, prison conditions, medical conditions of prisoners, deaths of prisoners ( Vahid Sayadi Nasiri), mass arrests of anti-government demonstrators.


See also

*
Mahshahr massacre The Mahshahr massacre ( fa, قتل‌عام ماهشهر) refers to the mass killing of protesters in the city of Mahshahr, Iran, which occurred between 16 November and 20 November 2019, during the 2019–2020 Iranian protests. Estimates of fatali ...
* High Council for Human rights, Judiciary of Islamic Republic of Iran *
2009 Iranian election protests After incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, protests broke out in major cities across Iran in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The protests c ...
* ''
Be Like Others ''Be Like Others: The Story of Transgendered Young Men Living in Iran'' (also known as ''Transsexual in Iran'') is a 2008 documentary film written and directed by Tanaz Eshaghian about transsexuals in Iran. It explores issues of gender and sexual ...
'', a documentary film about transsexuality in Iran *
Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI) is a declaration of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) first adopted in Cairo, Egypt, on 5 August 1990, (Conference of Foreign Ministers, 9–14 Muharram ...
*
Defenders of Human Rights Center The Defenders of Human Rights Center is an Iranian human rights organization. Organization Based in Tehran, the organization was founded in 2001 and has been active in defending rights of women, political prisoners and minorities in Iran. Several ...
, Iran's leading Human Rights organization. * Ethnic minorities in Iran * Freedom of speech in Iran *
History of the Islamic Republic of Iran One of the most dramatic changes in government in Iran's history was seen with the 1979 Iranian Revolution where Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The authoritarian monarchy was replaced ...
*
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran The Center for Human Rights in Iran (formerly the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran; ICHRI) is an American non-government organization that aims to promote human rights in Iran. The group started in late 2007 when several human right ...
*
International rankings of Iran The following are international rankings for Iran: Agriculture Communication and information technology Demographics Economy Education Energy Environment and ecology General Globalization Health History and culture ...
*
Judicial system of Iran A nationwide judicial system in Iran was first implemented and established by Abdolhossein Teymourtash under Reza Shah, with further changes during the second Pahlavi era. After the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty by the Islamic Revol ...
* Religion in Iran * Status of religious freedom in Iran *
Stop Child Executions Campaign Stop Child Executions was a non-profit organization co-founded by Nazanin Afshin-Jam that aims to put an end to executions of minors in Iran. The organization campaigned to raise awareness about the issue and to put pressure on the government o ...
*
Ahmad Reza Radan Brigadier-General Ahmad-Reza Radan is the current head of Centre for Strategic Studies of the Iranian Law Enforcement Force. He was deputy commander of the Iranian police and as Tehran's police chief, infamous for his crackdown on "unislamic" hair ...
, who was in charge of 2007 moralization plan *
Human rights in Islamic countries Human rights in Muslim-majority countries have been a subject of controversy for many decades. International non-governmental organizations (INGOs) such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) consistently find human rights viol ...
* Academic freedom in the Middle East


Time-specific human rights overviews

* Human rights in the Imperial State of Iran * Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran


Notable prisons

See also List of prisons § Iran * Evin prison ** Section 209, or Prison 209, operated by the Ministry of Intelligence ** Ward 2A, operated by
IRGC The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
* Fashafoyeh * Ghezel Hesar prison *
Gohardasht prison Gohardasht Prison ( fa, زندان گوهردشت) is a prison in Gohardasht, a town in the northern outskirt of Karaj, approximately 20 km (12 miles) west of Tehran. Sometimes spelled Gohar Dasht Prison, it is also known as ''"Rajai Shahr"' ...
* Kahrizak detention center * Prison 59 * Shahr-e Rey prison also known as "Qarchak women's prison" * Towhid prison *
Vakilabad prison Vakilabad Prison (زندان وکیل‌آباد), also called Central Prison of Mashhad (زندان مرکزی مشهد), is a prison in Iran, located in the city of Mashhad in the northeast of the country. The prison has reportedly been the sit ...


Notable prisoners

*
Kourosh Zaim Kourosh Zaim ( fa, کورش زعیم; born May 17, 1939) is an Iranian author, inventor, engineer, translator, and nonviolent political activist. He was born in Kashan, Iran, on May 17, 1939. A vocal advocate of secular democracy and human rights ...
* Drs. Kamiar and Arash Alaei * Reza Alinejad * Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani * Emadeddin Baghi *
Delara Darabi Delara Darabi ( fa, دلارا دارابى) (29 September 19861 May 2009) was an Iranian Gilaki woman who was sentenced to death after having been convicted of murdering her father's female cousin in 2003. Although Delara initially claimed that ...
*
Nazanin Fatehi Nazanin (Mahabad) Fatehi ( fa, نازنین فاتحی; born 1987) is an Iranian woman who was sentenced to death for stabbing a man who allegedly tried to rape her and her 15-year-old niece, events occurring when she herself was a 17-year-old ...
* nasser Fahimi * Kouhyar Goudarzi *
Hossein Rajabian Hossein Rajabian ( fa, حسین رجبیان; born 5 July 1984) is an Iranian filmmaker, writer and photographer who was imprisoned as a political prisoner in 2015 on charges related to his filmmaking. He as an anti-censorship filmmaker and de ...
*
Mehdi Rajabian Mehdi Rajabian ( fa, مهدی رجبیان; born October 1989) is an Iranian composer and musician. He was imprisoned for pursuing illegal musical activities in 2013. In 2019, he released the album ''Middle Eastern'' in collaboration with a numb ...
* Zeynab Jalaliyan *
Narges Mohammadi Narges Mohammadi (; born 21 April 1972) is an Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 y ...
* Ateqeh Rajabi * Nasrin Sotoudeh *
Majid Tavakoli Majid Tavakoli ( fa, مجید توکلی ; born 1986) is an Iranian student leader, human rights activist and political prisoner. He used to be a member of the Islamic Students' Association at Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology, where ...
*
Atena Farghadani Atena Farghadani ( fa, آتنا فرقدانی; born 29 January 1987) is an Iranian artist and political activist, who was imprisoned for 18 months. Amnesty International considers her a prisoner of conscience. She was released on 3 May 2016. ...
* Kasra Nouri


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography

* * * * *


External links


‘We are ordered to crush you.’ Expanding Repression of Dissent in Iran.
Amnesty International 2012
Iran: Human Rights in the spotlight on the 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution
5 February 2009
Amnesty International report 2010 on Iran
*
Iran Human Rights

Amnesty International's Concerns about Iran
*
Freedom House: Freedom in the World Country Report: IranFreedom 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

Iran Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Various human rights news stories at ''Iran Focus''
* , IFEX *
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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Human Rights In The Islamic Republic Of Iran History of the Islamic Republic of Iran Women's rights in Iran Islamic Republic of Iran