Figure 1.--Iranian officials are leading this Iranian tenager to the gallows where he was hanged July 17, 2007 with a friend. The two were found guilty of having sex with each other. Click on the image to see what followed. Source: ISNA.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the worst abusers of human rights in the Middle East. The violation of basic human rights is a policy being persued systematically by the Iranian Governent to stifel dissent in Iran. This is in large measure because the Mullah-dominted regime has sought to control personal behavior beyond that of most Middle Eastern countries. The country has elections, but this is virtually the only aspect of a democratic political system, and the voters can only vote for candidates approved by Islamic mullas. Other elements of a democratic system such as a free press, minority rights, and an independent judiciary are absent. There is virtually no limits on the police in Iran. Iranian sources report brutal attacks by Iranian police and auxileries on students. There are serious constraints on religious freedom. Women have been hanged for teaching Sunday school and houses of worshop have been destroyed. The Baha’i minority has been targeted by the regime. Children have been maimed for minor infractions of the strict Sharia legal code enforced by the Mullas. Children are also subject to capital punishment and leads the world in the execution of children. Capital punishment is an important part of the legal system. And there are several offenses covering personal conduct that are punishable by death. Woman are subjected to a strict dress code and those who violate the code are brutalized. There are still public stonings for women found guilty of adultry. Homosexuality is considered a grave sin and people found guilty of homosexual acts are pubically hanged, including teenagers.

Political Rights

The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is best described as a theocracy. The Government is overseen by a religious jurisconsult. The Supreme Leader of Iran is chosen by a group of 83 Islamic scholars. He oversees the state's decision-making process. All acts of the Majlis (parliament) must be reviewed for conformity with Islamic law and the Constitution by the Council of Guardians, which is composed of six clerics appointed by the Supreme Leader and six Muslim jurists (legal scholars) nominated by the Head of the Judiciary and elected by parliament. Te Government created by this process is one of the worst abusers of human rights in the Middle East. The violation of basic human rights is a policy being persued systematically by the Iranian Governent to stifel dissent in Iran.This is in large measure because the Mullah-dominted regime has sought to control personal behavior beyond that of most Middle Eastern countries. The country has elections, but this is virtually the only aspect of a democratic political system, and the voters can only vote for candidates approved by Islamic mullas. Other elements of a democratic system such as a free press, minority rights, and an independent judiciary are absent. There is virtually no limits on police power in Iran. Iranian sources document the brutal behavior of Iranian police and their auxileries.

Freedom of Expression

Irn is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Iran is legally bound to protect freedom of expression, assembly and equality before the law, and prohibit arrest and detention resulting from the exercise of one of these rights. The Iranian Government routinely violates this commitment.

Women's Rights

Women in Iran have the right to vote, but a wide range of Iranian laws descriminate against women. Many of these laws involve domestic arrangements and propery rights. Woman are subjected to a strict dress code and those who violate the code are brutalized. There are still public stonings for women found guilty of adultry. The Iranian regime seems especially concerned about the country's woman's movement. The movement sponsored a “Change for Equality” campaign which attempted to collect 1 million signatures to protest these discriminatory laws. This campaign focused on specific reforms, such as giving women’s testimony in court the same validity as that of men, equality of inheritance rights, the ending of polygamy, and equal compensation payments in cases involving wrongful death. The Iranian Judiciary under Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi has started to use the country's national security laws to imprison women’s rights activists. [Whitson] Iranian courts have been using article 610 of the Islamic Penal Code to punih women activists to jail terms. [Whitson]

Religious Freedom

The Iranian Government imposes serious constraints on religious freedom. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic declares the "official religion of Iran is Islam and the doctrine followed is that of Ja'fari (Twelver) Shi'ism." All laws and regulations enforced by the state must be consistent with Islamic law (Shari'a). The Constitution provides that other Islamic denominations are to be accorded full respect, and recognizes Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians as religious minorities. The Constitution guarantees the right of these recognized minorities to religious practice in personal affairs and religious education. The Constitution forbids harassment of individuals according to their beliefs; however, the adherents of religions not specifically protected under the Constitution do not enjoy the right to practice their faith. Despite the Consttutinal guarantees, the Government has supressed the now small Jewish community. State imposed restrictions have also been directed at the Baha'i Faith, which the Government regards as a misguided or wayward Islamic sect. Te Government has also concluded that the Baha'i has a political orientation hostile to the Iranian revolution. Baha'is see themselves as an independent religion with origins in the Shi'ite Islamic tradition. Some Government officials reportedly have stated that, as individuals, all Baha'is are entitled to their beliefs and are protected under other articles of the Constitution as citizens, but the state has taken a range of actions against the Baha'i. Baha'i Women have been hanged for teaching Sunday school, Baha'i houses of worshop have been destroyed. Iranian authorities destroyed the the most sacred site for one of Iran’s largest religious minorities, the Baha’is. It was located in Shiraz. The house belonged to the Bab, the first of the two Baha’i prophets. The Iranian Islamist revolutionary government destroyed this holy shrine. The remains of the Bab are buried in the golden shrine in Israel. The Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance ("Ershad") and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) monitor all religious activity in Iran. Adherents of recognized religious minorities are not required to register individually with the Government. The Government does, however, monitor their community, religious, and cultural events and organizations, including schools. The police have undertaken the registratin of Baha'is. The Government has pressured evangelical Christian groups to submit membership lists, but the churches have resisted. Non-Muslim owners of grocery shops are required to post their religious affiliation at the front of their shops. Apostasy, specifically conversion from Islam, can be punishable by death on the basis of a Koranic prohibition.

Personal Conduct and Privacy

The Iranian Government in 2007 has launched an intensified campaign to bring personal conduct into line with the vision of Islamic Mullahs. Iranian Basiji (police and militia)launched a nationwide crackdown against individuals seen as deviating from official standards of dress or behavior (April 2007). The Basiji have used extreme violence in these operations. And the Iranian Supreme Court have apparently given the Basiji carte blanche to use violence as they see fit. The Court overturned murder sentences against six Basiji who killed five people in 2002 that they saw as “morally corrupt” (April 14, 2007). Thus there appears to be no contraint on the level of forced used by the Basiji. The new campaign is aimed at "countering immoral behavior”. Human Rights Watch charges that the campaign threaten basic rights to privacy. "In Iran, the walls of homes are transparent and the halls of justice are opaque. This ‘morality’ campaign shows how fragile respect for privacy and personal dignity is in Iran today." [Stork] Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, Iran’s chief of police, told the semi-official Mehr News Agency that “law enforcement agents detained 150,000 people”. Most of those individuals were forced to sign ”commitment letters,” to observe official dress codes. Some of the individuals were referred 86 people to the judiciary for prosecution. [Stork, May 17, 2007.]

Judicial System

Not only is there no independent judiciary in Iran, but many individuals accused of political offenses are tried by military courts behind closed doors. Not only are their closed door judicial proceedings, but there are also extra-legal muders and kidnappings. A particularly notable case is that of Mr. Zarafshan. He was tried in a military court behind closed doors and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and 50 lashes (February 2002). His crime was disclosing the facts in the case of political murders and the direct involvement of the Iranian intelligence community in extra-legal political kidnappings and killings. The process is similar to that of the Soviet Union and NAZI Germany showing the totalitarian nature of the Irnian regime. . There is widespred use of both corporal and capital punishment in Iran. Other abuses of the judicial system concern children. Extremely young children have been phyically maimed for minor infractions of the strich Sharia legal code enforced by the Mullas. Children are also subject to capital punishment and leads the world in the execution of children. Human Rights Watch reports, "Iran is known to have executed at least 17 juvenile offenders since the beginning of 2004 – eight times more than any other country in the world. Iran’s highest judicial authorities have repeatedly upheld death sentences handed down to juvenile offenders charged with committing crimes when they were as young as 15. Such sentences violate Iran’s international treaty obligations, which prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people under 18. In some cases, the death sentences also violate Iranian domestic law requiring that children under 18 be tried before special juvenile courts." [Bencomo] Capital punishment is an important part of the Iranian legal system. And there are several offenses covering personal conduct that are punishable by death. These include both hangings and stoneings. There appears to be some diffeence of opinion among Iranan officals on stoneings, but Iranian courts continue to hand dowm such sentences. [Stork, June 20, 2007.]

Education

We do not yet have much information on primary and secondary education in Iran. All public school students, including non-Muslims, must study Islam. The Government generally allows recognized religious minorities to conduct religious education for their community. This includes both separate and privately funded Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian schools, but does not include Baha'i schools. The Ministry of Education (MOE) imposes various curriculum requirements and supervises these schools. The directors of these private schools must be Muslim, with a few exceptions. Attendance at the schools is not mandatory for religious minorities who can attend public schools. The MOE must approve all textbooks used in coursework, including religious texts. Recognized religious minorities may provide religious instruction in non-Persian languages, but such texts require approval by the authorities for use. This requirement can be a major impediment because it imposes significant translation expenses on small minority communities. University educatin is largely limited to Muslims. University entrance requirements include an examination in Islamic theology. This largely excludes religious minorities from Iranian universities. Despite tis requirement, there is considerable resentment by university students toward religious authorities and the restrictinds they impose. Iranian sources report brutal attacks by Iranian police and auxileries on protesting students.

Sexual Orientation

The Islamic Republic considers homosexuality to be a grave sin and people found guilty of homosexual acts are pubically hanged. Some sources suggest that the Iranian Islamic regime since seizing power in 1979 has executed about 4,000 homosexuals, including juveniles. The Irnian regime's policies are so aberant that autorities in the West often fail to believe that the execution of homosexuals can actully be the policy of the Iranian Government. Swedish authorities denied asylum to a gay man from Iran, stateing that they didn't believe his story that police had visited his parents and promised to kill him if he ever returned to Iran (1996). Consensual homosexual sex in any form is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those found guilty are given a choice of four death styles: hanging, stoning, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch. According to Article 152, if two men not related by blood are discovered naked under one cover without good reason, both will be punished at a judge's discretion. Gay teens (Article 144) are also punished at a judge's discretion. Two gay Iranian teenagers were executed for the "crime" of homosexuality (July 2007). [ISNA] ISNA also provided terrifying photos of the teens last moments. The two teenagerswere were identified only by their initials as M.A. and A.M., were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran, on the orders of Court No. 19. The teens hanged in Mashhad "... admitted having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defense that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death. .... Prior to their execution, the gay teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes. The length of their detention suggests that they committed the so-called offenses more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16." [ISNA]

Military Service

The Iranian Government used children in its war with Iraq durng the 1980s.

Sources

Bencomo, Clarisa. Human Rights Watch. "Iran Leads the World in Executing Children: New Executions Highlight Arbitrary Nature of Iranian Justice," Human Rights News (June 20, 2007).

Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), July 17, 2007.

Stork, Joe. Huuman Rights Watch. "Iran: End Arrests on Immorality Charges--Mass Detentions, Home Raids Are Assaults on Privacy." Human Rights News (May 17, 2007).

Stork, Joe. Human Righrs Warch. "Iran: Stop Executions by Stoning Slated for June 21 Cruel and Inhuman Punishment Should Be Banned Immediately," Human Rights News (June 20, 2007).

Whitson, Sarah Leah. "Iran: Women on Trial for Peaceful Demonstration,"Human Rights News (February 27, 2007).

Created: 6:44 AM 6/20/2007
Last updated: 6:44 AM 6/20/2007