Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This article is only about human rights in Iran specifically since 1979. For a longer-perspective overview, see Human rights in Iran.

The state of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has generally been regarded as extremely poor by several international organisations and bodies. 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 is criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, and for "extrajudicial" actions by state actors, such as the torture, rape, and killing of political prisoners, and the beatings and killings of dissidents and other civilians. Capital punishment in Iran remains a matter of international concern.

Restrictions and punishments in the Islamic Republic of Iran which violate international human rights norms include harsh penalties for crimes, punishment of victimless crimes such as fornication and homosexuality, execution of offenders under 18 years of age, restrictions on freedom of speech and the press (including the imprisonment of journalists), and restrictions on freedom of religion and gender equality in the Islamic Republic's Constitution (especially ongoing persecution of Baháʼís).

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 firebombing 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.

According to Human Rights Watch, Iran's human rights record "deteriorated markedly" under the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Following the 2009 election protests, there were reports of torture, rape, and even murder committed against protesters, as well as the arrest and publicized mass trials of dozens of prominent opposition figures in which defendants "read confessions that bore every sign of being coerced." The United Nations human rights office stated in October 2012 that Iranian authorities had engaged in a "severe clampdown" on journalists and human rights advocates.

Officials of the Islamic Republic have responded to criticism by stating that Iran has "the best human rights record" in the Muslim world; that it 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.

As of 2019, issues of concern presented by Amnesty International include the use of lethal force, killing over 300 people to unlawfully crush November protests; arbitrary detention of thousands of protesters; sentences of imprisonment and flogging for over 200 human rights defenders; entrenched discrimination, torture and other ill-treatment for ethnic and religious minorities; a crackdown on women's campaigning against forced veiling laws.

Background

Further information: Political repression in the Islamic Republic of Iran

History

See also: History of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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 prisoners 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')." According to estimates provided by the military historian Spencer C. Tucker, in the period of 1980 to 1985, between 25,000 and 40,000 Iranians were arrested, 15,000 Iranians were tried and 8,000 to 9,500 Iranians were executed.

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 attempts were made to amend Iranian laws in order to improve women’s rights, most of which were rejected or significantly watered down by the Guardian Council and other conservative institutions. The period also saw a temporary expansion of the independent press.

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 Khatami era are no longer tolerated: in January 2007 security forces attacked striking bus drivers in Tehran and arrested hundreds of them. In March police beat hundreds of men and women who had assembled to commemorate International Women's Day.

International criticism

Results of 2015 Pew Research Center poll.
World Views of Iran
Sorted by Favorable - Unfavorable

Country polled	Favorable	Unfavorable	Neutral	Fav - Unfav
Israel	5%	92%	3	-87
Jordan	8%	89%	11	-81
Spain	7%	87%	6	-80
Italy	9%	87%	4	-78
Brazil	11%	79%	10	-68
Germany	15%	78%	7	-63
France	19%	81%	0	-62
United States	14%	76%	10	-62
Japan	15%	73%	12	-58
Poland	14%	67%	19	-53
Chile	16%	68%	16	-52
Australia	17%	67%	16	-50
Canada	16%	66%	18	-50
Argentina	10%	59%	31	-49
Mexico	13%	62%	25	-49
Turkey	17%	64%	19	-47
United Kingdom	17%	62%	21	-45
South Africa	18%	57%	35	-39
China	23%	61%	16	-38
Venezuela	22%	58%	20	-36
Peru	19%	48%	33	-29
South Korea	30%	56%	14	-26
Palestine	34%	57%	9	-23
Philippines	33%	56%	11	-23
Lebanon	41%	58%	1	-19
Kenya	32%	50%	18	-18
Ukraine	26%	42%	32	-16
Malaysia	34%	47%	19	-13
Uganda	32%	43%	25	-11
Nigeria	33%	43%	24	-10
Russia	34%	44%	22	-10
Burkina Faso	25%	34%	41	-9
Senegal	32%	39%	39	-7
Indonesia	36%	41%	23	-5
Tanzania	29%	34%	37	-5
India	28%	28%	44	0
Vietnam	42%	35%	23	7
Ghana	44%	36%	20	8
Ethiopia	27%	18%	55	9
Pakistan	57%	16%	27	41

Since the founding of the Islamic Republic, human rights violations of religious minorities have been the subject of resolutions and decisions by the United Nations and its human rights bodies, the Council of Europe, European Parliament and United States Congress. In addition, non-governmental human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, 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.

In early 1980, Iran became one of the few countries 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 appointed a Special Representative on Iran to study its human rights situation and as of 2001 three men have filled that role. 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 persecution of Baháʼís. 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 6 October 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 9 February 2010, the European Union and United States issued a joint statement condemning "continuing human rights violations" in Iran.

On 2 September 2020, Amnesty International accused Iranian authorities of committing widespread human rights violations, during the 2019 protests. The nationwide protests were sparked by soaring fuel prices. In response to protests, the government reportedly caused hundreds of deaths with deliberate use of lethal force, in addition to 7,000 arrests. According to a report, the detainees included children who were subjected to beatings, extreme temperatures, stress positions and electrocution.

On 17 May 2022, the spokeswoman for the United Nations Human Rights Office requested Iran to suspend the execution of Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali and to commute his death sentence.

Relative openness

In 2005, Afshin Molavi asserted that the scale of repression in Iran diminished while new avenues of political expression opened up during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, thereby emboldening the Iranian public and civil society activists to become more vocal in their criticism of the Iranian government. American journalist Elaine Sciolino wrote:

"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 mullahs can behave that way among themselves in places like the holy city of Qom, how can the rest of a modern-day society be told it cannot think and explore the world of experience for itself?"

Another hypothesis offered by Iranians (Akbar Ganji, Arzoo Osanloo, Hooman Majd) is that "notions of democracy and human rights have taken root among the Iranian people" making it "much more difficult for the government to commit crimes" than the Shah's government did (Akbar Ganji). Writing about the reform period during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami Iranian-American academic Arzoo Osanloo notes that, "liberal notions of rights are almost hegemonic in Iran today." And journalist Hooman Majd explains the Islamic Republic's relative tolerance by claiming 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."

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 Khatami 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 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, Ahmadinejad 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.

According to Reza Afshari, the Islamic Republic's stance about the universality of human rights is founded in its assertion that religion is "the supreme cultural principle". Thus, government ideologues question the universality of human rights, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging functionaries to reject "the Western notion of human rights." According to Afshari, officials place emphasis on "human" rather than on rights, with the aim of obtaining a "true" human being ("mindful of God's presence and fearful of divine injunctions") before their rights can be considered. The aim is to create "the perfect human", something that stands in "sharp contrast with the goal of Western liberalism, which created normal humans."

Constitutional and legal foundations

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted by referendum on 2 and 3 December 1979, and amended on 28 July 1989.

The constitution has been called a "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements". Like many democratic constitutions, it has articles mandating a president and legislature, and regular popular elections to fill their seats (article 6). Also like most modern secular constitutions, it calls for rights for its citizens—equal rights for women (article 20), and protection of their rights (article 21); freedom of expression (article 23); freedom of press and communication (article 24), freedom of association (article 27); freedom for religious minorities (provided they are Zoroastrian, Jewish, or Christian) "to perform their religious rites and ceremonies."

Unlike most constitutions, it vests sovereignty in God (articles 1–2); it mandates appointed governing bodies (the Supreme Leader and Guardian Council) that supervise and subordinate the elected president and legislature/majlis (articles 107–112). And its clauses declaring 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." — what one scholar calls "ominous Catch-22s".

Further information: Khomeinism § Human rights

These principles/limits/precepts of Islam that differed from those of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights included

Further information: Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam

• Sharia law. Although law in the IRI differs somewhat from pure sharia, with the "monitoring and supervision" of the Guardian Council, "Islamic criminal law became the basis for definition of crimes and their classification" in the IRI. Sharia law as interpreted in the Islamic Republic, calls for inequality of rights between genders, religions, sexual orientation, as well as for other internationally criticized 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."
• Like other Islamists, Ayatollah Khomeini believed it was essential that Muslims (and eventually everyone) be governed by Islamic law/Sharia, but the uniqueness of his message came in first calling for Sharia/Islamic government to be run by the leading Islamic jurist or faqīh, and later after he came to power, declaring in an early 1988 fatwa that Iran's Islamic government was "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." 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. (Moharebeh, or "enemy of God", which in Islamic history often formed a legal category that comprises highway robbery (or robbery with violence), rape, and terrorism, is widely used by Iran's Islamic Judiciary, as a charge "against those who take up arms against the state.")

Provisions in violation of Human Rights

Harsh punishments

A revolutionary firing squad in 1979

For the category of offenses known as Hudud (violations of the "rights of God" with "fixed punishment") in Sharia, the Iranian penal code calls for punishments such as death by hanging, stoning or decapitation. Lesser crimes are punished by amputation or flagellation. (Crimes in this category include adultery, alcohol consumption, burglary or petty theft, rebellions against Islamic authority, apostasy and homosexual intercourse).

Non-Hudud crimes against the body (bodily injury) or against the person (homicide), such as murder or rape, are considered "private" crimes in Sharia, in the sense that the victim or family of the victim can exercise a right to retribution (Qisas, aka Eye for an eye), or decide to accept "blood money" (Diyyah or Talion Law). Intentional bodily injury or homicide "resulting in amputation of body organs, infliction of wounds and blinding is entitled to seek retaliation, and death penalty could be imposed by way of retaliation for intentional homicide upon the request of the heirs of the victim – with the exception of the spouse." Accidental or semi-intentional acts that cause bodily harm or death or in cases where they were caused intentionally but a sentence of retaliation could not be pronounced qualify for Blood money/Diyyah. A fourth category is Ta’zirat or discretionary punishment, and comprises any act considered sinful or forbidden under Islamic law, that was not included in the other three categories. The "vast majority" of offences in the Iranian judiciary system "are related to Ta’zirat crimes." In Iran, at least the early Ta’zirat codes (in 1983) replaced pre-revolutionary punishments such as fine and imprisonment with "the Sharia-oriented punishment of flogging".

All these categories are problematic in the eyes of human rights groups, and the tension between Sharia supporters and international and domestic pressure is reflected in the 17 January 2019 statement by Iran's Attorney-General, Mohammed Jafar Montazeri: "Unfortunately, so as not be condemned of human rights issues in the United Nations, we have abandoned some of the divine laws".

Types

Amputation being carried out as punishment in Iran

Amputation. Following Sharia, amputation is a punishment for thieves. Article 201 of the Islamic Penal Code, the sentence for a first time robbery is the amputation of four fingers of the thief's right hand; for a second conviction, it's the thief's left foot, (and for the third time, the defendant is sentenced to life in prison). Advocates have noted that it is "difficult, if not impossible ... to walk, even with a cane or crutches" when an offender has lost their right hand and left foot. This was the fate, for example, of five convicted robbers in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province in January 2008 according to the news agency ISNA. Amputation is widespread enough in the IRI to have been used on at least 129 offenders from 2000 to 2020 (according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center). On 3 December 2020, Amnesty International released a detailed analysis report calling the Iranian authority to drop the plans to amputate the fingers of six men convicted of robbery post the unfair trials and confession based on torture. The authorities & prison officials of Urumieh province are preparing to bring the guillotine machine to the prison to amputate the fingers of six convicts. Other criticism of the punishment are that the victims "can no longer easily button their clothes or do their daily jobs", and if they stole because of poverty loss of a functioning hand increases their financial need.

See also: Capital punishment in Iran § Stoning, and Stoning § Iran

Stoning. Stoning is the form of execution for only one crime in Iran - adultery. From 1980 to 2009 150 people were reportedly stoned to death in Iran, but in 2002, authorities placed a moratorium on this form of execution. As of 2018, women were still being sentenced to stoning in Iran. Sharia explicitly states that stones used must be small enough to not kill instantly.

Flogging. According to Amnesty International, flogging "amounts" to torture. In the IRI it serves as punishment for a variety of crimes in the IRI—theft, assault, but also "participating in peaceful protests, engaging in extramarital relationships, attending mixed-gender parties and drinking alcohol". At least 2,134 people, (including 17 under the age of 18), were flogged between 2000 and 2020 in the IRI (according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center).

Blinding. Under Sharia policy of qisas (retribution), at least one case of punishment by blinding has occurred in Iran, when a man had his eye gouged out following his conviction for throwing acid in a woman's face. The punishment has been attacked as barbaric.

In August 2021, hacks of governmental surveillance cameras revealed constant beatings and draggings of prisoners by staff.

Gender issues

Main article: Women's rights in Iran

The Iranian legislation does not accord the same rights to women as to men in all areas of the law. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has stated that gender equality was "one of the biggest mistakes of Western thought."

• In the section of the penal code devoted to blood money, or Diyya, 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 hijab (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.

In March 2019, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who represented opposition activists and women prosecuted for taking off their mandatory headscarf, was sentenced to 38 years in jail and 148 lashes. Javaid Rehman, the UN investigator on human rights in Iran, raised Sotoudeh's case at the United Nations Human Rights Council, saying "Worrying patterns of intimidation, arrest, prosecution and ill-treatment of human rights defenders, lawyers and labour rights activists signal an increasingly severe state response".

Victimless crimes

Among the crimes that may be punishable by death in Iran are '"insulting the prophet," "apostasy," same-sex relations, adultery, and certain non-violent drug-related offenses'.

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 ("Publications and the press have freedom of expression except when it is detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the rights of the public. The details of this exception will be specified by law"), which according to Human Rights Watch provides "officials with ample opportunity to censor, restrict, and find offense."

Iranian model Bahareh Zare Bahari was stranded for several weeks at Manila's international airport in 2019 after Iran sought her through an Interpol red notice. Bahari criticised the Iran regime, leading to fears that she would be executed if returned to Iran.

The Philippine government eventually granted her asylum.

Freedom and equality of religion

Main article: Status of religious freedom in Iran

The constitution accords non-Shia Muslims "full respect" (article 12). It also recognizes the freedom of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and five seats in parliament are set aside for these minority religions. But as an Islamic Republic "based on the governance of the [Twelver Ja’afari Shia] jurisprudent (velāyat-e faqih)," by definition the government of Iran does not grant equal rights to all religions. Legislation is based on the "Qur’an and the Sunnah", the president and Supreme Leader must be from the "official religion of the country" i.e. Twelver Ja’afari Shiism Non-Muslims are not allowed to serve in representative bodies—aside from the five reserved parliamentary seats—and "cannot hold senior government or military positions, and face restrictions in employment, education, and property ownership."

Other inequalities include Hudud statutes that 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.

Under traditional Islamic law, "blood money" (diyeh, 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 diyeh between Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian men—but not Baháʼí men, since according to law their blood is considered Mobah, (i.e. it can be spilled with impunity).

Conversion to Islam by non-Muslims is encouraged in Iran, but conversion from Islam to another religion (apostasy) is prohibited with a maximum punishment of death. The penal code specifies the death sentence for non-Muslims attempting to convert Muslims, as well as for moharebeh ("enmity against God") and sabb al-nabi ("insulting the Prophet").

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."

Perhaps suffering the most in Iran is the Baháʼí Faith, which the Islamic Republic claims 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 Baháʼís stems from some Baháʼí teachings challenging traditional Islamic religious doctrines – particularly the finality of Muhammad's prophethood and the Shí'i ecclesiastical structure of endowments, benefices and fees that sustained the Shí'i clergy– and place Baháʼís outside the Islamic faith.

Islamic law against apostasy—including "heretics"—is thought to be involved in the persecution of the Baháʼí, because Iranian law recognizes all those who accept the existence of God and the prophethood of Muhammad as Muslims. Baháʼís accept both of these precepts, but also maintain their early leaders—Báb and Baháʼu'lláh—were additional messengers that have appeared after Muhammad. Muslims, on the other hand, assert the finality of Muhammad's revelation. So while Baháʼís describe themselves as members of an independent religion, Iranian law considers them to be claiming to be Muslims while violating a key precept of the religion, and thus heretics.

Also subject to Islamic "government suspicion and hostility" according to Human Rights Watch, is the small Protestant Christian minority in Iran, 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.

At least two Iranians – Hashem Aghajari and Hasan 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 (i.e. of the Khomeini principle of obeying the political "guardianship" of the leading Islamic faqih)), but which appear to outsiders to be simply expressions of political/religious reformism. 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 reformist-oriented 'Iran After the Elections' Conference in Berlin Germany which was disrupted by anti-government demonstrators.

On 16 November 2018 two jailed Sufi Dervishes started a hunger strike demanding the information of whereabouts of their eight detained friends, and also during that time, the prison warden Qarchak women prison in Varamin, near the Tehran attacked and bit three Dervish prisoners when they demanded their confiscated belongings back.

Political freedom

Article 26 of the IRI constitution allows "the formation of parties, societies, political or professional associations, as well as religious societies ... [which] No one may be prevented from participating in ... or be compelled to participate in them;" but it limits this freedom: "provided they do not violate the principles of independence, freedom, national unity, the criteria of Islam, or the basis of the Islamic Republic". Article 27 grants "Freedom of Assembly": "Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried", but limits it again to gatherings "that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam".

In a 2008 report, the organization Human Rights Watch complained that "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.

Freedom House has also complained that the constitution's prohibition on public demonstrations that "violate the principles of Islam," is "a vague provision used to justify the heavy-handed dispersal of assemblies and marches".

Ahmad Batebi, a demonstrator in the July 1999 Student demonstrations in Iran, was given a death sentence for "endangering national security." His sentence was later reduced to 15 years and then 10 years imprisonment after domestic and international outcry. A photograph of Batebi holding a bloody shirt aloft was printed on the cover of The Economist magazine.

Children's rights

See also: The Rights of the Child in Iran

According to the "predominant view" in the Shia Jaʽfari jurisprudence, the age of maturity is not the international standard of 18 years, but "9 lunar years (8 years and 9 months) for girls, and 15 lunar years (14 years and 7 months) for boys". This is also the age of maturity and "criminal responsibility" in Article 1210 of the Iranian Civil Code and Article 147 of the 2013 Code.

Despite signing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran, according to human rights groups, is the world's largest executioner of juvenile offenders. As of May 2009, there were at least 137 known juvenile offenders awaiting execution in Iran, but the total number could be much higher as many death penalty cases in Iran are believed to go unreported. Of the 43 child offenders recorded as having been executed since 1990, 11 were still under the age of 18 at the time of their execution while the others were either kept on death row until they had reached 18 or were convicted and sentenced after reaching that age, including at least one 13-year-old and 14-year-old.

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 examines legislation for "compatibility ... with the criteria of Islam and the Constitution", and vetoes parliamentary bills it finds deficient. 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."

On 10 February 2012 Iran's parliament changed the controversial law of executing juveniles. "In the new law, the age of 18 (solar year) would be for both genders considered and juvenile offenders will be sentenced on a separate law than of adults."

Extralegal violations of human rights

Iran has been criticized by human rights groups for "extra-legal" or "extra-judicial" killings and other sanctions. A 2005 Human Rights Watch 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."

But 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, though seemingly in violation of the constitution and not publicly acknowledged by the government — 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.

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

See also: Forced confessions in Iran

Article 38 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic forbids "all forms of torture 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:

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 80 cm x 140 cm (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 for authorities to produce a confession by a defendant (and thus a strong incentive 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.

In March 2013 UK based medical charity Freedom from Torture published a report providing detailed evidence of torture being practiced in Iran. "We Will Make You Forget Everything: New Evidence of Torture in Iran Since the 2009 Elections", is a study of 50 Iranian torture cases and provides an alarming insight into the brutality of the Iranian authorities in the years since the 2009 elections. The report found that torture was used by state officials as a method of repression, in order to obtain information and that a variety of torture methods were used in a highly systematic way. In one case a woman was raped twice during interrogations and some reported being forced to sign 'confessions' of their involvement in anti-regime activities.

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."

On 28 November 2018 guards in khoy women prison, north west of Iran attacked inmate Zeynab Jalalian and confiscated all her belongings. She was arrested in February 2007.

On 20 December 2018 Human rights Watch urged the regime in Iran to investigate and find an explanation for the death of Vahid Sayadi Nasiri who had been jailed for insulting the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to his family Nasiri had been on hunger strike but he was denied medical attention before he died.

On 13 July 2020, the Amnesty International reported that imprisoned Iranian human rights defender, Narges Mohammadi, showed suspected COVID-19 symptoms. She was unjustly jailed in inhumane conditions in May 2015 for her peaceful human rights work. The Iranian authorities risked her health and life by denying her medical care, as she already suffered from serious pre-existing health conditions.

On 6 October 2020, the United Nations urged Iran to immediately release human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, and other political prisoners, as Iran introduced a system of temporary releases to reduce the population in severely overcrowded prisons in February 2020. According to UN rights High Commissioner Bachelet, states are responsible for the well-being of all individuals under their care including human rights activists, lawyers and political prisoners.

Iran granted release of thousands of prisoners, over the fear of spread of coronavirus. In November 2020, Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was temporarily released, followed by her deteriorating health condition due to a long term hunger strike. She was prosecuted for fighting for the rights of women, who were jailed on removing headscarf in public.

Notable issues concerning human rights

Killings during the first decade

Mass executions and killing of opponents took place 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, at least 8,000 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 8,000 and 30,000. Since the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini there have been fewer government sanctioned killings in Iran.

Extrajudicial 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 Pouyandeh, 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.

Main article: Chain murders of Iran

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 16 January 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 5 July 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 19 January 1994. His body was found in the street in Shahr-e Rey, a Tehran suburb.

Iranian human rights activist Farshid Hakki went missing on 17 October 2018 on Saturday night in Tehran. According to the Le Monde diplomatique, "Farshid Hakki was reportedly stabbed to death near his house in Tehran and his body then burned. Shortly after the news of his death broke out on social media, on 22 October, Tehran’s police authorities claimed that he had committed suicide by self-immolation. Not unlike its Saudi rival, the Islamic Republic has a long history of trying to cover up state-sanctioned attempts to physically eliminate its critics, too."

Deaths in custody

Further information: 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners

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). One complaint made against the mass killings was that almost all the prisoners executed had been arrested for relatively minor offenses, since those with serious charges had already been executed. The 1988 killings resembled the 'disappearances' of prisoners in 20th-century Latin America.

UN judge and leading human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has urged the UN Security Council to set up a special court, along the lines of the International Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to try the men involved "for one of the worst single human rights atrocities since the Second World War."

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the UN Secretary General to the General Assembly highlighting the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In her report, Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir stated that "families of the victims have the right to a remedy, which includes the right to an effective investigation of the facts and public disclosure of the truth; and the right to reparation. The Special Rapporteur therefore calls on the Government to ensure that a thorough and independent investigation into these events is carried out." International civil society and NGOs urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a fact -finding mission to investigate the months-long 1988 massacre during which Iran's government executed an estimated 30,000 political prisoners, mostly activists of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK).

Among those Iranians 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 Kazemi, 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.

Executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia (2010–2017)