Human rights in Iran#Notable prisons

{{main|Human rights in the Imperial State of Iran}}

The Imperial State of Iran, the government of Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty, lasted from 1925 to 1979. The use of torture and abuse of prisoners varied at times during the Pahlavi reign, according to one history.Ervand Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran, (University of California), 1999 Both of the two monarchs{{snd}} Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi{{snd}} employed censorship, secret police, torture, and executions.

The reign of Reza Shah was authoritarian and dictatorial at a time when authoritarian governments and dictatorships were common in both the region and the world, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was some years away.The Age of the Dictators: A Study of the European Dictatorships, 1918–53, D. G. Williamson. Freedom of the press, workers' rights, and political freedoms were restricted under Reza Shah. Independent newspapers were closed down, political parties{{snd}} even the loyal Revival party {{snd}} were banned. The government banned all trade unions in 1927, and arrested 150 labor organizers between 1927 and 1932.Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, (Princeton University Press), 1982, p. 138

Physical force was used against some kinds of prisoners{{snd}} common criminals, suspected spies, and those accused of plotting regicide. Burglars in particular were subjected to the bastinado (beating the soles of the feet), and the strappado (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{{snd}} who were primarily Communists{{snd}} there was a "conspicuous absence of torture" under Reza Shah's rule.Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, 1999, p. 39 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."Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, 1999, p. 41

{{main|Human_rights_in_the_Imperial_State_of_Iran#Mohammad_Reza_Shah}}

{{See also|1963 demonstrations in Iran}}

File:MohammadReza Pahlavi visits television center of Habiblollah Sabet, There are also Hormoz Sabet, Naser Zolfaghari, Ali Mo'ayyed Sabeti, Nematollah Nasiri.jpg, head of shah's secret police SAVAK, with Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1970]]

File:شهیدان انقلابی.JPG, 1978]]

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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=qh_QotrY7RkC&dq=%22Gone+were+the+days+when+the+shah+could+arrange+the+return+of+his+faithful+deputies%22&pg=PA186 Iran between two revolutions] By Ervand Abrahamian, p. 186 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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=qmVUg_qHr2AC&dq=crack+down+on+religious+militants%2C+communists%2C+and+other+opponents&pg=PA150 The History of Iran] By Elton L. Daniel, 2012

Following the pro-Shah coup d'état that overthrew the Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh 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.{{cite book |last=Abrahamian |first=Ervand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_mnrYNIVfCgC&pg=PA92 |title=Tortured Confessions |publisher=University of California Press |year=1999 |page=92|isbn=978-0-520-21866-6| access-date=18 March 2011 }}{{cite book|last=Abrahamian |first=Ervand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_mnrYNIVfCgC&pg=PA84 |title=Tortured Confessions |publisher=University of California Press |year=1999 |page=84 |isbn=978-0-520-21866-6| access-date=18 March 2011 }}

During the height of its power, the shah's secret police SAVAK had virtually unlimited powers. The agency closely collaborated with the CIA.Fisk. Great War for Civilisation, p. 112.

According to Amnesty International's Annual Report for 1974–1975 "the total number of political prisoners has been reported at times throughout the year [1975] to be anything from 25,000 to 100,000."{{cite journal |last1=Baraheni |first1=Reza |title=Terror in Iran |journal=The New York Review of Books |date=28 October 1976 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1976/10/28/terror-in-iran/}}

In 1971, a guerrilla attack on a gendarmerie 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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=-QJgbEeoLfEC&dq=torture+Siahkal&pg=PA102 Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions], p. 101 Guerrillas embracing "armed struggle" to overthrow the Shah, and inspired by international Third World anti-imperialist revolutionaries (Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Che Guevara), were quite active in the first half of the 1970sKurzman, Charles, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran, Harvard University Press, 2004, p.145–46{{#tag:ref|In the two and half years from mid 1973 through 1975, three United States colonels, an Iranian general, sergeant, and a Persian translator of the United States Embassy were all assassinated by guerrilla groups source: Fischer, Michael M.J., Iran, From Religious Dispute to Revolution, Harvard University Press, 1980 p. 128|group=Note}} 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, the Shah carried out at least 300 political executions.Washington Post, 23 March 1980.

Torture was used to locate arms caches, safe houses and accomplices of the guerrillas, and also in attempts to induce enemies of the state to become supporters.Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, 1999 p. 114

In 1975, the human rights group Amnesty International{{snd}} whose membership and international influence grew greatly during the 1970sAmnesty International's membership increased from 15,000 in 1969 to 200,000 by 1979.

• {{cite book|title=Amnesty International Report 1968-69|publisher=Amnesty International|year=1969}}
• {{cite book|title=Amnesty International Report 1979|publisher=Amnesty International|year=1980}}{{snd}} issued a report on treatment of political prisoners in Iran that was "extensively covered in the European and American Press".[https://books.google.com/books?id=H20Xt157iYUC&dq=%22amnesty+international%22+shah&pg=PA286 The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7], edited by W. William Bayne Fisher, P. Avery, G. R. G. Hambly, C. Melville, p. 286 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.Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, p. 119.[https://books.google.com/books?id=JJEIQbUnGyYC&dq=human+right+under+the+shah&pg=PA224 Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movements of Iran ...]

By Houchang E Chehabi, p. 225

The 1978–79 Iranian Revolution 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,{{#tag:ref|A Persian-speaking British diplomat noted that the gulf between shah and public was now unbridgeable – both because of Black Friday and because of the Abadan fire.(source: D. Harney, The Priest and the King: An Eyewitness Account of the Iranian Revolution, (London: Turis, 1999), p. 25)|group=Note}} (as did his scruples in not violating human rights as much as his general urged him to, according to some).Kurzman, Unthinkable Revolution, (2004), p. 108

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.Moin, Khomeini, (2000), pp. 184–85.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 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`.J. Gueyras, `Liberalization is the Main Casualty,` The Guardian, 17 September 1978. 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".{{cite book |last1=Beukes |first1=Johann |title=Foucault in Iran, 1978–1979 |date=2020 |publisher=AOSIS |page=53 (note 26)}} According to the historian Abbas Amanat:{{cite book |last1=Amanat |first1=Abbas |author1-link=Abbas Amanat |title=Iran: A Modern History |date=2017 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=719}}

{{blockquote|The clerical activists, backed by the Qom marja's, capitalized on the Jaleh Square massacre to paint the regime as brutal and illegitimate. Aided by a rumor-mongering machine that became fully operational in the absence of reliable media and news reporting, the number of casualties, the “martyrs” on the path of Islam, was inflated to thousands, and the troops who opened fire on them were labeled as Israeli mercenaries who were brought in to crush the revolution.}}

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.[http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000592.php#more "A Question of Numbers"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140804172903/http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000592.php|date=4 August 2014}} IranianVoice.org, 8 August 2003 Rouzegar-Now Cyrus Kadivar According to the military historian Spencer C. Tucker, 94 were killed on Black Friday, consisting of 64 protesters and 30 government security forces.{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Spencer C. |author1-link=Spencer C. Tucker |title=The Roots and Consequences of Civil Wars and Revolutions: Conflicts that Changed World History |date=2017 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=439}} According to the Iranologist Richard Foltz, 64 protesters died at Jaleh Square.{{cite book |last1=Foltz |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Foltz |title=Iran in World History |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=108}}

{{main|Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran}}

{{main|Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran}}

The new constitution of the Islamic Republic{{cite web |title=Constitution |url=https://en.parliran.ir/eng/en/Constitution |website=Islamic Parliament of Iran |publisher=Parliran.ir |access-date=1 September 2020 |archive-date=27 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027004409/https://en.parliran.ir/eng/en/Constitution |url-status=dead }}

was adopted by referendum in December 1979.{{cite book|author=Mahmood T. Davari|title=The Political Thought of Ayatollah Murtaza Mutahhari: An Iranian Theoretician of the Islamic State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYHi4AfofW8C&pg=PA138|date=1 October 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-29488-6|pages=138}}{{cite book|author=Eur|title=The Middle East and North Africa 2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CfBKvsiWeQC&pg=PA414|date=31 October 2002|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-85743-132-2|pages=414}}{{#tag:ref|The constitution was and amended almost ten years later but the changes were about the eliminating the need for the Supreme Leader to be a marja chosen by popular acclaim, did not involve human rights.{{Cite web |url=http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/ir__indx.html |title=Constitutional Background |access-date=5 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908083917/http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/ir__indx.html |archive-date=8 September 2006 |url-status=dead }}|group=Note}} 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,{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203946904574300374086282670|title=Francis Fukuyama: Iranian constitution democratic at heart - WSJ|author=Francis Fukuyama|date=28 July 2009|work=WSJ}} and civil and political rights 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,{{cite web|url=http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2010/10/12/detailed-analysis-iran%E2%80%99s-constitution|title=A Detailed Analysis of Iran's Constitution - World Policy Institute|work=worldpolicy.org|access-date=16 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140506150238/http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2010/10/12/detailed-analysis-iran%E2%80%99s-constitution|archive-date=6 May 2014|url-status=dead}} and subordinated the civil/political rights{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/iran/Iran99o-03.htm |title=The Iranian Legal Framework And International Law |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=26 September 2013}} to the laws/precepts/principles of Islam,{{cite web|author=Prof. Dr. Axel Tschentscher, LL.M. |url=http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/ir00000_.html |title=Iran – Constitution |publisher=Servat.unibe.ch |access-date=26 September 2013}}

{{see|Khomeinism#Human_rights}}

Some of the ways that basics of law in Iran clashed with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after 1979 included:

{{Further|Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam}}

• The use of Classical Islamic law (Sharia), such as
• victimless crimes: '“insulting the prophet,” “apostasy,” adultery, same-sex relations (all potentially punishable by death), drinking of alcoholic beverages,{{cite book |title=World Report 2020. Iran. Events of 2019 |chapter=Iran: Events of 2019 |chapter-url=https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/iran |website=Human Rights Watch |date=12 December 2019 |access-date=26 January 2021}} failure (for a woman) to wear hijab,[https://web.archive.org/web/20070227113508/http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070224/wl_mideast_afp/iranjusticesocial Iran vows crackdown on 'inappropriately' dressed women], AFP (Yahoo! News), 24 February 2007, via the Wayback Machine
• harsh punishments: stoning to death, amputation, lashing,{{cite web|url=http://www.strasbourgconference.org/papers/Refah%20Revisited-%20Strasbourg's%20Construction%20of%20Islam.pdf|title=Refah Revisited: Strasbourg's Construction of Islam |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827223352/http://www.strasbourgconference.org/papers/Refah%20Revisited-%20Strasbourg%27s%20Construction%20of%20Islam.pdf |archive-date=27 August 2008 |url-status=dead |author=Christian Moe |publisher=Norwegian Institute of Human Rights}} retribution (or qisas, aka "Eye for an eye")[http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.details?p_lang=en&p_country=IRN&p_classification=01.04&p_origin=COUNTRY&p_sortby=SORTBY_COUNTRY Iranian Civil Code], NATLEX . Retrieved 21 August 2006. which can include blinding the offender.{{cite news |last1=Dehghan |first1=Saeed Kamali |title=Eye for an eye: Iran blinds acid attacker |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/05/eye-for-an-eye-iran-blinds-man-who-carried-out-acid-attack#:~:text=She%20told%20the%20Guardian%3A%20%E2%80%9CBlinding,carried%20out%20under%20any%20circumstances.%E2%80%9D |access-date=23 January 2021 |agency=The Guardian |date=5 March 2015}}
• unequal rights for women in several areas: a woman is not valued the same as a man in blood money (diya), 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.[http://mehr.org/HumanRightsinIran07.pdf Human Rights in Iran 2007 MEHR.org] p.4,5{{cite web |url=http://mehr.org/Islamic_Penal_Code_of_Iran.pdf |title= Islamic Penal Code of Iran, article 300 |publisher=Mehr.org}}{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/women-act-against-repression-and-intimidation-iran-20080228 |title=Women act against repression and intimidation in Iran, 28 February 2008 |publisher=Amnesty.org |date=28 February 2008 |access-date=26 September 2013 |archive-date=3 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003151252/http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/women-act-against-repression-and-intimidation-iran-20080228 |url-status=dead }} covering of hair is compulsory.
• Trans women are viewed as prostitutes and face judgment and danger from the law due to this.{{Cite journal |last=Saeidzadeh |first=Zara |date=2020-04-02 |title="Are trans men the manliest of men?" Gender practices, trans masculinity and mardānegī in contemporary Iran |journal=Journal of Gender Studies |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=295–309 |doi=10.1080/09589236.2019.1635439 |s2cid=199145725 |issn=0958-9236|doi-access=free }}
• restrictions on religious freedom and equality:
• Only Shia Muslims are eligible to become Supreme Leader or President.Article 115 of the Constitution states, they must be from the "official religion of the country" which is described elsewhere as Twelver Ja’afari Shiism (non-Shia Muslims did not have equal rights with Shia).{{cite web |title=Former Sunni MP: Rouhani Government Failing to Uphold Minority Rights Despite Supreme Leader's Cal |url=https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/09/former-sunni-mp-rouhani-government-failing-to-uphold-minority-rights-despite-supreme-leaders-call/ |website=Center for Human Rights in Iran |access-date=26 January 2021 |date=17 September 2017}}
• Religiously based punishments include blasphemy.
• 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{{cite web

| url = http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ir0108a.pdf

| title = Discrimination against religious minorities in Iran

| publisher = International Federation of Human Rights

|date=August 2003

| access-date = 7 October 2008

}} who descend from Iranian Shia and hold that the Báb is the Mahdi of Shia Islam and his revelations supersede the Quran.{{cite journal |last1=KAZEMZADEH |first1=FIRUZ |title=The Baha'is in Iran: Twenty Years of Repression |journal=Social Research |date=Summer 2000 |volume=67 |issue=2 |pages=537–558 |jstor=40971483 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971483 |access-date=3 February 2021}} (The IRI insist the Bahai are traitors and subversives.){{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/22/iran.bahais/index.html |title=22 May 2008. "Iran 'plans to destroy Baha'i community'" |publisher=Cnn.com |date=22 May 2008 |access-date=26 September 2013}}

• a Muslim man committing adultery with a Muslim woman is subject to 100 lashes, a non-Muslim man death.{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/iran/Iran-04.htm |title=hrw.org, Iran – THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK |publisher=Hrw.org |date=22 May 1992 |access-date=26 September 2013}}
• Others subject to religious discrimination include Protestant Christians, (at least in part because of their "readiness to accept and even seek out Muslim converts");{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/iran/Iran-05.htm |title=Human Rights Watch: Religious minorities in Iran (1997) |publisher=Hrw.org |access-date=26 September 2013}} irreligious,{{cite web|url=http://amar.sci.org.ir/Detail.aspx?Ln=E&no=98322&S=TP |title=Statistical Centre of Iran: 11. Population by sex and religion (2006) |publisher=Amar.sci.org.ir |access-date=26 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809181642/http://amar.sci.org.ir/Detail.aspx?Ln=E&no=98322&S=TP |archive-date=9 August 2011}} and otherwise orthodox Shia charged with apostasy for questioning the IRI doctrine of obeying the political "guardianship" of the Supreme Leader.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2415751.stm Iranian academic sentenced to death]| bbc.co.uk| 7 November 2002.{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/press/2002/11/iranacademic.htm |title=hrw.org, November 9, 2002 Iran: Academic's Death Sentence Condemned |publisher=Hrw.org |access-date=26 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20021113145848/http://hrw.org/press/2002/11/iranacademic.htm |archive-date=13 November 2002}}
• Children's rights: 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);{{cite journal |last1=Tavana |first1=Mohammad H. |title=Three Decades of Islamic Criminal Law Legislation in Iran |journal=Electronic Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law |date=2014 |volume=2 |page=33 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/94902/1/MohammadHTavana_final-newFormat.pdf |access-date=24 January 2021}} a disparity that has led to the execution in Iran of large numbers of (what international law says are) juvenile offenders.{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-17-child-executions_N.htm|title=Iranian activists fight child executions |website=USA Today}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.enmcr.net/site/assets/files/1382/child_execution_in_iran_and_its_legality_under_islamic_law.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045053/http://www.enmcr.net/site/assets/files/1382/child_execution_in_iran_and_its_legality_under_islamic_law.pdf|url-status=unfit|title=CHILD EXECUTION IN IRAN AND ITS LEGALITY UNDER THE ISLAMIC LAW|archivedate=4 March 2016|website=www.enmcr.net}}{{cite web|url=http://www.johnhowellmp.com/news/execution-of-children-in-iran/435|title=John Howell MP|website=johnhowellmp.com|access-date=24 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203024011/http://www.johnhowellmp.com/news/execution-of-children-in-iran/435|archive-date=3 February 2014|url-status=dead}}
• 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,{{cite news |last1=Wooldridge |first1=Mike |title=Iran's grim history of death by stoning |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/10579121 |access-date=23 January 2021 |agency=BBC News |date=9 July 2010}} but as of 2018, women were still being sentenced to stoning in Iran.{{cite web |title=Resolution on the serious and systematic human rights violations in Iran |url=https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/iran/resolution-on-the-serious-and-systematic-human-rights-violations-in |website=International Federation for Human Rights |access-date=29 January 2021 |date=19 November 2019}}
• in 2004 blood money was made more equal. Under traditional Islamic law, "blood money" (diya, 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).{{cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35497.htm |title=Iran. International Religious Freedom Report 2004. Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor |publisher=State.gov |date=1 January 2004 |access-date=26 September 2013}}
• on 10 February 2012, Iran's parliament raised the minimum age for adulthood to 18 (solar years).{{cite web|title=Iran changes law for execution of juveniles|url=http://iranwpd.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3066:iran-changes-law-for-execution-of-juveniles&Itemid=64|website=Iran Independent News Service|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211072623/http://iranwpd.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3066%3Airan-changes-law-for-execution-of-juveniles&Itemid=64|archivedate=11 February 2012|date=10 February 2012|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}

• 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".{{cite web |title=1999 Report IV. THE IRANIAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND INTERNATIONAL LAW |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/iran/Iran99o-03.htm |website=Human Rights Watch |access-date=26 January 2021}}
• 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, "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.{{cite web |title=Iran: End Widespread Crackdown on Civil Society |website=Human Rights Watch |date=7 January 2008 |access-date=3 February 2021 | url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/01/06/iran-end-widespread-crackdown-civil-society }}
• 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 (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'".Interview with Akbar Ganji, Le Monde, 6 June 2006. (Historian Ervand Abrahamian 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.)Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions, (1999), p.209-228 According to Abrahamian, in the eyes of Iranian officials, "the survival of the Islamic Republic{{snd}} and therefore of Islam itself{{snd}} justified the means used," and trumped any right of the individual.Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, 1999, p. 137
• 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".in an early 1988 fatwa; cited in Hamid Algar, `Development of the Concept of velayat-i faqih since the Islamic Revolution in Iran,` paper presented at London Conference on wilayat al-faqih, in June 1988 [pp. 135–38]Also Ressalat, Tehran, 7 January 1988,

[http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/khomeini_promises_kept.html#Laws_in_Islam Khomeini on how Laws in Iran will strictly adhere to God's perfect and unchanging divine law] He wrote: "The Islamic State could prevent implementation of everything – devotional and non- devotional – that ... seems against Islam's interests".Sahife’ Noor (letters and lectures of Ayatollah Khomeini), Volume 20, p. 170. quoted in {{cite book |last1=Vaezi |first1=Ahmed |title=Shia Political Thought |chapter=The Dominion Of The Wali Al-Faqih |url=https://www.al-islam.org/shia-political-thought-ahmed-vaezi/what-wilayat-al-faqih#dominion_wali_al-faqih/ |website=al-islam.org |access-date=11 August 2022 |date=2004}}Keyhan, January 8, 1988; quoted in {{cite journal |last1=MATSUNAGA |first1=Yasuyuki |title=Revisiting Ayatollah Khomeini's Doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqıh (Velayat-e Faqıh) |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/orient/44/0/44_77/_pdf |journal=Orient |date=2009 |volume=XLIV |pages=81, 87 |access-date=5 August 2022}} 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.{{cite journal |last1=Mayer |first1=Ann Elizabeth |title=Islamic Rights or Human Rights: An Iranian Dilemma |journal=Iranian Studies |date=Summer–Autumn 1996 |volume=29 |issue=3/4 |pages=269–270 |doi=10.1080/00210869608701851 |jstor=4310998 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4310998 |access-date=6 September 2022}}

The vast majority of killings of political prisoners occurred in the first decade of the Islamic Republic, after which violent repression lessened.[http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64606/akbar-ganji/the-latter-day-sultan "The Latter-Day Sultan, Power and Politics in Iran"] By Akbar Ganji

From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2008.

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.Moin, p. 208. Their trials were brief and lacked defense attorneys, juries, transparency or the opportunity for the accused to defend themselves.Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs (1984), p. 61. By January 1980 "at least 582 persons" had been executed.Mackey, p. 291{{cite book |last1=Axworthy |first1=Michael |author-link1=Michael Axworthy |title=Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0190468965 |page=148}} 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, pp. 219–20.Kayhan, 20.8.78–21.8.78, ` quoted in Schirazi, p. 51, also New York Times, 8 August 1979 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,Source: Letter from Amnesty International to the Shaul Bakhash, 6 July 1982. Quoted in Bakhash, p. 111 for everything from drug and sexual offenses to "corruption on earth", from plotting counter-revolution and spying for Israel to membership in opposition groups.Bakhash, p. 111 And in the year after that, at least 8,000 were executed.Abrahamian, Ervand, History of Modern Iran, Columbia University Press, 2008, p.181 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.

File:EvinHouseofDetention.jpg]]

{{main|1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners}}

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".{{cite web |title=Mandates of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; ... |url=https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25503 |website=Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights |access-date=22 January 2021 |date=3 September 2020}}

File:Dariush Forouhar.jpg, leader of Nation Party was one of the victims of Chain murders of Iran.]]

{{Main|Chain murders of Iran}}

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.Sciolino, Persian Mirrors, 2000, p. 241 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.[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E2DE173DF937A25751C1A96E958260 "Killing of three rebel writers turns hope into fear in Iran"], Douglas Jehl, The New York Times, 14 December 1998 p. A6{{cite web|author=John Pike |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2001/5-050201.html |title=RFE/RL Iran Report. 5 February 2001 |publisher=Globalsecurity.org |date=5 February 2001 |access-date=26 September 2013}} 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;{{Cite web|url=http://codir.net/?cat=4|title=Human Rights Reports {{!}} CODIR|language=en-US|access-date=3 December 2019}} and the deputy security official of the Ministry of Information, Saeed Emami 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".{{cite web|url=http://www.iranterror.com/content/view/33/52/ |title=A Man Called Saeed Emani |publisher=Iranterror.com |access-date=26 September 2013 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911141729/http://www.iranterror.com/content/view/33/52/ |archive-date=11 September 2012}}

With the rise of the Iranian reform movement and the election of moderate Iranian president Mohammad Khatami in 1997, numerous moves were made to modify the Iranian civil and penal codes in order to improve the human rights situation. The predominantly reformist parliament drafted several bills allowing increased freedom of speech, gender equality, and the banning of torture. These were all dismissed or significantly watered down by the Guardian Council and leading conservative figures in the Iranian government at the time.{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/khatami-and-the-myth-of-reform-in-iran|title=Khatami and the Myth of Reform in Iran|website=washingtoninstitute.org|language=en|access-date=3 December 2019}}

File:Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Barcelona, 2015 (cropped).jpg, winner of 2003 Nobel Peace Prize]]

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 and arrested hundreds of them. In March police beat hundreds of men and women who had assembled to commemorate International Women's Day."Men of principle", The Economist. London: 21 July 2007. Vol. 384, Iss. 8538; p. 5

Several major recent protest movements — the July 1999 Iran student protests,{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9907/11/iran.unrest.03/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211123254/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9907/11/iran.unrest.03/|url-status=dead|title=Iran sacks police chiefs over student protest crackdown|website=CNN |archivedate=11 December 2008}}[http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/ar2001.nsf/webmepcountries/IRAN?OpenDocument Report 2001, Islamic Republic of Iran] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141004104217/http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/ar2001.nsf/webmepcountries/IRAN?OpenDocument |date=4 October 2014 }}, Amnesty International 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, 2017–18 Iranian protests, 2019–2020 Iranian protests — have been met with violent crackdowns from the "parallel institution" of the Basij, 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,{{cite news |last1=Wright |first1=Robin |title=The Anger and Anguish Fuelling Iran's Protests |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-anger-and-anguish-fuelling-irans-protests |access-date=26 January 2021 |agency=New Yorker magazine |date=15 January 2020}} "reported abuse and torture in detention",{{cite web |title=World Report 2020. Iran. Events of 2019 |url=https://www".hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/iran |website=Human Rights Watch |access-date=2 February 2021}} and the "greenlighting" of "these rampant abuses" by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.{{cite book |title=World Report 2021. Iran Events of 2020 |chapter=Iran: Events of 2020 |chapter-url=https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/iran |website=Human Rights Watch |date=15 December 2020 |access-date=2 February 2021}} Estimates of the killed vary from 200{{Cite news|title=وزیر کشور ایران می‌گوید بیش از ۲۰۰ نفر در جریان اعتراضات آبان کشته شدند|language=fa|work=BBC News فارسی|url=https://www.bbc.com/persian/iran-52865225|access-date=2021-07-07}} to 1500.{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-protests-specialreport/special-report-irans-leader-ordered-crackdown-on-unrest-do-whatever-it-takes-to-end-it-idUSKBN1YR0QR|title=Special Report: Iran's leader ordered crackdown on unrest – 'Do whatever it takes to end it'|date=23 December 2019|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223095916/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-protests-specialreport/special-report-irans-leader-ordered-crackdown-on-unrest-do-whatever-it-takes-to-end-it-idUSKBN1YR0QR|archive-date=23 December 2019|url-status=live}}

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",{{cite web |title=World Report 2018. Iran. Events of 2017 |url=https://www".hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/iran |website=Human Rights Watch |access-date=2 February 2021}} 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.{{cite web |title=World Report 2019. Iran. Events of 2018 |url=https://www".hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/iran |website=Human Rights Watch |access-date=2 February 2021}}

In September 2022 a new round of "nationwide" protest began that has "spread across social classes, universities, the streets [and] schools", and been called "the biggest threat" to the government of Iran since its founding with the Islamic Revolution.{{cite news |title=Fresh protests erupt in Iran's universities and Kurdish region |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/06/iran-fresh-protests-universities-kurdish-region |access-date=7 November 2022 |agency=The Guardian |date=6 November 2022}}

The unrest began with the Death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian morality Islamic police, after she was detained for allegedly wearing hijab incorrectly. At least 551 people have been killed as of 15 September 2023, according to Iran Human Rights, including women and at least 68 minors.{{cite news |title=Iran Protests: at Least 154 Killed/Children Amongst Dead |url=https://iranhr.net/en/articles/5508/ |access-date=4 October 2022 |publisher=Iran Human Rights |date=4 October 2022}}{{cite news |title=Iran Protests: Death Toll Rises to at Least 201/Children Victims of the Crackdown |agency=Iran Human Rights |url=https://iranhr.net/en/articles/5517/ |url-status=live |access-date=12 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008130522/https://iranhr.net/en/articles/5515/ |archive-date=8 October 2022}} An estimated 18,170 have been arrested throughout 134 cities and towns, and at 132 universities.{{cite news |title=Iran lawmakers demand severe punishment for 'rioters' as protests rage |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-lawmakers-demand-severe-punishment-rioters-protests-rage-2022-11-06/ |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=Reuters |date=6 November 2022}}

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".United Nations General Assembly. 39th Session. Third Committee. 65th meeting, held on 7 December 1984 at 3 pm New York. A/C.3/39/SR.65. quoted by Luiza Maria Gontowska, [http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=honorscollege_theses Human Rights Violations Under the Sharia'a, A Comparative Study of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran], May 2005, p. 4

Officials of the Islamic Republic have responded to criticism by stating that Iran has "the best human rights record" in the Muslim world (2012);{{cite web|title='Iran has best human rights record in the Muslim world' quoting Ali Akbar Salehi |url=http://tehrantimes.com/politics/95920-iran-has-the-most-successful-human-rights-record-in-muslim-world-salehi |website=Tehran Times |access-date=23 October 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120714205353/http://tehrantimes.com/politics/95920-iran-has-the-most-successful-human-rights-record-in-muslim-world-salehi |archive-date=14 July 2012 }} that it is not obliged to follow "the West's interpretation" of human rights (2008);{{cite web|url=http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/line-22/0805157506142314.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010202705/http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/line-22/0805157506142314.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 October 2008 |title=Islamic world urged to stand against Western-style human rights Tehran, May 15 |publisher=.irna.com |access-date=26 September 2013 }} 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).{{cite web|url=http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/line-203/0804105767142324.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080412025643/http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/line-203/0804105767142324.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 April 2008 |title=Human rights fully respected in Iran: Judiciary chief Tehran, April 10 |publisher=.irna.com |access-date=26 September 2013 }}

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),{{cite web|author=John Pike |url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2004/16-030504.htm |title=Iran Report, A Weekly Review of Developments in and Pertaining to Iran, 3 May 2004 |publisher=Globalsecurity.org |date=3 May 2004 |access-date=26 September 2013}} or claimed that Iran's human rights record is better than that of countries that criticize it (President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2007 and 2008),[http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=164534 Tehran Times. Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has criticized discrimination against Muslim minorities in Western countries. 6 March 2008].{{cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/25/iranian_president_mahmoud_ahmadinejad_on_the|title=Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Threat of US Attack and International Criticism of Iran's Human Rights Record|website=democracynow.org}}[http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/25/un.iran/index.html#cnnSTCVideo cnn.com, Iran's leader slams 'arrogant' powers in U.N. address, 25 September 2007]. This was seen as "a veiled but unmistakable criticism of the United States" extraordinary rendition and domestic surveillance under the USA PATRIOT Act: or better than Israel's.

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 (circa 2005) "taxi driver[s] rarely talk politics; the Iranian[s] will talk of nothing else."Molavi, Afshin, The Soul of Iran, Norton, (2005), p. 296

Explanations for why this is include the importance of "debate and discussion" among clerics in Shiite Islam that has spilled over into the Iranian public (journalist Elaine Sciolino),Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors : the Elusive Face of Iran, Free Press, 2000, 2005, p. 247 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),"The Latter-Day Sultan, Power and Politics in Iran" by Akbar Ganji, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2008 in fact are "almost hegemonic" (Arzoo Osanloo),Sally E. Merry, New York University, writing about [http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8918.html The Politics of Women's Rights in Iran by Arzoo Osanloo] accessed 30-June-2009 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).Majd, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, 2008, p.183

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 [Islamic Republic warden] Ladjevardi took the toll of four years under SAVAK.source: Anonymous "Prison and Imprisonment", Mojahed, 174–256 (20 October 1983{{snd}}8 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’)."

UN reports indicate an increase in executions in Iran in 2024 compared to 2023. A total of 901 people were executed during the year, including 40 individuals within a single week.{{Cite web |last=AFP |date=2025-01-07 |title=Iran reportedly executed at least 901 people in 2024: UN |url=https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/iran-reportedly-executed-at-least-901-people-in-2024-un-1.500012023 |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=Gulf News: Latest UAE news, Dubai news, Business, travel news, Dubai Gold rate, prayer time, cinema |language=en}}

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, European Parliament and United States Congress.{{cite journal|first=Friedrich W. |last=Affolter |title=The Specter of Ideological Genocide: The Baháʼí of Iran |journal=War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=59–89 |year=2005 |url=http://www.aa.psu.edu/journals/war-crimes/articles/V1/v1n1a3.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100114215205/http://www.aa.psu.edu/journals/war-crimes/articles/V1/v1n1a3.pdf |archive-date=14 January 2010 |access-date=22 October 2016 }}

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 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.{{cite book |last1=Afshari |first1=Reza | title=Human Rights in Iran : The Abuse of Cultural Relativism |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press | date=2001 |pages=xvii-xx |isbn=9780812221398 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1-mfACVATsC&q=human+rights+in+iran+history }} 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".{{cite book | first = R. | last = Cooper | title = The Baháʼí of Iran: The Minority Rights Group Report 51 | publisher = The Minority Rights Group LTD |location=London, UK |year=1995}}

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."{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/iran9803.htm |title=Human Rights Overview 2005 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |date=31 December 2004 |access-date=26 September 2013 |archive-date=4 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804065758/http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/iran9803.htm |url-status=dead }} 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 as a method of execution and punishment such as flogging and amputations",{{cite web|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canadian-sponsored-human-rights-resolution-against-iran-passes-1.681992|title=Canadian-sponsored human rights resolution against Iran passes |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nysun.com/foreign/un-assembly-chides-iran-on-human-rights/66828/ |title=U.N. Assembly Chides Iran on Human Rights By BENNY AVNI, Staff Reporter of the Sun | 21 November 2007 |publisher=Nysun.com |date=21 November 2007 |access-date=26 September 2013}} and the situation of a hunger striker (Farhad Meysami).{{Cite web|url=https://en.radiofarda.com/a/un-demand-iran-guarantee-rights-detained-defenders/29630167.html|title=UN Experts Call On Iran To Guarantee Rights Of Detained Activists|date=30 November 2018|website=RFE/RL}}

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),{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/13/iran-investigate-suspicious-deaths-detention-release-activists|title=Iran: Investigate Suspicious Deaths in Detention, Release Activists|date=13 February 2018}} mass arrests of anti-government demonstrators.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/01/irans-year-of-shame-more-than-7000-arrested-in-chilling-crackdown-on-dissent-during-2018/|title=2018 will go down in history as a year of shame for Iran|date=24 January 2019|website=Amnesty International}} Iran has a track record of treating Afghan refugees and migrants poorly, with Human Rights Watch documenting violations including physical abuse, detention in unsanitary and inhumane conditions, forced payment for transportation and accommodation in deportation camps, forced labor, and forced separation of families.{{cite web | url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/20/iran-afghan-refugees-and-migrants-face-abuse | title=Iran: Afghan Refugees and Migrants Face Abuse | Human Rights Watch | date=20 November 2013 }}

{{Portal|Iran}}

• High Council for Human rights, Judiciary of Islamic Republic of Iran
• Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
• Defenders of Human Rights Center
• Freedom of speech in Iran
• International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
• LGBT rights in Iran
• Status of religious freedom in Iran
• Women's rights in Iran
• Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

{{reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{cite book |last=Abrahamian |first= Ervand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_mnrYNIVfCgC&pg=PP1 |title=Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran |publisher= University of California Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-520-21866-3}}
• {{cite book |last=Ebadi |first=Shirin |title=Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope |author2=Azadeh Moaveni |publisher=Random House |year=2006 |isbn=1-4000-6470-8|title-link=Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope }}
• {{Cite book|ref=Moin |author=Moin, Baqer |title=Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |year=2000 |isbn=0-312-26490-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/khomeinilifeofay00moin }}
• {{cite book |last=Sciolino |first=Elaine |title=Persian Mirrors : the Elusive Face of Iran |publisher=Free Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-684-86290-5}}
• {{Cite book |ref=Taheri|author=Taheri, Amir|title=The Spirit of Allah |publisher=Adler & Adler |year=1985 |isbn=0-09-160320-X}}

{{Wikisource|Report on Human Rights Practices in Iran – 1999}}

{{commons category|Human rights in Iran}}

• [http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/mde130022012en.pdf ‘We are ordered to crush you.’ Expanding Repression of Dissent in Iran.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302214820/http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/mde130022012en.pdf |date=2 March 2012 }} Amnesty International 2012
• [https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/010/2009/en Iran: Human Rights in the spotlight on the 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution], 5 February 2009
• [http://payvand.com/blog/blog/2010/05/29/amnesty-international-report-2010-on-iran/ Amnesty International report 2010 on Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140324051547/http://payvand.com/blog/blog/2010/05/29/amnesty-international-report-2010-on-iran/ |date=24 March 2014 }}
• {{Cite web |url=http://www.realite-eu.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=9dJBLLNkGiF&b=2315291&ct=6447799 |title=REALITE-EU Human Rights Violations and Torture in Iran 2009 |access-date=15 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128052827/http://www.realite-eu.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=9dJBLLNkGiF&b=2315291&ct=6447799 |archive-date=28 November 2011 |url-status=bot: unknown }}
• [http://iranhr.net/ Iran Human Rights]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070331225838/http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/iran/index.do Amnesty International's Concerns about Iran]
• {{Cite web |url=http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/irn-summary-eng |title=International 2005 report |access-date=15 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313232527/http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/irn-summary-eng |archive-date=13 March 2007 |url-status=dead }}
• [http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2011&country=8057 Freedom House: Freedom in the World Country Report: Iran]
• [http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2010&country=7842 Freedom House: Freedom of the Press 2010 Report: Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109054919/http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2010&country=7842 |date=9 November 2011 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111109054935/http://www.freedomhouse.org/images/File/FotN/Iran2011.pdf Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2011: Iran]
• [https://hrw.org/doc/?t=mideast_pub&c=iran Human Rights Watch – Iran Documents]
• [https://hrw.org/doc?t=mideast&c=iran Human Rights Watch's Developments in Iran]
• [https://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/iran9803.htm Human Rights Watch 2005 report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804065758/http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/iran9803.htm |date=4 August 2010 }}
• [https://irancharter.wordpress.com/ Iran Charter of Rights and Freedoms]
• [http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5&start=0 Various human rights news stories at Iran Focus]
• {{Cite web |url=http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/221/ |title=Freedom of Expression violations in Iran |access-date=15 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070207145709/http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/221/ |archive-date=7 February 2007 |url-status=dead }}, IFEX
• {{Cite web |url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGMDE130742006 |title=Human rights violations against Iranian Azeri Turks |access-date=15 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311041453/http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGMDE130742006 |archive-date=11 March 2007 |url-status=dead }}{{verification needed|date=January 2013}}
• [https://www.theguardian.com/iran/story/0,,1830835,00.html Guardian Newspaper – Special Report – Death of a Teenager]
• [http://iranhrdc.org/ Iran Human Rights Documentation Center]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081026175039/http://www.abfiran.org/ Foundation for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy in Iran]
• [http://mehr.org/Islamic_Penal_Code_of_Iran.pdf Translation of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran] Mission for Establishment of Human Rights in Iran (MEHR Iran)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170311161504/http://www.alaviandassociates.com/documents/civilcode.pdf Translation of the Iranian Civil Code] by Alavi and Associates

{{Human rights in Iran}}

{{Asia topic|Human rights in}}

{{Human rights in the Middle East}}

{{List of foreign nationals detained in Iran}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Rights In The Islamic Republic Of Iran}}

Category:History of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Category:Women's rights in Iran

Islamic Republic of Iran