Physical and Spiritual Execution of Entrepreneurs in Iran

History

On March 26, 1979, Sadegh Khalkhali was appointed to establish the Islamic Revolutionary Court. The text of the decree reads as follows:

His Eminence Ayatollah Haji Sheikh Sadegh Khalkhali, may his blessings endure, is hereby authorized to establish a court for the trial of the accused and prisoners, to attend proceedings, and after completion of trial preparations according to Sharia standards, to issue Sharia-based verdicts.

Ruhollah Mosavi Khomeini

Executions in Iran Following the 1979 Revolution took place through widespread executions for various crimes and pretexts, primarily by verdict of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court. These courts were established by order of Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini, and Sadegh Khalkhali played a prominent role in conducting them.

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When a great entrepreneur dies, it is as if a reservoir of inspiration and a light of hope in some corner of our land has been extinguished. In these turbulent times, with the death of each entrepreneur, it seems that many of our workers lose their job security and the light of hope is dimmed in countless homes, and new unemployed are added to the ranks of our jobless.

An entrepreneur is not chaff to be scattered by the wind or water unmoved. Rather, he is a fruitful palm tree that, if it falls, casts many sweet-tasters into bitterness. No entrepreneur is a seed that, when it falls to the ground, a fresh seedling easily sprouts from his soil. Rather, it takes years and years for “clouds and winds and fog and sun and the heavens to work” until from among the vast multitude of a country’s citizens, an entrepreneur emerges and brings the latent potential capabilities hidden in the brains and arms of other humans into actuality.

Spiritual Execution of Musa Khani

The late Musa Khani was one of these tall and fruitful palms that fell to the ground in the storm of recent events and the scorching winds that blew from the realm of politics toward our economy.

We have never seen him closely, but we have heard of his work and learned that we were dealing with great entrepreneurship. For he built something from nothing; forty years ago he started from manual labor in a small cake-making workshop, but he had set his sights on building a great economic empire. He looked toward open and expansive horizons and was able to free his collar from the constraints of traditional and conservative management methods. In a land where everyone is bound to their own city and home, he migrated to Isfahan and turned a foreign land into a familiar one, and created a workplace that captured all eyes. He alone founded two of the largest economic enterprises in the province in the food industries sector and created thousands of jobs.

Unfortunately, like all the misfortunes and ill-omens that the world of politics has brought to this country, in the rise and fall of governments, and the instability and sometimes lawlessness resulting from the turning of fate, Musa Khani too was caught in the destructive storm of chaos in Iran’s economic and political conditions. First his leaves fell, then his branches were broken, and then his sturdy body fell to the ground. Undoubtedly, Musa Khani, like any other person, made mistakes in his economic decisions. But there is a difference between a society that, when its entrepreneur makes a mistake and falls into difficulties, rises to his aid, and a society that, when its entrepreneur made a wrong decision or encountered problems in the course of time and his period of flourishing came to an end, not only abandons him but also throws obstacles in his path to salvation. Yes, if a few years ago, when the administrative council of Isfahan province had allocated a share from the budget for rescuing troubled enterprises for him, they had not been narrow-minded and played politics, and the council’s decision had been implemented, perhaps now Musa Khani and his industry would still be alive. And this was the same Musa Khani who, during forty years of economic activity, established and supported dozens of charitable institutions. But when he himself needed the helping hand of others, we abandoned him.

Musa Khani, by enduring the harsh winds of the destructive events that have blown in these years, became a symbol of the oppression of entrepreneurship in this land. The entrepreneurs of this land are oppressed because there are still those who do not know the difference between an innovative entrepreneur and an insatiable rent-seeker or a wealthy aristocrat. They are oppressed because they see no helping hand around them, only hands that either offer help or make demands. They are oppressed because many of our officials still do not know that the main capital for economic advancement in any country, especially our stagnant economy, are risk-taking, patient, and innovative entrepreneurs, not oil and gas resources and colorful mines that make them arrogant and distract them from paying attention to the hidden treasures among our citizens. Therefore, entrepreneurs should not be measured by the value of money and should not be held responsible for failures, most of which result from the instability and mismanagement of the country’s macro economy. They are oppressed because our children know the names of many domestic and international actors, singers, and footballers, but we have not instilled the name of any Iranian entrepreneur in their minds. They are oppressed because in a world where everyone has become accustomed to smallness, we cannot tolerate great people. They are oppressed because in an era when legendary corruptions continually appear, it is extremely difficult to distinguish a real entrepreneur from a corrupt rent-seeker.

They are oppressed because our tax system has not yet realized that entrepreneurs bear the heavy burden of workers’ unemployment benefits from the state’s shoulders and place it on their own shoulders. They are oppressed because our insurance and banking systems do not know that in times of economic recession, they should support entrepreneurs rather than increase pressure to collect entrepreneurs’ debts and ground them, prosecute them, and imprison them. They are oppressed because our judiciary does not know that imprisoning an entrepreneur is like destroying an archaeological monument for which lifetimes and vast expenses have been spent in its construction. They are oppressed because, contrary to the whole world, the bankruptcy law in this land has become an abandoned, formal, and ineffective law, and as a result, when an entrepreneur fails on his dangerous path, he is condemned to destruction and will not be allowed to start again. They are oppressed because our people, in their judgment of them, do not distinguish between shortcoming and culpability, and if an entrepreneur fails, instead of pointing the finger of blame at the external conditions and factors that led the entrepreneur toward failure, they point it at the entrepreneur himself. They are oppressed because our governments inject their political purposes into their dealings with entrepreneurs as well.

And finally, our entrepreneurs are oppressed because our universities still do not feel responsible for smoothing and harmonizing the ground of public opinion for entrepreneurs’ progress toward blessed horizons, and they do not use their knowledge to correct and strengthen entrepreneurial performance. Let us not forget that eighty years have passed since the establishment of our university system, yet we have still not established any discipline for training, strengthening, and counseling entrepreneurs.

May the soul of the late Musa Khani rest in peace, for in the course of his entrepreneurial activities he tested all these disorders and social, political, legal, and scientific inadequacies on his body and endured them miserably and in silence until death granted him relief. We consider him a symbol of the oppression of entrepreneurship in Iran. Let us have no doubt that as long as the management system in this country does not think of a plan and design a mechanism to support, rehabilitate, and celebrate entrepreneurs like the late Musa Khani, entrepreneurship in this land will not take root. Be assured that as long as we do not rehabilitate and celebrate the economic jihadi like the late Musa Khani and do not erect his statue in the square of our city or name a street after him, entrepreneurship will never take root in this land. May his soul be at peace and his path be filled with travelers.

Physical Execution of Farrokhroo Parsa

Farrokhroo Parsa, who was born in Qom in 1922, was initially a biology teacher and later completed his studies in medicine. During the Prime Ministership of Amir Abbas Hoveyda, he was appointed as Minister of Education. He improved the condition of education in Iranian schools and the education of Iranian girls.

On Thursday, April 8, 1980, the Kayhan newspaper reported: “At one and a half in the morning today, Farrokhroo Parsa was executed by firing squad.”

In late February 1980, Farrokhroo Parsa was arrested. The Revolutionary Court, headed by Sadegh Khalkhali, tried him on charges such as “creating corruption in the Ministry of Education and Welfare and helping the spread of obscenity in education and effective cooperation with SAVAK and expelling revolutionary educators from the Ministry of Culture of Iran” and sentenced him to death.

The Revolutionary Court referred to SAVAK documents and claimed that Farrokhroo Parsa, in a gathering of religious school administrators, had criticized women administrators’ hijab and insulted veiled administrators. Farrokhroo Parsa denied this claim and said: “In that meeting, I said about women’s hijab that hijab should not prevent women’s social activities. At that time, girls in religious schools did not participate in sports activities at all. In all my circulars, I invited women to wear heavy clothes and to observe hijab.”

Another of his charges was attempting to remove religious instruction books and Quran teaching from Iranian schools. In response to this charge, Farrokhroo Parsa had said: “At that time, people like Dr. Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Ayatollah Boroujerdi were invited to cooperate with this ministry in preparing and translating lessons in religious instruction and Quran, and to prepare necessary books.”

Before his execution, he wrote in his will: “The court makes a great distinction between women and men. I hope the future will be better for women than this.”

The ritual washers refused to wash the body of Farrokhroo Parsa, who was executed under the charge of being a “corruptor on earth.” The women of his family washed his body. Three bullets struck below his chest and exited from the back of his body.

Physical Execution of Mahafreed Amirshoravi

(Born 1969 in Rudbar, Gilan – Died June 24, 2014 in Evin Prison), also known as Amir Mansour Aria, was accused in September 2011 of embezzling several thousand billion tomans (2,800 or 3,000 billion tomans), which is said to have been the largest embezzlement in Iran’s history.

According to reports, he was the 290th richest person in the world. Mahafreed Amirshoravi’s activities began with managing a dairy farm with his brothers in 2005 and 2006. He, who had also served in military service until 1993, had founded this livestock unit using quick-return plans. The continuation of their activities was accompanied by misuse of these loans, which led to financial corruption. Also, the initial capital of “Amir Mansour Aria Capital Development Company” was 50 million tomans on June 18, 2006, which according to the minutes of the company’s board meeting dated November 30, 2008, increased to 20 billion tomans.

In 2010, Amir Mansour Aria Capital Development Company, in implementing Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution, through suspicious measures, was able to purchase 94.96% of Lorestan Machine Manufacturing shares, 95.2% of Iran Steel Industrial Group shares, 95% of Railway Line Engineering and Technical Facilities shares (Traverse), and 39.5% of Khuzestan Oxin Steel shares.

Some of the subsidiary companies of “Amir Mansour Aria Capital Development” are as follows:

The brothers Amirshoravi, named Mahafreed, Mehrgan, Masoud, and Mordavij, were the principal founding members of this group.

Similarly, the wives of the above four brothers, respectively named Sara Khosravi, Touba Abdollahzadeh Siahkali, Farshideh Tavildar Akbari, and Soraya Afsardir, participated in economic activities and especially in company shareholding, and therefore the assets of these individuals were seized and confiscated by the country’s judiciary. Mehrgan Amirshoravi and his wife Touba Abdollahzadeh Siahkali have been living in Montreal, Canada since last summer and hoped to obtain permanent residence in this country, but Canada’s immigration office rejected this couple’s residence application.

In late 2010, he obtained the Central Bank’s approval for establishing a bank called “Aria Bank” and in March of that year began underwriting and then publishing employment announcements. However, in August 2011, the Central Bank revoked the bank’s operating license.

Embezzlement

He was the main suspect in the embezzlement of 3,000 billion tomans from Bank Saderat Iran, and was arrested on August 6, 2011.

Special Facilities

Another charge against him was the use of 400 billion tomans in facilities from Bank Melli, the provision of which was done without any documents or collateral. This amount was separate from the embezzlement due to opening letters of credit.

Land Grabbing

230 hectares of land in Kish and hundreds of hectares of land in Kashanak, Tehran, were allocated to him at a price of 16 rials per square meter.

Finally, after the court’s verdict, in the early morning of June 14, 2014, the death sentence of Mahafreed Khosravi was carried out. On this basis, the General and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of Tehran announced that the death sentence of the convicted prisoner Mahafreed Amirshoravi, son of Mansour, was carried out at dawn on Saturday, June 14, 2014, at Evin Prison. This sentence was carried out three days after Mahafreed Khosravi’s lawyer reported his letter to Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Considering these charges and such economic progress, as well as the immediate and relentless execution of him, certainly again the interests and secrets of state officials were in danger. And we must all know that such actions are only characteristic of a corrupt regime that, by making playthings of capitalists and entrepreneurs, commits large-scale embezzlement and rent-seeking in such a way that there is no trace of the regime’s corrupt officials and government.

Accused of Embezzlement in Iran

• Mahafreed Amirshoravi

Kh

• Mahmoudreza Khavari
• Fazel Khodadad

R

• Morteza Refighdoust

K

• Gholamhossein Karbaschi

N

• Naser Vaziri Tabasi

Executions of Iranians During the Islamic Republic

A

• Hassan Azarfar
• Asghar Arasteih

‘

• Mahdi Islamian
• Ali Ashtari
• Ashraf Chaharcheshmeh
• Execution of Political Prisoners (Summer 1988)
• Jamshid A’alam
• Bahram Afzali
• Farhad Vakili
• Habibollah Ghanian
• Fathollah Omid Najafabadi
• Ali Asghar Amirani
• Mahafreed Amirshoravi
• Shahram Amiri

B

• Mansour Bagherian
• Pari Belandi
• Mehdi Belegh
• Zahra Bahrami
• Manouchehr Behzadi
• Bizheh
• Bijan Irani Nejad

P

• Yousef Pourrezaei
• Farrokhroo Parsa
• Mohammad Pourhormozgan
• Hassan Pakrowan
• Shakrollah Paknezad

J

• Shahla Jahed
• Reyhaneh Jabbari
• Majid Jamali Fashi
• Nader Jahanbani

H

• Mohammad Ali Hajjaghaei
• Habibollah Ashoori
• Ali Hejjat Kashani
• Hossein Ahmadi Rouhani
• Saeed Hanai
• Ali Haidarian

Kh

• Khafsash Shab
• Habib Khabbiri
• Fazel Khodadad
• Rahim Ali Kharam
• Manouchehr Khosrodad
• Hossein Khezri

D

• Delara Darabi
• Gholamhossein Daneshi

R

• Amir Hossein Rabie’i
• Aatifeh Rajabi Sohale
• Arash Rahmani Pour
• Yahya Rahimi
• Abdullah Riazi
• Abdolhamid Rigi

Z

• Siamak Za’im

S

• Hossein Soudmand
• Naser Sobhani
• Jalal Sejdaei
• Manouchehr Malik
• Mohammad Reza Saadati
• Javad Sa’id
• Sa’id Soltan Pour
• Manouchehr Salimi
• Sohrab Ghallami
• Seyyed Sa’id Mahdioun

Sh

• Rahim Shams
• Taghi Shahram

S

• Ali Sarami

A

• Abdullah Khajeh Nouri
• Houshang Atarian
• Mohammad Ali Alameh Vahidi
• Shirin Elmhooli
• Mohammad Reza Alizamani

F

• Ehsan Fatahaian
• Fathi Brothers
• Farajollah Seyfi Kamanger
• Farkhzad Jahangiri
• Abdullah Farivar Moghadam
• Faridan Tavangari

Gh

• Khosro Qashqaei
• Sadegh Qotb Zadeh

K

• Kazem Afjehei
• Jafar Kazemi
• Bijan Kabiri
• Farzad Kamanger

G

• Akbar Goodarzi

M

• Majid Kavousi Far
• Mohsen Amir Aslani
• Ayatollah Mohagheqhi
• Mona Mahmoodzadeh
• Mohammad Herati
• Mohammad Mahdi Dozoduzan
• Fateme Modarresi
• Mard Zellei
• Shirko Moarafi
• Masoomeh Shadmani
• Ahmad Massoumi Kuchesfahani
• Naser Moghadam
• Ali Reza Malasoltani
• Soraya Manouchehri
• Yaqoub Mehrnahad
• Farajollah Mizani

N

• Ali Neshat
• Nematollah Nasiri
• Zhinoos Nemat Mahmoudi
• Gholamreza Nikpey
• Parvis Nikkhah

H

• Rahman Hatefi
• Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi (Revolutionary Guard)
• Amir Abbas Hoveyda
• Heybaatollah Moeini Chagharond

Y

• Faseh Yasmani

Executions of Pahlavi Regime Leaders

By the verdict of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran and by order of Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini and under the presidency of Sadegh Khalkhali, following the 1979 revolution, a wave of executions of leaders and supporters of the previous government began, the initial purpose of which was to deal with the crimes of Pahlavi regime leaders. These executions generally provoked severe reactions from international communities, especially Amnesty International.

On February 16, 1979, the first group of leaders of the former regime, which included 4 generals of the Imperial Iranian Army, were sentenced to execution by the Revolutionary Court headed by Sadegh Khalkhali. According to Amnesty International reports, from the victory of the revolution until March 1980, 438 people were executed by the Revolutionary Court.

Executions of Bahais

From the beginning of the 1979 revolution until now, approximately 202 Bahais have been executed by the Islamic government for their belief in the Bahai faith or for promoting and propagating it.

Summer 1988 Executions

The execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 was an event during which, by order of Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini, thousands of political and ideological prisoners in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran were secretly executed in the months of August and September 1988 and buried in mass graves. In general, the crime of the prisoners was considered to be cooperation with organizations opposing the Islamic Republic system, particularly the Organization of Mojaheds of the Iranian People, as well as various leftist, communist, and Marxist groups. The number of victims of this event varies among different sources and is estimated between 3,000 to 4,482 people. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights reported the number of executed political prisoners to be at least 1,879 people.

Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

During the Islamic Republic of Iran’s rule, the United Nations General Assembly, except for one or two years, has issued a resolution almost every year regarding violations of human rights by the Islamic Republic government. In UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/64/176 published in April 2010, this assembly condemned Iran in many cases, including in the government’s treatment of protesters against the results of the Iranian presidential election (2009). The Islamic Republic of Iran government severely violates civil liberties including freedom of speech, press, assembly, associations, and personal freedoms, and has also created obstacles in the path of religious freedoms.

Ethnic and Religious Minorities

More than 49 percent of Iran’s population consists of ethnic minorities. The Constitution grants equal rights to all ethnic minorities and allows minority languages to be used in media, schools, and weekly radio and television programs. However, linguistic minorities have never been allowed to use their own languages in schools. A small number of minority groups sought separation. Instead, they complained of economic and political discrimination. State radio and television broadcasts programs in different ethnic languages.

Sunnis in Iran have more than 15,000 mosques, and currently there are 9 mosques for Sunnis in Tehran.

Non-Muslim Communities

During the final review of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, the debate over “whether Islam should be mentioned in the Constitution as the official religion of the country” ended in favor of Shiite Islamists. Finally, Article 12 of Iran’s Constitution introduced “Islam and Twelver Shiism” as the official religion of the country and sufficed with the fact that other Islamic schools such as Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali, and Zaydi can act according to their jurisprudence. Influential clergy at that time opposed the demands of representatives of non-Muslim communities (such as Jews, Bahais, and Zoroastrians) for recognition of their religions as official religions of the country and insisted that non-Muslims should be considered part of the “dhimma.” Finally, Article 13 of the Constitution was approved with only 6 opposing votes (four non-Muslim representatives and two other representatives). According to this article, Iranian Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are recognized only as religious minorities who are free, within the limits of the law, to perform their religious ceremonies and are governed by their own traditions in personal matters and religious teachings.

Some believe that the mention of the phrase “only religious minorities” in this article ultimately resulted in other religious communities (including Bahais as the largest religious community in Iran after Muslims) being deprived of recognized rights.

Article 881 Repeated of the Civil Law is the most controversial law in Iran regarding religious minorities. This article, which concerns the issue of inheritance, states: “A non-Muslim does not inherit from a Muslim, and if among the heirs of a deceased non-Muslim, there is a Muslim, the heirs of the non-Muslim do not inherit; even if they are superior in class and degree to the Muslim.” In Iranian courts, religious minorities are subject to this article of law and are classified as “non-believers” in inheritance matters. Of course, this law is a path for exploitation by opportunistic individuals.

In the Islamic Penal Law, for the punishment of a murderer, if the victim is a Muslim, retaliation is considered, but in the same law, if the victim is from religious minorities (non-Muslims), the punishment of the murderer is blood money. Other differences and legal discrimination against non-Muslim citizens in Iran include the issue of testimony in court, where the testimony of non-Muslims against Muslims is not accepted.

The usurpation of endowments of non-Muslim citizens in Iran and the destruction of their schools and neglect by officials are other problems of non-Muslim Iranian citizens. After the victory of the 1979 revolution, for years, religious minorities were deprived of having their own schools. The opening remarks and detailed minutes of the Majlis indicate the repeated objections of their representatives in the Majlis. Even after the reopening of these schools, the entrusting of school management to Muslim individuals, despite the objections of religious minorities, has been another problem for this group of Iranians. A problem that, even after years have passed, has not been completely resolved, and some religious minority schools are run by Muslim principals.

All these issues have led to, according to Robert Beglerian, representative of Southern Armenians in the seventh, eighth, and ninth terms of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the most important challenge for religious minorities currently being the phenomenon of migration.

Azerbaijanis

The current leader of Iran, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, is himself of Azerbaijani descent and is from Khamene’i and speaks Turkish. However, some Azerbaijanis have consistently protested ethnic and linguistic discrimination, including the prohibition of teaching Azerbaijani language in schools, harassment of Azerbaijani political activists, and changing Azerbaijani geographical names. In May 2007, extensive protests were held in Azerbaijani-speaking cities of Iran in protest against a cartoon in the Iran newspaper, which led to the arrest of 300 people and the killing of 4 protesters. Iranian government officials attributed the causes of these protests to Israel. Abbas Banai Kazemi was sentenced to 16 months in prison for participating in these protests.

Kurds

In March 2006, clashes between Kurds and law enforcement forces resulted in the deaths of three people and the arrest of 250 people. Clashes also occurred in June 2005, and protests and strikes in July and August 2005 occurred following the killing of a Kurdish activist by security forces. According to Human Rights Watch and other sources, security forces killed at least 17 people and arrested many others.

Arab People

Following 3 explosions in 2005 and 2006 in Khuzestan Province, Iran, the Revolutionary Court issued a ruling announcing the execution of 11 Arab individuals in connection with bombings. The government blamed foreign forces and governments for this violence. Some human rights activists have stated that the accused in the explosions did not receive fair trials.

Jews

The Iranian-American Jewish Federation has stated that Iranian authorities have provided no information about 11 Jewish men who disappeared in 1994 and 1997.^[

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s educational system restricts Jewish children’s use of non-religious Jewish books and requires Jewish schools to remain open on Saturdays. Regarding the advancement of Jews in professional occupations, especially within the government apparatus, there are restrictions.

Political Executions

Following the 1979 revolution, a number of officials from the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi government were executed, and likewise in the summer of 1988, a number of individuals from groups opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran were executed.

Criminal Executions

Amnesty International reported that in 2007 at least 24 people were executed weekly and more than 64 people were sentenced to death, and Iran with 317 executions that year ranked second in this regard.

In 2008 in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 70 to 80 criminals were awaiting execution. In 2005, a sixteen-year-old girl was executed in public in the city of Neka for what was called “unlawful sexual relations.”

Based on Islamic laws implemented in Iran, homosexuals, upon proof of homosexuality, face capital punishment, and the judge can choose the method of execution from among five methods, including throwing the criminal from a height or collapsing a wall on him. The use of such methods has not been reported since the 1979 revolution, but a man in Qazvin Province was stoned to death for adultery.

Children’s Rights

Iran joined the signatories of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994. However, some existing laws in Iran are still inconsistent with this convention.

Violence

According to Iran’s regulations, physical punishment of a child by the father is permissible to the extent deemed appropriate, whereas Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child obligates states to protect children from all forms of ill-treatment by parents or guardians. According to Article 222 of the Islamic Penal Law, if a father or paternal grandfather kills his child, retaliation is not applied and he is only sentenced to blood money and discretionary punishment, but in similar circumstances, the mother would be sentenced to retaliation.

Education

Both the Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child consider education of children up to certain ages to be compulsory, but a high percentage of Iranian children are currently not in school due to economic difficulties. The lack of identity registration and being undocumented for children with an Afghan father and Iranian mother has made it impossible for them to be without identification cards to enroll and study in any school, which is inconsistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Homosexuals

There is no accurate statistic on the number of homosexual executions after the victory of the 1979 revolution in Iran, but human rights activists believe that more than four thousand gay men and women have been executed in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

Gay Men

Iranian laws punish men who commit homosexual sexual acts for the first time, if penetrative intercourse has occurred, with various punishments, including execution. In cases where penetrative intercourse has not occurred, these individuals receive a maximum of 100 lashes. According to Iran’s criminal laws, to prove sodomy, the individual’s confession must be repeated four times or the testimony of four just male witnesses is required. However, judges can also accept evidence based on circumstantial evidence.

Lesbians

Women who commit homosexual acts (lesbianism) for the fourth time may be sentenced to death.

Privacy

In 2007, law enforcement arrested 150,000 people in the course of combating improper dress and forced them to sign “pledges” to observe dress codes according to government standards.

Also in this year, the airport security police stopped and questioned more than 17,000 people who had traveled through the country’s airports because of their dress and arrested 850 women and forced them to sign pledges. Another 130 people were pursued by judicial authorities.

Women’s Rights in Iran

The rights of Iranian women have undergone significant changes during different political and historical periods. These rights include the right to marriage, the right to divorce, the right to education, the right to dress and hijab, and health rights (such as reproductive rights, family planning, and abortion), the right to vote, and other rights.

According to the 2012 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum, among 135 countries, Iran ranks 127th in terms of inequality between men and women, which is quite regrettable.