Physical and Spiritual Execution of Entrepreneurs in Iran

History

On February 24, 1979, Sadegh Khalkhali was appointed to establish the Islamic Revolutionary Court. The text of the decree read as follows:

His Eminence Hojjat al-Islam Hajj Sheikh Sadegh Khalkhali, may his blessings endure, is hereby commissioned to preside over a court established for the trial of defendants and prisoners, and after completing the preliminaries of trial in accordance with Islamic law, to issue religious decrees.

Ruhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini

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

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When any great entrepreneur dies, it is as if a reservoir of inspiration and a beacon of hope in some corner of our land has perished. In these current 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 extinguished in many homes, and new unemployed are added to the ranks of our jobless masses.

An entrepreneur is not straw that is blown by the wind, nor water that cannot be disturbed. Rather, he is a date palm tree that, if it falls, deprives many of their sweet sustenance and afflicts them with bitterness. No entrepreneur is a seed that, when fallen to the ground, easily sprouts a new seedling from its soil. Rather, it takes years and years for “the clouds and wind and mist and sun and sky to do their work” until from among the vast multitude of a nation’s citizens, one entrepreneur emerges and actualizes the potential capabilities hidden in the minds and arms of other humans.

Spiritual Execution of Musa Khani

The late Musa Khani was one of these tall and fruitful palm trees that, in the storm of recent events and the hot winds that blew from the world of politics toward our economy, fell to the ground.

We have never seen him up close, but we have heard descriptions of his work and knew that we were dealing with a great entrepreneurial endeavor. Because everything he built was built from nothing; because forty years ago he started as a worker in a small cake-making workshop but had set his sights on building a vast economic empire. He looked toward open and expansive horizons and had managed to free himself from the constraints of traditional and conservative management methods. In a land where everyone is bound to their hometown and homeland, he emigrated to Isfahan and transformed a strange land into a familiar place, and created a work site that captured everyone’s attention. He alone established two of the largest economic enterprises in the province in the field of food industries and created thousands of jobs.

Unfortunately, like all the misfortunes and ill omens that the world of politics has brought to this country, amid the rise and fall of governments, instability and sometimes lawlessness resulting from this cycle of time, Musa Khani too was caught in the destructive storm of turmoil in Iran’s economic and political conditions. First his leaves fell, then his branches were broken, and finally his robust body fell to the ground. Certainly, Musa Khani, like any other human, made mistakes in his economic decisions. But there is a difference between a society that rises to support its entrepreneur when he makes a mistake and falls into difficulties, and a society that not only abandons its entrepreneur when he makes a wrong decision or encounters difficulties in the course of time and his flourishing comes to an end, but also throws stones in the path of his rescue. Yes, if just a few years ago, when the administrative council of Isfahan Province had allotted a share from the rescue budget for troubled enterprises for him, they had not shown narrow-mindedness and political maneuvering, and the council’s resolution had been implemented, perhaps now Musa Khani and Musa Khani’s 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 wind of destructive events that blew 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 understand 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, but only hands that either seek help or make demands. They are oppressed because many of our government officials still do not know that the main capital for economic leap in any country, especially in our stagnant economy, is risk-taking, patient and innovative entrepreneurs, not oil and gas resources and colorful mines that intoxicate them with pride and distract them from the hidden treasures among our citizens. Therefore, entrepreneurs should not be measured by the value of money and should not be blamed for failures, most of which result from instability and poor macroeconomic management of the country. They are oppressed because our children know the names of many domestic and international actors, singers and football players, but we have not planted the name of any Iranian entrepreneur in their minds. They are oppressed because in a world where everyone has resigned themselves to smallness, we cannot tolerate great people. They are oppressed because in an era when successive legendary corruptions appear, it is very difficult to distinguish a real entrepreneur from a corrupt rent-seeker.

They are oppressed because our tax system has still not realized that entrepreneurs bear the heavy burden of unemployment benefits that government should bear on their own shoulders. They are oppressed because our insurance and banking system does not yet know that during economic recession they should rise to support entrepreneurs, not increase pressure to recover entrepreneurs’ debts and render them earthbound, prosecuted and imprisoned. They are oppressed because our judiciary does not know that imprisoning an entrepreneur is like destroying an ancient artifact for which years of labor and enormous costs have been spent. They are oppressed because, contrary to the entire world, bankruptcy law in this land has become an abandoned, formal and ineffective law, and for this reason, when an entrepreneur fails in his risky path, he is doomed to destruction and will not be allowed to start again. They are oppressed because our people still do not distinguish between negligence and culpability in their judgment of them, and when an entrepreneur fails, instead of pointing the finger of blame at the external conditions and factors that led the entrepreneur to failure, they point it at the entrepreneur himself. They are oppressed because our governments allow their political purposes to seep into their dealings with entrepreneurs.

And finally, our entrepreneurs are oppressed because our universities still do not feel the responsibility to level and prepare the ground of public opinion for entrepreneurs to advance toward blessed horizons, and they do not use their knowledge to correct and strengthen entrepreneurs’ performance. Let us not forget that eighty years have passed since the establishment of our university system, yet we have still not established any field for teaching, strengthening and advising entrepreneurs.

May the soul of the late Musa Khani rest in peace, for in the course of his entrepreneurial activities he endured all these disorders and social, political, legal and academic failures and bore them oppressively and in silence until death granted him relief. We consider him a symbol of the oppression of entrepreneurship in Iran. Let there be no doubt that as long as the system of governance in this country does not think of measures and design mechanisms to support, rehabilitate and honor 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 honor an economic warrior like the late Musa Khani and do not erect a statue of him in the square of our city or name a street after him, entrepreneurship will never take root in this land. May his soul be blessed and his path be full of travelers.

Physical Execution of Farrokhrou Parsa

Farrokhrou Parsa, who was born in 1922 in Qom, was initially a biology teacher and later completed his studies in medicine and was appointed Minister of Education during Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda’s tenure. He improved the state of education in Iranian schools and the education of Iranian girls.

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

In late February 1980, Farrokhrou Parsa was arrested. The Revolutionary Court, presided over by Sadegh Khalkhali, tried him on charges such as “causing corruption in the Ministry of Education and aiding the spread of obscenity in education and effective collaboration with SAVAK and expelling revolutionary educators from Iran’s Ministry of Culture” and sentenced him to death.

The Revolutionary Court referred to SAVAK documents and claimed that Farrokhrou Parsa had criticized the hijab of female school principals in a meeting of managers of religious schools and insulted veiled managers. Farrokhrou Parsa denied this claim and said: “In that meeting, I spoke about women’s hijab and said that hijab should not hinder 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 clothing with hijab.”

Another charge against him was attempting to remove religious education textbooks and Qur’anic instruction from Iranian schools. In response to this charge, Farrokhrou Parsa had stated: “At that time, people like Dr. Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Ayatollah Barqaei were invited to cooperate with this ministry in preparing and translating religious instruction and Qur’anic lessons, and to prepare the necessary textbooks.”

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

Female ritual washers refused to wash the body of Farrokhrou Parsa, who had been executed as a “corruptor of the earth.” The women of his family washed his body. Three bullets had penetrated below his chest and exited from the back of his body.

Physical Execution of Mahvash Amirghasemi

(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 be the largest embezzlement in Iran’s history.

According to one report, she was the 290th richest person in the world. Mahvash Amirghasemi’s initial business activities began with managing a dairy farm with her brothers in 2005 and 2006. She, who had also served in military service until 1993, had founded this livestock unit using quick-return schemes. The continuation of their activities was accompanied by misuse of these loans and led them to engage in financial corruption. Also, the initial capital of “Amir Mansour Aria Investment Development Company” on June 19, 2006 was 50 million tomans, which according to the meeting minutes of the company’s board of directors on November 30, 2008 increased to 20 billion tomans.

Amir Mansour Aria Investment Development Company in 2010, in line with implementing Article 44 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, through suspicious actions was able to purchase 94.96% of Lurestan Machinery Manufacturing’s shares, 95.2% of Iran Steel Industrial Group’s shares, 95% of Railway Technical Engineering and Construction’s shares (Traverse), and 39.5% of Khouzestan Steel’s shares.

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

The brothers Amirghasemi, named Mahvash, Mehrdad, Masoud and Mardavij, are the main figures constituting this group.

Also, the spouses of the four brothers above, named Sara Khosravi, Tooba Abdullah Zade Siyahkali, Farshideh Tahvildar Akbari and Soraya Afsordid, participated in economic activities and particularly in company share ownership, and for this reason, the assets of these individuals were seized and confiscated by the country’s judiciary. Mehrdad Amirghasemi and his wife Tooba Abdullah Zade Siyahkali have been living in Montreal, Canada since last summer and had hopes of permanent residence in that country, but Canada’s immigration office did not accept this couple’s residence application.

In late 2010, he obtained approval from the Central Bank to establish a bank named “Bank Aria” and in March of that year proceeded with subscription and then published job advertisements for employees. However, in August 2011, the Central Bank revoked the bank’s operating license.

Embezzlement

She was the main suspect in the embezzlement of three thousand billion tomans from Iran’s Bank Saderat, and was arrested on August 6, 2011.

Special Facilities

Another charge against her was the use of 400 billion tomans in facilities from Bank Melli, which were provided without any documents or collateral. This amount was separate from the embezzlement through the opening of letters of credit.

Land Grabbing

230 hectares of land in Kish and hundreds of hectares of land in Kashanak, Tehran were placed at their disposal at a price of 16 rials per square meter.

Finally, after the court verdict, in the early morning of June 3, 2014, the execution order for Mahvash Amirghasemi was carried out. Accordingly, the Tehran General and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office announced that the death sentence of the prisoner Mahvash Amirghasemi, daughter of Mansour, was executed on Saturday morning, the 3rd of Khordad 1393, at Evin Prison. This sentence was executed three days after Mahvash Amirghasemi’s lawyer reported her letter to Sayed Ali Khamenei.

Considering these charges and such economic progress, and also the immediate and uninterrupted execution, it was certainly again government interests and secrets that were at risk. And all of us should know that such actions are only born from a corrupt regime that, by making playthings of capitalists and entrepreneurs, has engaged in large-scale embezzlement and rent-seeking in such a way that there is no trace of the government officials and corrupt government.

Those Accused of Embezzlement in Iran

• Mahvash Amirghasemi

K

• Mahmoudreza Khavari
• Fazel Khodadad

R

• Morteza Rafigh-Dost

K

• Gholamhossein Karbaschi

N

• Nasser Vaez-Tabasi

Executed Iranians During the Islamic Republic

A

• Hassan Azerfer
• Asghar Arasteh

Al

• Mehdi Eslamian
• Ali Ashtari
• Ashraf Chaharcheshmeh
• Political Prisoners Executions (Summer 1988)
• Jamshid Aalem
• Bahram Afzali
• Farhad Vakili
• Habibollah Qalaniyyan
• Fathollah Omid Najaf Abadi
• Ali Asghar Amirani
• Mahvash Amirghasemi
• Shahram Amiri

B

• Mansour Baqerian
• Pari Bolandi
• Mehdi Balegh
• Zahra Bahrami
• Manouchehr Behzadi
• Bijeh
• Bijan Irannejad

P

• Youssef Pour Reza’i
• Farrokhrou Parsa
• Mohammad Pour Hormozgan
• Hassan Pakravan
• Shakrollah Paknejad

J

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

H

• Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei
• Habibollah Ashoori
• Ali Hejat Kashani
• Hossein Ahmadi Rouhani
• Saeed Hanai
• Ali Heidarian

KH

• Khavashe Shab
• Habib Khabiri
• Fazel Khodadad
• Rahim Ali Kharam
• Manouchehr Khosrodad
• Hossein Khazri

D

• Delara Darabi
• Gholamhossein Daneshi

R

• Amirhossein Rabiee
• Aatifeh Rajabi Sahale
• Arash Rahmani Pour
• Yahya Rahimi
• Abdullah Riazi
• Abdolhamid Rigi

Z

• Siamak Zaim

S

• Hossein Soudmand
• Nasser Sobhani
• Jalal Tajdaii
• Manouchehr Malik
• Mohammad Reza Saadati
• Javad Saeed
• Saeed Soltanpour
• Manouchehr Salimi
• Siahrab Ghilami
• Sayed Saeed Mahdioun

SH

• Rahim Shams
• Taghi Shahram

S

• Ali Sarmi

A

• Abdullah Khaajeh Nouri
• Houshang Atarian
• Mohammad Ali Allameh Vahidi
• Shirin Elmi Holi
• Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani

F

• Ehsan Fattahian
• Fathi Brothers
• Farajollah Seifi Kamanger
• Farhad Jahangiri
• Abdullah Fariour Moghdam
• Freidun Tavangeri

Q

• Khosro Qashqai
• Sadegh Ghotbzadeh

K

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

G

• Akbar Godrazi

M

• Majid Kavoosifer
• Mohsen Amirasslani
• Ayat Mohaghighi
• Mona Mahmoodnezad
• Mohammad Herati
• Mohammad Mehdi Duzduzani
• Fatima Modaresi
• Mard Jeleh-i
• Shirkoh Moarrefi
• Masoomeh Shadmani
• Ahmad Masomi Kuchsefhani
• Nasser Moghaddam
• Ali Reza Mellasoltani
• Soraya Manoochehri
• Yaghoob Mehrnhad
• Farajollah Mizani

N

• Ali Nashat
• Nematollah Nasiri
• Zhinus Nematmahmoudi
• Gholamreza Nikpay
• Parviz Nikhah

H

• Rahman Hatefi
• Sayed Mehdi Hashemi (Pasdar)
• Amir Abbas Hoveyda
• Heybar Allah Moeini Chaharond

Y

• Faseeh Yasmani

Executions of Former Pahlavi Government Leaders

By verdict of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran and by order of Sayed Ruhollah Khomeini and under the chairmanship of Sadegh Khalkhali, following the 1979 revolution, a wave of executions of the former government’s leaders and associates was set in motion, which was initially aimed at prosecuting crimes of the Pahlavi government leaders. These executions generally provoked severe reactions from international communities and particularly from Amnesty International.

On February 15, 1979, the first group of former regime leaders, which included four generals of the Imperial Iranian Army, were sentenced to death by order of the Revolutionary Court under the chairmanship of Sadegh Khalkhali. According to Amnesty International reports, from the triumph of the revolution until March 1980, a total of 438 people were executed by the Revolutionary Court.

Executions of Bahaʼis

From the beginning of the 1979 revolution to the present, approximately 202 Bahaʼis have been executed by the Islamic government for their belief in the Bahaʼi faith or for promoting and propagating it.

Executions of Summer 1988

The execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988 was an event in which, by order of Sayed Ruhollah Khomeini, several thousand 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 prisoners’ crime was considered to be collaboration with organizations opposed to the Islamic Republic, particularly the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran, as well as various spectrums of 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 reign of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United Nations General Assembly, except for one or two years, almost every year has issued resolutions regarding violations of human rights by the Islamic Republic government. In UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/64/176 released in April 2010, the Assembly condemned Iran in many cases. Including the government’s handling of protesters of the results of Iran’s presidential elections (2009). The Islamic Republic of Iran severely undermines 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 gives all ethnic minorities equal rights and allows minorities’ 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 discussion of whether “should the country’s official religion be mentioned in the Constitution?” ended in favor of Shiite Islamists. Finally, Article 12 of Iran’s Constitution introduced “Islam and Twelver Shiite Jurisprudence” as the country’s official religion and sufficed to note that other Islamic schools such as Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali, and Zaydi can act according to their jurisprudence. Influential clerics at that time opposed the requests of representatives of non-Muslim communities (such as Jews, Bahaʼis, and Zoroastrians) for recognition of their religions as official state religions and insisted that non-Muslims should be considered as “dhimmis” (protected status). Finally, Article 13 of the Constitution was passed with only 6 opposing votes (four non-Muslim representatives and two other representatives). According to this article, Iranian Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are recognized as the only religious minorities who are free within the bounds of law to perform their religious ceremonies and act according to their own faith in personal affairs and religious education.

Some believe that the mention of the condition “only religious minorities” in this article ultimately caused other religious communities (including Bahaʼis as the largest religious community in Iran after Muslims) to be deprived of recognized rights.

Article 881 Repeated of the Civil Code is the most challenging law in Iran concerning religious minorities. This article, which pertains to 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 non-Muslim heirs do not inherit; even if they are superior in degree and rank to the Muslim.” In Iranian courts, religious minorities are subject to this article and are considered “non-believers” in the matter of inheritance. Of course, this law provides an opportunity for the abuse of opportunistic individuals.

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

The seizure of endowments of non-Muslim citizens in Iran and the destruction of their schools and the negligence of officials are other problems facing Iranian non-Muslim citizens. After the triumph of the 1979 revolution for years, religious minorities were deprived of having their own schools. Pre-session speeches and detailed parliamentary proceedings indicate repeated objections by their representatives in parliament. After reopening these schools, entrusting school management to Muslims despite objections from religious minorities has been another problem for this group of Iranians. An issue that after years has still not been fully resolved, with some minority schools being run by Muslim administrators.

The combination of these issues has made what Robert Beglerian, representative of Southern Armenians in the seventh, eighth, and ninth terms of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, has called the most important challenge facing religious minorities at present to be the phenomenon of emigration.

Azerbaijanis

Iran’s current leader Sayed Ali Khamenei is himself of Azerbaijani ethnicity and is from Khameneh and speaks Turkish. However, a minority of Azerbaijanis have consistently protested against ethnic and linguistic discrimination, including the prohibition of teaching Azerbaijani in schools, harassment of Azerbaijani political activists, and the changing of Azerbaijani geographical names. In May 2007, widespread protests were held in Azerbaijani-speaking cities in protest of a cartoon in Iran newspaper, which resulted in the arrest of 300 people and the death of 4 protesters. The Iranian government attributed the causes of these protests to Israel. Abbas Banai Kasemi was sentenced to 16 months in prison for participating in these protests.

Kurds

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

Arabs

Following 3 explosions in 2005 and 2006 in Iran’s Khuzestan Province, the Revolutionary Court issued verdicts sentencing 11 Arabs to death in connection with bombings. The government blamed foreign forces and governments for these acts of violence. Some human rights activists have stated that bombing suspects did not receive fair trials.

Jews

The Iranian-American Jewish Federation has stated that Iranian authorities have not provided any information about 11 Jewish men who disappeared in 1994 and 1997.

Iran’s educational system restricts Jewish children from using non-religious Jewish books and requires Jewish schools to remain open on Saturdays. There are limitations regarding the advancement of Jews in terms of professional jobs, especially in government agencies.

Political Executions

Following the 1979 revolution, a number of officials of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government were executed. Also, in the summer of 1988, a number of members of groups opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran were executed.

Criminal Executions

Amnesty International reported that in 2007, at least 24 people were executed per week 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 Neka county for what was called “illicit sexual relations.”

According to Islamic law enforced in Iran, homosexuals, if homosexuality is proven, face the death penalty, 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. 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 Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994. However, some existing Iranian laws are still inconsistent with this convention.

Violence

Under Iran’s regulations, physical punishment of a child by the father is permitted as far as expedient, whereas Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges states to protect children from any form of mistreatment by parents or guardians. According to Article 22 of the Islamic Penal Code, if a father or paternal grandfather kills his child, retaliation does not apply and he is only sentenced to payment of blood money and punishment, but in similar circumstances the mother will be sentenced to retaliation.

Education

Both the Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child consider the education of children up to certain ages mandatory, but currently, a high number of Iranian children do not attend school due to economic problems. Lack of identity documentation and statelessness of children whose father is Afghan and mother is Iranian has prevented them from being able to register and study in any school without documentation, which is inconsistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Homosexuals

There is no precise data on the number of executed homosexuals since the triumph of the 1979 revolution in Iran, but human rights activists believe that more than four thousand gay and lesbian men and women have been executed in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

Gay Men

Iranian law punishes men who for the first time commit homosexual sexual acts, provided that penetration has occurred, with various punishments including execution. In cases where penetration has not occurred, these individuals receive a maximum of 100 lashes. According to Iranian criminal law, proving sodomy requires four repetitions of the individual’s confession or testimony of four just male witnesses. However, judges can also accept circumstantial evidence.

Lesbians

Women who for the fourth time commit homosexual acts (tribadism) 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 “pledge letters” to comply with dress codes according to government standards.

Also in that year, the police of Iran’s airports detained more than 17,000 people who passed through the country’s airports because of their clothing and questioned them, arrested 850 women and forced them to sign pledge letters. 130 others were also prosecuted by judicial authorities.

Women’s Rights in Iran

The rights of Iranian women have undergone significant changes through different political and historical periods. These rights include the right to marry, the right to divorce, the right to education, the right to dress and hijab, 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 of the World Economic Forum, out of 135 countries, Iran ranks 127th in terms of inequality between women and men, which is highly regrettable.