Iran (Islamic Republic of Iran)

Iran is a theocratic regime whose juridical system is based on Shari'a. Second only to China in the death punishment ranking (but, in proportion to its population, Iran applies capital punishment just as much as China). In 2006 and first part of 2007, Iran executed 262 persons, by shooting, hanging or stoning. Though a moratorium on the practice of stoning exists since 2002, de facto it continues to be applied. Death penalty is inflicted for various crimes, as murder, armed robbery, rape, blasphemy, apostasy, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, drug-related offences and plotting to overthrow the Islamic regime. Islamic law is applied also with the practice of lashing for sexual relations before marriage and drinking alcohol as with the amputation of hands and feet for thieves. Though Islamic authorities and the Parliament established that this habit should change, minors are still eligible for executions. Many executions are held in public. As President Ahmadinejad stated during his speech at Columbia University last September, “some of these punishments, very few, are carried in the public eye, before the public eye. It's a law, based on democratic principles”.

Internet is strictly filtered, broadband connections was recently banned to prevent the downloading of Western cultural products such as films and songs. Freedom of speech, as freedom of assembly and association, are systematically violated: the press is monitored by governmental censorship, journalists and intellectuals are constantly threatened, reformist newspapers are closed. One of the most recent cases is that of the Kurdish journalist Adnan Hasanpour (27), who was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for alleged spying actions. Hasanpour, who has been imprisoned for one year, used to write for Asou, a local magazine dealing with Kurdish issues, which was banned by the regime on August 2005.

Women discrimination is included in the juridical order, as shown by the laws on inheritance. Even a woman's "blood money" is half that of a man. The “blood money” practice refers to Islamic rule that allows the family of a victim to spare the life of the perpetrator, and to receive in return for that, an amount paid by the condemned's family.

Teheran's Evin prison is sadly known for its ward 209, run by the Ministry of Intelligence and designated primarily for political prisoners. Most dissidents who have left the country or have been exiled, still carry on their own body this prison's violence, among whom the “white torture”, as Amnesty International reported in 2004 in Amir Abbas Fakhravar's case. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian journalist, died while imprisoned in Evin jail, following the torture she suffered.

An ongoing debate between exiled Iranian dissidents concern US' funds to the democratic opposition inside Iran. Critics to such funding (about 75 million $), claim that it could endanger human rights activists in Iran, charging them with collaborationism with the US. Akbar Atri, one of Iranian student movement's leaders who succeeded in fleeing Iran in 2006, stated that funding from US or any other democracy, are necessary to support Iran's civil society. “Just this year”, Atri writes “Iranian authorities have executed without due process over 100 people, yet none were said to be connected to U.S. democracy funds”. A majority of this money is allocated for funding Radio Farda (“Tomorrow”), a Persian-language radio station based on Prague and US, which broadcasts clandestinely in Iran (via Dubai), providing the public, mostly of under-30, with news, music and above all a window to the western culture, hardly banned by the regime.