Editing Politics of Iran (section)

====Human rights====
=====Background=====
The alleged tyranny and brutality towards all opposition of the monarchy was one of the propaganda themes of the Islamic revolution, but the Islamic Republic has not tolerated opposition to its system of government, since, as mentioned above, it believes disobedience to it is disobedience to God. In 1984, Iran's representative to the United Nations, Saʿid Rajaʾie-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".<ref>United Nations General Assembly. 39th Session. Third Committee. 65th meeting, held on 7 December 1984 at 3&nbsp;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</ref><ref name=mayer-1996>paraphrased speech,  UN Doc. A/C.3/39/SR.65, para. 95. quoted in {{cite journal |last1=Mayer |first1=Ann Elizabeth |title=Islamic Rights or Human Rights: An Iranian Dilemma |journal=Iranian Studies |date=1996 |volume=29 |issue=3 (Summer)/4 (Autumn) |pages=269–296 |doi=10.1080/00210869608701851 |jstor=4310998 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4310998 |access-date=6 September 2022}}</ref>  

In reply to international criticism of repression, Iranian officials loyal to the Supreme Leader deny wrongdoing, maintaining its human rights record is better than western countries who criticize its record.<ref name="Mottaki">{{cite web|url=http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=164534|title=Tehran Times|date=5 March 2008 |access-date=12 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="democracynow.org">{{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|work=Democracy Now!|access-date=12 April 2016}}</ref> In 2004, Judiciary chief Ayatollah [[Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi]], denied that there were any political prisoners in Iran, saying "The world may consider certain cases, by their nature, political crimes, but because we do not have a law in this regard, these are considered ordinary offenses."<ref>{{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}}</ref> In 2008, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  replied to a question about human rights by stating that Iran has fewer prisoners than the US and "the human rights situation in Iran is relatively a good one, when compared ... with some European countries and the United States."

Whether the Islamic Republic goes well beyond what Sunni and many Shia Muslims consider Islamic exceptions to international human rights norms, is also an issue. Khomeini's January 1988 pronouncement "... that [Islamic] government is a branch of the Prophet's absolute Wilayat and one of the primary (first order) rules of Islam that has priority over all ordinances of the law even praying, fasting and Hajj…The Islamic State could prevent implementation of everything – devotional and non- devotional – that so long as it seems against Islam's interests",<ref>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}}</ref><ref name="Keyhan, January 8, 1988">''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}}</ref> leads Ann Elizabeth Mayer to argue that this theory of ''velayat-e motlaqaye faqih'' ("the absolute authority of the jurist") "freed" the Islamic Republic "to do as it chose-even if this meant violating fundamental pillars of the religion ...", and that this doctrine, not sharia law, explained "the prevalence of torture and punishment of political dissent" in the Islamic Republic.<ref Name=Mayer-1996-269-absolute>{{cite journal |last1=Mayer |first1=Ann Elizabeth |title=Islamic Rights or Human Rights: An Iranian Dilemma |journal=Iranian Studies |date=1996 |volume=29 |issue=3 (Summer)/4 (Autumn) |pages=269–270 |doi=10.1080/00210869608701851 |jstor=4310998 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4310998 |access-date=6 September 2022}}</ref>

On the other hand, despite the vast popularity of Khomeini in Iran before and after the revolution, (approximately 10 million people are estimated to have participated in his funeral in a country of about 60 million),<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pendle|first=George|date=2018-08-29|title=Which Famous Figure Had the Biggest Public Funeral?|url=https://www.history.com/news/which-famous-figure-had-the-biggest-public-funeral|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030034351/https://www.history.com/news/which-famous-figure-had-the-biggest-public-funeral|archive-date=2021-10-30|access-date=2021-12-25|website=HISTORY|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-01-19|title=The ten largest gatherings in human history|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11354116/The-ten-largest-gatherings-in-human-history.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029174847/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11354116/The-ten-largest-gatherings-in-human-history.html|archive-date=2021-10-29|access-date=2021-12-25|website=www.telegraph.co.uk}}</ref> observers (Akbar Ganji, Arzoo Osanloo, [[Hooman Majd]]) have suggested there is no widespread support for violent crackdowns on dissent in contemporary Iran. "Notions of democracy and human rights" now have much deeper roots among Iranians than under the Shah,<ref>"The Latter-Day Sultan, Power and Politics in Iran" by Akbar Ganji, ''Foreign Affairs'', November/December 2008</ref> and in fact are "almost hegemonic" (Arzoo Osanloo),<ref>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</ref> 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", according to journalist Hooman Majd.<ref>Majd, ''The Ayatollah Begs to Differ'', 2008, p.183</ref>

=====Situation=====
The Islamic Republic centralized and drastically expanded the prison system of the previous regime.  In one early period (1981-1985) more than 7,900 people were executed.<ref name=Abrahamian-1983-85>source: Anonymous "Prison and Imprisonment", ''Mojahed'', 174–256 (20 October 1983{{snd}}8 August 1985).</ref>  [[1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners|Somewhere between 3,000 and 30,000 political prisoners were executed]] between July and early September 1988 on orders of the  Ayatollah Khomeini, causing a 2020 UN Special Rapporteurs to send a letter to the regime  describing the killings as "crimes against humanity".<ref name="OotHCoHR">{{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}}</ref>

The Islamic Republic has been criticized both for restrictions and punishments that follow the Islamic Republic's constitution and law, but not international human rights norms (harsh penalties for crimes, punishment of [[victimless crimes]], restrictions on [[freedom of speech]] and [[Freedom of the press|the press]], restrictions on [[freedom of religion]], etc.); and for "extrajudicial" actions that follow neither, such as firebombings of newspaper offices, and beatings, torture, rape, and killing without trial of political prisoners and dissidents/civilians.<ref>Ehsan Zarrokh (Ehsan and Gaeini, M. Rahman). "Iranian Legal System and Human Rights Protection" The Islamic Law and Law of the Muslim World e-journal, New York law school 3.2 (2009).</ref><ref name="ICHRIescalates">{{cite web|url=http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2008/09/irancrackdown/ |title=Rights Crisis Escalates Faces and Cases from Ahmadinejad's Crackdown, 20 September 2008 |publisher=Iranhumanrights.org |access-date=26 September 2013|date=20 September 2008 }}</ref>