Iran executes more people than any other country in the world, often after unfair trials, torture and long detentions. Human rights activists are detained, abused and mistreated and such persecution has been continuing for decades owing to the regimes whims. The regime and its official and unofficial authorities has had a long, notorious history of suppressing freedom of speech and expression, not just of religious and ethnic minorities, but also civil actors such as environmental activists, attorneys and lawyers, journalists and bloggers, artists and filmmakers, even individuals who express their opinions online. In short, there is little to absolutely nil freedom for dissidents and heretics.

Prisoners of conscience face harsh and extreme sentences, almost always ending in life-time imprisonment or public execution, endorsed and celebrated by the regime. Iranian authorities use vague charges of ‘propaganda against the state and Islam’ to suppress the right of its citizens to peaceful expression. Any protest is always met with beatings, social hostilities and mass arrests; security forces use excessive force to repress any protest. The government has even blocked access to certain international news websites and completely censored the internet, in an effort to curb any access to information. For example, the state reportedly harasses the family members of BBC Persian journalists.

The Islamic Republic of Iran makes the list for similar reasons as does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Iran has recently been under fire by international bodies for it’s human right’s violations which It claims to be rightfully justified by the Islamic Law.

In case of theft, as punishment, both hands or feet of the person are amputated. According to Iranian law stoning and throwing people off a building, for offenses like fornication and homosexuality is also legalized.

Iran has a strict capital punishment system that violates the due process, including several offenses for drinking, drug offenses, and cursing the Prophet.
Furthermore, women here too are facing several charges of inequality
against them. For example, their testimony compared to a male witness
would be equivalent to that of 2 female witnesses. They also would require
their husband’s permission to work outside or leave the country. Several
rape cases are turned down as well as women end up getting executed if the
government consider that a woman is lying. So much so that conviction of
rape is so difficult that a woman’s appearance is used against her to justify
rape. Iran chose not to become a member of the UN Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Moving on towards freedom of religious societies, article 12 of the Iranian
constitution allows full freedom of practice of non-shia Muslims as well as
Judism an yet prohibits practicing the Baha’i faith as they claim the religion

to be anti-state that threatens Iran’s peace. According to the Amnesty
International and several reports an estimated 202 Baha’i have been
executed since the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Punishment of non-muslims is
just as the same as the non-muslims.
The Iranian government has a tendency to punish protestors . Ahmad
Batebi was amongst those who faced the harsh treatment when he was
given a death sentence in the 1999 student demonstrations, though it was
turned down to 10 years of imprisonment.
Iran according to several human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International is one of the leading countries in execution of juveniles, where in many cases these offenders faced their death penalty before the age of 18.
Iranian government usually falls short while delivering justice. Long
prison sentences were handed to some of the student protesters last year.
Several human right’s and environmental activists have been detained for
“threatening security of the nation” according to the officials. Some of them
have reportedly been tortured mercilessly as well as have not been provided with the
necessary medical treatment. The execution rate has been on a high as well
as an average of 500 executions were made over almost the whole decade.
It is safe to say that justice is seemingly not a trait Iran can be linked with
and same goes for equal rights for women and all other minorities either.

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