"Scores if not hundreds of Iranians continued to flee the country in fear for their safety because of the high levels of repression by the authorities."—Amnesty International, 2011[1]

Iran violently represses political opposition.

• "Casting a shadow over all those who fall foul of Iran's unjust justice system is the mounting toll of people sentenced to death and executed. There were around four times as many public executions in 2011 than in 2010, and hundreds of people are believed to have been sentenced to death in the past year."—Amnesty International, 2012[2]


• Approximately 4,000 political opponents were executed between 1979 and 1982; and 5,000 in 1988 after "show trials."—Amnesty International[3]


• Eighty Iranians were killed, thousands were arrested, and many were tortured when they demonstrated against Iran's fraudulent June 2009 presidential election results.[4]


• Students protesting Iran's "stolen" election in June 2009 were arrested, "beaten, tortured, raped and killed in Iran."[5]Eighty-nine demonstrators were imprisoned and five were sentenced to execution.[6]


• 112 people were executed in the eight weeks after demonstrations against the 2009 election.[7]


• Iran's rulers "are relying heavily on force and intimidation, arrests, prison terms, censorship, even execution, to maintain authority. They have closed newspapers, banned political parties, and effectively silenced all but the most like-minded people. Thousands of their opponents have fled the country, fearing imprisonment."—"NY Times," June 11, 2010[8]


• "We don't even feel safe inside our homes. ... [P]lainclothes officers, who are able to do whatever they want, are constantly standing on your street corner, ready to follow you the minute you step out to arrest you in case you participate in a gathering. Indeed we have not seen such a security environment since the Islamic Revolution."—Iranian political activist, June 2010[9]


• 400 to 900 opponents of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime were arrested and transferred to "Evin prison's quarantine ward" in June 2010.[10]

"[O]n December 26, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution denouncing the serious human rights abuses occurring in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including torture, cruel and degrading treatment in detention, the targeting of human rights defenders, violence against women, and 'the systematic and serious restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly' as well as severe restrictions on the rights to 'freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief'"—U.S. Senate Resolution 380, 2012[1]

Iran uses torture and brutal punishments for alleged criminals.

• "Torture and other ill-treatment in pre-trial detention remained common, facilitated by the routine denial of access to lawyers and continuing impunity for perpetrators. Methods reported included severe beatings; forcing detainees' heads into toilets to make them ingest human excrement; mock executions; confinement in very small, cramped spaces; deprivation of light, food and water; and denial of medical treatment. In one case, a male detainee was reported to have been raped; others were threatened with rape. ... Details of torture in 2009 continued to emerge. In February, a former member of the volunteer paramilitary Basij force described how tens of boys had been rounded up in Shiraz, thrown into shipping containers and systematically raped. After expressing concerns to a Basij leader, he and others were detained for 100 days without access to their families and beaten."—Amnesty International, 2011[2]


• "Sentences of flogging and amputation continued to be imposed and increasingly carried out, although it was not possible to ascertain the real total. Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in April and June, Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of Iran's official human rights body, insisted that the government did not consider such punishments as forms of torture."—Amnesty International, 2011[3]


• "The authorities acknowledged 252 executions, but there were credible reports of more than 300 other executions. The true total could be even higher. … Sentences of death by stoning continued to be passed. … Floggings and an increased number of amputations were carried out."—Amnesty International, 2011[4]

Iran prevents freedom of expression and association as well as the free flow of ideas.

• "The government entrenched the severe curbs on freedom of expression, association and assembly it had imposed in 2009. The security forces were deployed in force to deter or disperse further public protests. Scores if not hundreds of people arrested in connection with the mass protests in 2009 continued to be held, most of them serving prison terms, although others were released. Scores more were arrested throughout 2010."—Amnesty International, 2011[5]


• "Individuals and groups risked arrest, torture and imprisonment if perceived as co-operating with human rights and foreign-based Persian-language media organizations."—Amnesty International, 2011[6]


• "Two major political parties opposed to the government were banned while others remained prohibited. The government purged universities of 'secular' teaching staff and imposed education bans on students engaged in campus protests."—Amnesty International, 2011[7]


• "Sweeping controls on domestic and international media aimed at reducing Iranians' contact with the outside world were imposed."—Amnesty International, 2011[8]


• "The authorities banned newspapers and student journals and prosecuted journalists whose reporting they deemed 'against the system'. Wiretapping and intercepting of SMS and email communications were routine. A shadowy 'cyber army', reportedly linked to the Revolutionary Guards, organized attacks on domestic and foreign internet sites deemed to be anti-government."—Amnesty International, 2011[9]

Iran suppresses human rights groups.

• "Political dissidents, women's and minority rights activists and other human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and students were rounded up in mass and other arrests and hundreds were imprisoned. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees were routine and committed with impunity."—Amnesty International, 2011[10]


• "Human rights defenders were subject to serious human rights violations as they continued to press for greater respect for the rights of women and ethnic minorities and for an end to executions of juvenile offenders and stoning executions. Women's rights activists, lawyers, trade unionists, ethnic minority rights activists, students and others campaigning for human rights, unfairly tried and imprisoned in previous years, continued to be held."—Amnesty International, 2011[11]

Iran's law enforcement and justice systems violate human rights with impunity.

• "Political dissidents, women's and minority rights activists and other human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and students were rounded up in mass and other arrests and hundreds were imprisoned. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees were routine and committed with impunity."—Amnesty International, 2011[12]


• "Security officials, generally in plain clothes and without showing identification or arrest warrants, continued to arrest arbitrarily government opponents and people seen to be dissenting from officially approved values on account of their views or lifestyle. ... Those arrested were often held for long periods during which they were denied contact with their lawyers or families, tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and denied access to medical care. Some were sentenced to prison terms after unfair trials. Others sentenced after unfair trials in previous years remained in jail." —Amnesty International, 2011[13]


• "Political suspects received grossly unfair trials in which they often faced vaguely worded charges that did not amount to recognizably criminal offences. Frequently, they were convicted in the absence of defence lawyers on the basis of 'confessions' or other information allegedly obtained under torture in pre-trial detention. Courts accepted such 'confessions' as evidence without investigating how they were obtained."—Amnesty International, 2011[14]


• "Members of the security forces continued to violate human rights with near-total impunity."—Amnesty International, 2011[15]

"Women faced continuing discrimination in law and practice; those campaigning for women's rights were targeted for state repression"—Amnesty International, 2011[1]

• The punishment for the "crime" of adultery includes lashing and/or being stoned to death. Between 2008 and 2009, nine females and three males were sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery.—UN Human Rights Council, May 29, 2009[2]


• In 2011 "[n]o stonings were reported, but at least 15 prisoners, mostly women, remained at risk of stoning."—Amnesty International, 2011[3]


• Polygamy is legal. The legal age for women to marry without parents' consent was raised in 2002 to age 13. Girls can still legally marry at age nine with the consent of their parents and of a "righteous court."[4]


• Iran offers "[l]ittle protection against so-called 'honour killings' for women who are raped; a husband—or a father—who kills the rape victim may face only a short jail sentence."—BBC [5]


• "The Iranian constitution allows equal rights for men and women 'in conformity with Islamic criteria.' According to the World Economic Forum's 2010 Gender Gap report—which compared disparity between men and women on economic participation, access to education, health, and political empowerment—Iran ranked 123 out of 134 countries. … [T]he UN report notes that the application of certain laws is a barrier to gender equality in Iran. For instance, a woman's worth and testimony in a court of law is regarded as half that of a man's. Women do not have equitable inheritance rights, nor can they be granted guardianship rights for their children, even upon the death of their husbands."—"The Atlantic"[6]


• "Women faced continuing discrimination in law and practice; those campaigning for women's rights were targeted for state repression."—Amnesty International, 2011 [7]


• "In April, the Supreme Leader called for renewed attention to enforcing the state-imposed obligatory dress code. In May, a 'chastity and modesty' campaign based on a 2005 law was launched, targeting those who do not comply with the dress code in public, including on university campuses. In September, reports suggested that women's enrolment in universities had dropped substantially."—Amnesty International, 2011[8]

"For years, Iranian authorities have committed atrocities against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, incited violence by others, and refused to admit that LGBT Iranians exist,"— Hossein Alizadeh, regional coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa at the IGLHRC (a U.N. agency), 2011[1]

• Iran's "treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people constitutes systematic human rights violations that amount to failure to uphold its treaty obligations."—UN Human Rights Committee, 2011[2]


• According to human rights groups, over 4,000 members of the LGBT community have been executed in Iran since the 1979 Revolution as of 2008. [3]


• "At least three men were executed in 2011 following their conviction of 'sodomy'. At least three other men, alleged to have taken part in sexual acts between men, were reportedly under sentence of death. One, known only to Amnesty International as 'Ehsan', was under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offence."—Amnesty International, 2012 [4]


• "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals. In Iran we don't have this phenomenon. I don't know who has told you we have it."—President Ahmadinejad, September 25, 2007 [5]

"Iran is one of the only countries that still imposes the death penalty on juvenile offenders."—Amnesty International, 2011[1]

• "On 20 April 2011, two juvenile offenders—identified only as 'A.N' and 'H.B'—were among three individuals hanged in public in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, after being convicted over a rape and murder committed when they were only 17. … Iran is one of the only countries that still imposes the death penalty on juvenile offenders—those convicted of an alleged crime committed before they were 18—and was the only country known to have executed a juvenile offender in 2010."—Amnesty International, 2011[2]


• Eight juvenile offenders were executed in 2008,[3] five in 2009,[4] and 130 Iranians were on death row for offenses committed while they were minors.[5] If the victim's family accepts "diyah" (blood money), the execution can be waived. [6]


• The Basij paramilitary (Mobilization of the Oppressed) included child soldiers (12 to 18 years old) recruited by Khomeini in 1980 to form "human waves" at the front lines during the Iran-Iraq War. They cleared land mines by stepping on them so the regular army could advance. Each Basij received a Chinese-made plastic key that would open the doors to Paradise for them.[7] The Basij claim there were 36,000 "child martyrs" during the war. [8]


• The Basij operate in all Iran's high schools and have expanded to 6,000 elementary schools, where they indoctrinate students about the nobility of martyrdom.[9]''We want to expand the Basij's activities at the primary-school level because students are more influenceable at a young age than at other times in their lives. We intend to promote and instill a revolutionary and Basiji thought process among elementary school students."—IRGC General Mohammad Saleh Jokar, 2009 [10]

"Iran's ethnic minority communities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Baluch, Kurds and Turkmen, suffered ongoing systematic discrimination in law and practice. The use of minority languages in schools and government offices continued to be prohibited."—Amnesty International, 2011[1]

The breakdown of ethnic minorities is as follows: Persian, 61 percent; Azeri, 16 percent; Kurd, 10 percent; Lur, 6 percent; Baloch, 2 percent; Arab, 2 percent; Turkmen, 2 percent; Other, 1 percent.[2]

Azeris:

• Azeris face ethnic and linguistic discrimination, banning of the Azeri language in schools, harassment and imprisonment of activists or organizers, and the changing of Azeri geographic names.—U.S. State Department, 2009[3]


• Azeris are subjected to "[r]outine smears of dual loyalty," are "struck with aspersions of spying for Israel, Britain or the US, and [are] goaded with slights on their Turkish heritage. A slew of arrests, beatings and accusations of rape and torture have characterised relations with the government in recent years. At a conservative estimate, 1,000 Azeris currently reside in state jails" (2006). [4]


• "Around 20 Azerbaijani activists [were] arrested in May [2011] around the anniversary of mass demonstrations in 2006 against a cartoon in a state-run newspaper which many Azerbaijanis found insulting were released in November. Akbar Azad, a writer, remained held as his family could not meet the high bail set."—Amnesty International, 2011[5]

Arabs:

• Arabs face ethnic cleansing from the oil-rich Al-Ahwaz border region. The government has deported over a million Arabs in the Al-Ahwaz region and seized their homes and lands in order to transfer ethnic Persians to the area. Teaching of Arabic is forbidden, and human rights activists in Al-Ahwaz have been arrested, detained, and subject to torture and sometimes execution. [6] In April 2008 the government cut off water to the region to force the residents to move. [7]


• Rape is used as a weapon to quell resistance. Two young Ahwazi women were gang raped in a Revolutionary Guards prison on September 1, 2009. The rapes were filmed by the intelligence services to blackmail the women's families into silence and to humiliate them in order to break them psychologically. [8]


• "At least eight Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, including Hashem Hamidi, said to have been aged only 16, were executed between 5 and 7 May 2011. Three of the eight were reportedly executed in public."—Amnesty International, 2012 [9]


• In September 2011 four Ahwazi Arabs held since June 2009 were reported to have been sentenced to death on charges including "enmity against God and corruption on earth." [10]

Kurds:

• "The regime, in an increasingly aggressive campaign, uses so-called security and press laws to arrest and prosecute Kurdish Iranians simply for exercising their rights of freedom of expression and association. Numerous newspapers and magazines have been closed; editors and writers have been imprisoned; non-governmental organizations have been refused permits to operate; and human rights defenders like Farzad Kamangar have been sentenced to death."—Voice of America News, February 18, 2010 [11]


• "Kaveh Ghasemi Kermanshahi, a Kurdish human rights activist and member of the One Million Signatures Campaign, was held between February and May [2011], including 80 days in solitary confinement. His trial on national security charges began in October [2011]."—Amnesty International, 2011 [12]

Baluchis:

• Baluchis face discrimination, lack of government funds for schools and infrastructure, and severe repression of militant protest movements. Suspected Baluchi militants have been arrested and may have been subjected to torture to produce forced confessions. Special judicial procedures are put in place by Iranian authorities, and there has been a steep rise in the number of Baluchis targeted. [13]


• "Mohammad Saber Malek Raisi, a Baluch youth aged 15 from Sarbaz, was reported in July [2011] to have been held without charge or trial since September 2009, possibly to force his elder brother to surrender to the authorities. In December [2011], 11 Baluch men convicted after unfair trials were executed in Zahedan, apparently in retaliation for the PRMI bomb attack five days earlier."—Amnesty International, 2011 [14]

Turkmen:

• "In October [2011], Arash Saghar, a Turkmen activist in the election campaign of Mir Hossein Mousavi, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of 'spying for Turkmenistan.'"—Amnesty International, 2011 [15]

"Members of religious minorities, including Christian converts, Sunni Muslims, dissident Shi'a clerics, and the Ahl-e Haq and Dervish communities, continued to suffer discrimination, harassment, arbitrary detention, and attacks on community property. Members of the Baha'i community, who remained unable to access higher education, faced increased persecution."—Amnesty International, 2011[1]

• The breakdown of religious minorities is as follows: Shi'a Muslims, 89 percent; Sunni Muslims, 9 percent; others (includes Zoroastrians, Sufis, Baha'i, Christians, Jews), 2 percent. [2]


• In Iran the crime of "apostasy" (conversion from Islam) can be punishable by death. [3]

Baha'i:

• Iran has outlawed the Baha'i religion, denies public education to Baha'i children, disregards their property rights, and arrests, imprisons, and executes Baha'i leaders. [4]


• "Seven Baha'i leaders arrested in 2008 were sentenced in August [2011] to 20 years' imprisonment following grossly unfair proceedings. They were convicted of espionage and engaging in propaganda against Islam. In September, the sentences were reportedly halved on appeal."—Amnesty International, 2011[5]

Christians:

• The Iranian government uses "imprisonment, torture and rape … to terrorize and reduce the number of Christians in its borders." [6]


• "Yousef Naderkhani, a Christian convert and member of the Church of Iran in Rasht, was sentenced to death in October [2011] after being convicted of apostasy."—Amnesty International, 2011[7]

Sufis:

• "Over 60 Gonabadi Dervishes (a Sufi religious order), as well as 12 journalists for Mazjooban-e Noor, a Gonabadi Dervish news website, were arrested in Kavar, in south-west Iran, and Tehran in September and October 2011. At least 11 were still detained, mostly without access to lawyers or family, at the end of 2011."—Amnesty International, 2012 [8]


• "In May [2011], 24 Dervishes were sentenced to prison terms, internal exile and flogging for taking part in a 2009 demonstration in Gonabad, north-eastern Iran."—Amnesty International, 2011 [9]

Jews:

• Members of the 2,500-year-old Jewish community live restricted personal and religious lives, always under suspicion of being traitors for pro "Zionist" activities, and face official anti-Semitic incitement. [10]