The 1979 Constitution of the Islamic Republic calls Iran to have a Head of the Judiciary, also known in English as 'Chief Justice of Iran', who is to be a "just Mujtahid" (high level Islamic cleric) appointed by the Supreme Leader and to serve for "a period of five years." The Shahs had installed a dual court structure. Iran followed the traditional Islamic practice of each judge giving his own interpretation of Islamic law for a given litigation, with no right of appeal. In 1982, in response to military coup threats, a separate "Military Revolutionary Court" was formed, handling military cases. The Constitution requires that the taking of foreign aid be approved by the Parliament. October 15, 2018. As far as the judicial system is concerned, the changes were quite minor until the end of the nineteenth century. The legal system of modern day Iran has undergone several transformations over the course of the last two centuries. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. According to Iran International, the… Share. Iran applies Sharia law and blinds man over acid attack Convicted attacker rendered unconscious as medics gouge out eye, says state newspaper Thu, Mar 5, 2015, 20:39. However, there were still sharia courts that ruled on issues of family and inheritance up to the Islamic Revolution (working alongside secular ones). “Our ruling establishment is based on Shari'a, and in no way, we will ever give away our religious principles”, he reacted to criticisms of Iran’s human rights violations. While other legal codes regulate public behavior, Sharia regulates public behavior, private behavior, and even private beliefs. According to an Amnesty International global report on death sentences and executions, Iran executed 256 people in 2018, which was actually a significant drop from the 507 people sentenced to death in 2017. It is derived from both the Koran, Islam's central text, and fatwas - the rulings of Islamic scholars. The recent global day against the imminent stoning of Sakine Mohammadi-Ashtiani in Iran for adultery is an example of the outrage sparked by the brutality associated with sharia law's penal code. She developed a strong feeling of injustice towards women in her Islamic culture. According to Fox News, Iran publicly hanged a 31-year-old man in January for an alleged violation of the country’s anti-gay law. Until the Constitutional Revolution, the source of law in Iran was the sharia as interpreted by the senior clerics. In any sharia law state, being a Christian is discriminated against, but its not against the law and it does not necessarily mean it is a crime in those states. However, it does not often address the many routines and nuances of modern life. Sharia Law in Iran. After the election of the first Majles of the Islamic Republic in 1980, the Majles and the Guardian Council quickly codified important features of the sharia law by passing two landmark bills[13] in July 1982:[11] Sharia law includes Hudud ("claims against God", punishable by a mandatory, fixed sentence), Qisas (the law of retaliation/retribution), diyyeh, or blood money (to compensate for the death/injury), Qanon-e Ta'zir (tazir is a crime that receives a discretionary sentence by a judge), Qanon-e Qisas (Retribution Law). Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of sharia: the Quran, sunnah (authentic hadith), qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (juridical consensus). [10] Many people were executed or given harsh punishments for both political and criminal acts. In addition to a system of state (orfi) courts super-vised by a secular minister of justice, a system of religious sharia courts also functioned. In 1991–1994, Iran combined all of these laws into the unified "Islamic Penal Code" which consisted of five "Books". There are two secondary sources of sharia law known as Ijma’a (consensus of Muslim scholars) and Qiyas (reasoning by legal analogy). “Most modern Islamic countries, however, have justice systems compatible with international human rights law.” Yes, because they don’t fully implement Sharia. Sharia is a religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. Info. As a legal system, the Sharia law is exceptionally broad. Davar subsequently attempted to expand the new system into other cities of Iran through a programme involving training of 250 judges. Yes, because they don't fully implement Sharia. Only westerners think like that. Up Next. In 1979 the secular, westernizing Pahlavi Dynasty was overthrown and replaced by an Islamic Republic under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini. The kingdom uses Sharia law and does not have a written penal code or code of criminal procedure and judicial procedure. Some aspects of sharia law were also unofficially retained in criminal law, for example compensation was still unofficially given in a similar manner to blood money, in exchange for pardoning a murder death sentence in some cases. The Iranian authorities have sealed shut 147 shops and arrested three people in several provinces across the country for “not following Sharia law” during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Iran to gouge out man's eye under literal interpretation of Sharia law. […] This group, whose membership in 2014 was estimated to exceed 20,000, is officially known as the Legal Advisors of the Judiciary.” [7]. Protesters were met with mass arrests and live ammunition. The Supreme Audit Court of Iran regulates banking and financial operations and interest (riba) is forbidden. Article 6 - The laws relating to personal status, such as marriage, divorce, capacity and inheritance, shall he observed by … [3] There was also no appeal in traditional Islamic law. The legal code is now based on Islamic law or sharia, although many aspects of civil law have been retained, and it is integrated into a civil law legal system. "Iran’s rival Saudi Arabia also implements such medieval punishments." She encouraged other women to share the photographs of their secret movements of freedom. Such judicial orders are the major challenge before the Human Right activists and modernists in Iran and this surely is the same situation in other Islamic countries. By April 1927 Iran had 600 newly appointed judges in Tehran. Some examples include amputation of the hands as a punishment for theft, the punishment of death for denying the Quran, and laws surrounding the rape of women. The theocrats moved swiftly to overhaul the legal system to incorporate Islamic Sharia law. Protests sporadically broke out in small pockets of Iran in early 2017 as well, and security forces arbitrarily arrested 4,900 people during the protests, according to Human Rights Watch. A thief’s hand was cut off in Mazandaran province. Date 3 Dec 2019. Sharia law is a set of principles derived from the words of Prophet Muhammad (Hadith), his actions (Sunnah), and the Quran. Also, recent news on 4th Nov, in Radiofarda, Iran chief Justice dismisses Human Rights Criticism. They must be verified by the Guardian Council and signed by the President of Iran. Christians in Iran Sentenced to Death Under Sharia Law. The laws must be consistent with Sharia. The import, sale, manufacture and consumption of alcohol in Iran is strictly forbidden on religious grounds, with exceptions only for certain recognised Iranian religious minorities (not foreigners). There are 90 children on death row in Iran (Image: GETTY) Trending According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, the judiciary in Iran "is an independent power" with a Ministry of Justice, head of the Supreme Court, and also a separate appointed Head of the Judiciary. In 1936, however, the new system was made permanent and the religious courts were abolished. For example, the Qur'an goes as far as to oblige Muslims to fight on behalf of Jews, Christians and people of other faiths and to protect their churches, synagogues and temples from attack. Bodies of Islamic scholars ( fiqh ) thus extend the law via fatwas , in which the permissibility of a matter is formally determined by applying the spirit of existing law. The rise of globalization and the democratization of communications and social media platforms mean the Islamic Republic must take a firm stance against free speech and assembly. Before and After Sharia Law: A Cautionary Tale. “The supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has explicitly said in his fatwa that nuclear weapons are against sharia law and the Islamic Republic sees them as … It is composed of the teachings of the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, and the teaching of the prophet Muhammad, in the Sunnah. Between 1979 and 1982, the entire pre-Revolutionary judiciary was purged, and their duties replaced by "Revolutionary Tribunals" set up in every town. [1], According to one scholar, the administration of justice in Islamic Iran has been until recent times. The deteriorating economic situation in Iran and promotion of violence by the Iranian Islamist Regime, encouraging killing women and children, police beating up random people, executions in public, has created a very unhealthy society. Because Islamic Law “Sharia” is the same for all Muslims and Non-Muslims, so people of Islamic countries facing the same issues in their countries. The 28-year-old man, identified only as Saman, is due to be blinded after 'accidentally blinding another man with a metal rod' [5], Reza Shah represented his legal reforms as "tentative experiments" and allowed the religious judges to keep their courts for matters such as inheritance. But they are not silent, they still fighting with such inhuman Islamic laws via social media. Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and even the relatively progressive and Western-oriented Moroccan monarchy have police forces tasked with enforcing morality laws and dress codes. Those nations are: Afghanistan; Egypt; Indonesia; Iran; Iraq; Malaysia; Maldives; Mauritania; Nigeria; Pakistan As a result, the Human Rights Activists, Modern thinkers and intellectuals of Islamic countries are started residing in liberal countries due to life-threatening. The Revolutionary Courts became a part of this court system, ruling in matters of "national security" such as drug trafficking and political and "anti-revolutionary" crimes, and were considered the "judicial arm of the regime". It was reopened in 1991 under the control of the Head of the Judiciary and regained some of its independence in 1997 when President Khatami […] won the general election. Watch later. There were no appeals either, and trials often lasted minutes in an un-orthodox "court". In Iran, the executions are conducted as per Sharia Law. Frequently, Shiite Islamic preachers and leaders can be heard stating that Islam recognized “People of the Book,” which refers to Christians and Jews. Iran practices classical Sharia Law, and is also called the Islamic Republic of Iran. Judges cannot be dismissed without a trial. Several countries use Sharia law in full or in part. There are other offences considered punishable by death include same-sex relations and insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The Judiciary of Mazandaran province announced that one hand of a prisoner convicted of 28 counts of stealing was cut off on Thursday in the presence... 24 Oct 2019. Recently, according to newspaper Guardian, Iran lawmakers passed a bill that allows men to marry their adopted daughters, so long as the girls are at least 13 years old. “Iran’s rival Saudi Arabia also implements such medieval punishments.” Yes, because they both implement Sharia. In March 1926, Minister of Judicial Affairs Ali-Akbar Davar dissolved Iran's entire judiciary, with the approval of the parliament, and initiating a wave of fundamental restructuring and overhauling reforms with the aid of French judicial experts. Among the ways, law in Iran and the rest of the Muslim world differed from European law was in its lack of a single law code. Two people previously lashed 160 times for consuming alcohol, which is forbidden under Islamic Sharia law Iranian Kurdish men smuggle alcohol from Iraq to Iran, where liquor is banned. A "court' has ordered the amputation of the fingers of three teenagers found guilty of theft. [10] The Retribution Law (Qisas) of 1982 replaced sections of the Public Punishment Law (1924).[11]. https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-islamic-law-strict-severe-inhuman-punishment, https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-cuts-prisoners-fingers-off-theft, https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-hangs-man-on-anti-gay-charge-as-europe-turns-blind-eye-to-human-rights-abuses-and-tries-to-circumvent-us-sanctions, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-44040236, http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/sharia-law-countries/, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/iran-lawmakers-men-wed-adopted-daughters, https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-s-chief-justice-dismisses-human-rights-criticism-upholds-sharia/30252793.html, Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad During the 2009 Green Movement, Iranians took to the streets in response to the fraudulent reelection of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with some analysts projecting the possibility of the overthrow of the regime. The new regime entrusted their management "to a supervisory council of three clerics".[12]. Iran has an official religion, some recognized religious minorities, and acknowledges rights of non-Muslims. She lived in the US since 2009 but Her parents are forbidden from leaving the country and her father has stopped speaking to her. Sharia, or Islamic law, influences the legal code in most Muslim countries. Death threats are a daily occurrence for Masih. The Council of Guardians is vested with the authority to interpret the constitution and determines if the laws passed by Parliament are in line with sharia (Islamic law). Shariah law champions absolute freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. "Thirteen centuries of Islamic—more particularly Shiah—tradition" called for jurists to base decisions on their legal training as it applied to the situation being judged. This type of public moral authority is not restricted to Iran but is endemic across the Middle East North Africa region. Tap to unmute. Since then, the numbers of lawyers have grown steadily to an estimated 60,000, and perhaps most significantly a large number of women have passed the Bar and joined the legal profession”. On July 7, 1980, the Islamic government of Iran imposed the idea of Islamic supremacy on the people of Iran, with the enacting of Sharia Law on the country, effectively making the country an Islamic State governed by the precepts of their religion. The obvious difference lies in the fact that Iran is an ... with the authority to interpret the constitution and determines if the laws passed by Parliament are in line with sharia (Islamic law). Extracted confessions and public executions are sometimes broadcast on state television. Introduction. what Muslims believe is God's legislation) "in three significant ways": allowing the appeal of decisions, the use of circumstantial evidence in cases, and long-term imprisonment as a punishment. Concessions for foreign businesses are forbidden. Iran's prison system was "centralized and drastically expanded" by the Islamic Republic. Saeed Kamali Dehghan. According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, the judiciary in Iran "is an independent power" with a Ministry of Justice , head of the Supreme Court, and also a separate appointed Head of the Judiciary . The village mullah was the natural arbiter in matters of marriage, divorce, and inheritance; and the exalted jurisconsult, in order to carry out the very function for which he was exalted, gave opinions on those matters of law on which he was consulted. Many women, especially in countries where sharia is the law of the land, ... – The Violation of Natural Rights and Western Cover-Up, while the raping of a woman is a crime in all countries, sharia courts in Islamic states, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia allow a rapist to escape punishment by marrying his victim. She started social media movement #MyStealthyFreedom. [17], One of the three forces in Islamic republic of Iran, Abrahamian, Ervand, Tortured Confessions by Ervand Abrahamian, University of California Press, 1999, p.134-5, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, Judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Law Enforcement Forces of Islamic Republic of Iran, "The Life of the Law in the Islamic Republic of Iran", "English Translation of Books I & II of the New Islamic Penal Code", "Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran – Book Five", The Judiciary of The Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran's constitutional charter for the Judiciary, Iranian American Bar Association, Detention Laws in Iran, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_judicial_system_of_Iran&oldid=1007195924, Articles needing additional references from October 2008, All articles needing additional references, Pages using infobox court with unknown parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Supreme Leader selection with Judges approval, This page was last edited on 16 February 2021, at 22:56. In Iran, the executions are conducted as per Sharia Law. “Since the 1979 Revolution, the IBA has been struggling to maintain its independence from the judiciary. These shops were shut down in the south-western province of Dezful, the northern province of Gilan, and the western province of Lorestan, according to state-run media. Iran is a Muslim country in which Islamic law is strictly enforced. For the Shiah, ... resistance to a single written code was even stronger; the jurisconsult's right to describe the law in his own way was the very essence of the doctrine that had revived the jurisconsult school at the end of the 18th century."[3]. Iran extracts confessions from prisoners through various forms of torture and other dehumanizing treatment. Iran is a constitutional Islamic Republic, whose political system is laid out in the 1979 constitution called Qanun-e Asasi, Basic Law. In her book, The Wind In My Hair, Masih writes about growing up in a strict Muslim family in a small village in northern Iran. Iran is a country in the Middle East that is located northwest of the Arabian Peninsula and is the western neighbor to Iraq. In the end, there is hardly any chance of human rights development in the Islamic country in future. Islamic law, or Sharia, is a matter of reading - as even the experience of Iran's Islamic republic shows. a loosely sewn and frequently resewn patchwork of conflicting authority in which the different and sometimes conflicting sources for Islamic law—the jurists, the actual judges, and the non-Islamic law officials of the king - disputed with each other over the scope of their jurisdictions. Compared to other legal codes, the Sharia law also prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation and favors corporal and capital punishments over incarceration. [4], Under the secularist reign of Reza Shah many changes were made in Iran's judicial system, and the establishment of a fixed written law with appeals courts was one of them. In between the village mullah and the jurisconsult there were mullahs with courts which, while sometimes sanctioned by the royal government, depended for their power on the prestige of the presiding mullah judge as much or more than on the government's sanction[2]. Article 1 states Iran is a republic which is a non Islamic form of government. Since the sixteenth century AD Iran has been the only country in the world having Shi'ah Islam as its official religion, consequently the general principles of its legal system differed somewhat from those of other countries which followed Islamic law. [6], According to Banakar and Ziaee, the history of the Iranian Bar Association (Kānūn-e Vūkalā-yeh Dādgūstarī) “can be traced back to the period after the 1906 Constitutional Revolution, when a modern legal system was established in Iran. According to worldpopulationreview.com, the sharia law is still implemented in full and in part in countries which are Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Masih Alinejad. He is responsible for the "establishment of the organizational structure" of the judicial system; "drafting judiciary bills" for Parliament; hiring, firing, promoting and assigning judges. Sharia law, translated into “the path”, is the code of conduct for religious law in Islam. Criminal and civil codes were modified; family laws that cover marriage, divorce, child custody and many women’s rights faced the biggest changes. Yes, because they both implement Sharia. [14] The new Islamic Penal Code was adopted in January 2012 and incorporates the bulk of penal laws in the IRI, replacing Books One through Four of the old code. The principal sources of sharia law are the Quran and Sunnah (practices and traditions of the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh)). [8] While the revolution did not dismantle the Pahlavi judiciary in its entirety, it replaced secular-trained jurists "with seminary-educated ones, and codified more features of the sharia into state laws—especially the Law of Retribution. A brief account of the shifts of power in Iran during the 20 th century helps to explain the modern legal system, which is technically predicated on Islamic law, or Sharia, but does maintain some aspects of civil law that do not coincide perfectly with Sharia. Criminal and civil codes were modified; family laws that cover marriage, divorce, child custody and many women’s rights faced the biggest changes. The Europeans insisted on this legal veto right—" called the regime of capitulations"—on the grounds that Iran had no written legal code so that "no one knew what laws foreigners would be judged by." [16], Sharia in the IRI has been modified to some degree, according to one source, the new laws of the Islamic Republic "modify the sharia" (i.e. It is not a list of rules and regulations but instead principles that guide the various aspects of life. The legal code is now based on Islamic law or sharia, although many aspects of civil law have been retained, and it is integrated into a civil law legal system. Under the Shah prisons had been administered separately by SAVAK, the urban police, and the gendarmerie. "Most modern Islamic countries, however, have justice systems compatible with international human rights law." In 1982, the regular court system was reinstated, but with the judges now trained in Islamic law. There are many articles in its Constitution where this can be demonstrated. Shopping. The 1979 revolution erased six decades of modernization of Iran’s judicial system. One jurists's 'discovery' of the ruling of law for a specific case would not have been invalidated by some other jurist's discovery of a different ruling for that case; only God could choose between them, and until the Resurrection (or in the case of the Shiah, the return of the Twelfth Imam) God had left the matter to the jurists, and the first actual judgment was final, as otherwise there would have been an infinite regress of opinions without any final judgment. "[1] Women judges were also removed[9] (although they could still be lawyers, or after 1997, secondary judges in civil cases). As part of this conflict, a new body of lawyers was created by the Iranian government in 2001 and 'authorized to present cases in court' under Article 187 of the Law of Third Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan (adopted in May 2000). The IBA was founded in 1915 and organised under the supervision of the judicial system until 1953, when it was granted legal personality. Iran's makeup has several intricately connected governing bodies, some of which are democratically elected and some of which operate by … There are many protests called which opposes such inhuman laws in Iran. Iran. After the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty by the Islamic Revolution, the system was greatly altered. Iran has aspects of shariah but is not totally governed by it. In Iran, laws are created by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, also known as the Parliament of Iran (Majlis). Implementation of Sharia in Middle East countries. “The supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has explicitly said in his fatwa that nuclear weapons are against sharia law and the Islamic Republic sees them as … Copy link. Sharia is extremely specific in some places (such as instructions on washing one's anus). This came in the form of treaties between most European governments and Iran requiring the presence at the trial of any European in Iran of a representative of that European's home country, who would countersign the decision of the Iranian court, and without whose countersignature the "decision of the Iranian court could have no effect". The Islamic Republic uses the Shia based Jaafari school of Islamic jurisprudence. By Pooya Stone. According to an Amnesty International global report on death sentences and executions, Iran executed 256 people in 2018, which was actually a significant drop from the 507 people sentenced to death in 2017. The 1979 revolution erased six decades of modernization of Iran’s judicial system. Sharia law. They are encouraging young people to fight against Sharia in respective countries. According to Iran’s Sharia law, if a father kills his child, he will receive a maximum sentence between 3-10 years in prison. Iran has given the world another shocking addition to the long list of beheadings, floggings, and other forms of Islamic punishment. With 2003 reforms of its criminal law, Article 222 of its new criminal code is derived from Sharia; Articles 220–221, 268–272 of its criminal law similarly codify those activities as … It operated as an independent civil society organisation for the next twenty-seven years, until it was closed in 1980 by the revolutionary government and its ranks and files were purged. [3], Iranians in general opposed these capitulations, and secular Iranians such as Mohammed Mossadeq, wanted to establish a fixed written law they believed would not only end the capitulations but facilitate the building of a strong and unified state.