User:Fad Ariff/sandbox

Criticism of the Government of the Islamic Republic encompasses a wide range of subjects concerning the actions and policies of the Islamic Republic government.

Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been criticized for using systematic imprisonment, torture, and lethal force against civilians for exercising peaceful activities or basic human rights. Vakilabad Prison, Evin Prison, Gohardasht Prison, Qarchak Prison, and Prison 59 are some of the facilities where human right abuses are carried out. The government has used unmarked mass graves such as in Khavaran cemetery to bury those killed. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, United4Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, High Council for Human Rights, Iran Tribunal, and the Center for Human Rights in Iran monitor and investigate human right violations in Iran. Other campaigns such as One Million Signatures have also been established to tackle human rights violations in Iran.

Islamic Republic's stance on Universality of Human Rights
According to Reza Afshari, the Islamic Republic’s stance about the universality of human rights is founded in its assertion that religion is "the supreme cultural principle". Thus, government ideologues question the universality of human rights, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging functionaries to reject "the Western notion of human rights." According to Afshari, officials place emphasis on "human" rather than on rights, with the aim of obtaining a "true" human being ("mindful of God's presence and fearful of divine injunctions") before their rights can be considered. The aim is to create "the perfect human", something that stands in "sharp contrast with the goal of Western liberalism, which created normal humans."

1980s
After the 1979 Iranian revolution, there was a strong momentum for anti-theocracy and pro-democracy movements in Iran. In 1980-81, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and other leftist and moderate groups rallied in favor of President Abolhassan Banisadr to resist a total takeover by the Islamic Republic Party. The Islamic Republic answered by "unleashing an unprecedented reign of terror", shooting demonstrators, including children. In less than six months, 2,665 persons, 90 per cent of whom were MEK members, were executed.

In the spring of 1981, Ayatollah Khomeini conceived a road map to exterminate opponents of Islamic fundamentalism rule in Iran. The plan was to first eliminate groups such as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, among other groups.

On 20 June 1981 Iranian protests, there was an anti–Islamic Republic protest organized by the People's Mujahedin of Iran in various Iranian cities in response to the impeachment of the then president Abolhassan Banisadr. The government responded swiftly, at least 16 were killed and 1000 arrested near the University of Tehran.

In 1983, Mehdi Dibaj, an Iranian Christian pastor convert from Shia Islam, was imprisoned without trial, tortured, and later sentenced to death on charges of apostasy.

In 1988, Islamic Republic officials ordered the execution of thousands of political prisoners, many of which were serving jail time for peaceful activities. Farajollah Mizani was among those executed. During the Trial of Hamid Nouri in 2020, Nouri was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the killings.

Mothers of Khavaran is a group of mothers and families of people executed in Iran during the 1980s.

Other human rights activists imprisoned or persecuted for peaceful activities during this period include Shadi Amin, Reza Alijani, and Marina Nemat.

Simin Saberi was an Iranian sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court for her beliefs and faith as a Baháʼí. At the age of 24, she was hanged by the Islamic Republic of Iran along with 9 other Baháʼí women in the Chogan Square of Shiraz.

Mehdi Hajati is an Iranian Political activist who was arrested for speaking out against the arrests of two citizens of the Baháʼí Faith.

1990s
Other human rights activists imprisoned or persecuted for peaceful activities during this period include Shahrokh Zamani, Nasser Fahimi, Ahmad Batebi, Ali-Asghar Gharavi

Iran student protests, July 1999

Akbar Mohammadi (student) was an Iranian student involved in the Iran student riots, July 1999. On July 30, 2006, Akbar Mohammadi died in Evin prison. He had been on a hunger strike for more than a week, reportedly protesting the refusal by the authorities to allow him to seek medical treatment for injuries suffered as a result of torture. Mr. Mohammadi's attorney, Khalil Bahramian, said that according to fellow detainees of his client, he "had been savagely beaten by prison guards in the past few days and that he was carrying the signs of the beatings". Mohammadi's death caused an international outcry. On 3 August 2006, Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian government to allow an "independent investigation into the suspicious death in prison of student activist Akbar Mohammadi".

Saeed Zeinali was arrested shortly after the Iran student protests, July 1999. He was imprisoned in Evin prison at least until 2002. Three months after his arrest he was allowed to make a phone call to his family, but they have not heard about him since. Security forces and Evin prison officials refuse to publish any information about him.

2000s
Members ofMothers of Laleh Park, a group of Iranian women whose family members were killed by government agents in the protests following the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, have been for "founding an illegal organization." The staff and members of the Iranian human rights organization Defenders of Human Rights Center have been threatened and forced to resign.

Other human rights activists imprisoned or persecuted for peaceful activities during this period include Heshmat Tabarzadi, Shadi Sadr, Saleh Kamrani, Shiva Nazar Ahari, Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, Shirin Ebadi, Somayeh Tohidlou, Maryam Akbari Monfared, Amir-Abbas Fakhravar, Amir Khorram and Keyvan Rafiee.

2003 Iranian student protests2005 Ahvaz unrest2009 Iranian presidential election protests

Several thousand civilians and activists were arrested after the disputed presidential election in 2009, many of which kept at the Kahrizak Detention Center. The release of some prisoners from Kahrizak on July 28, 2009, was followed by a number of testimonials in the foreign and opposition press on conditions inside the prison. Various news articles have reported on cramped and squalid cells where prisoners were routinely verbally abused and beaten by guards, some to death. Ahmad-Reza Radan, according to one account, daily took part in these beatings. Mohsen Ruholamini and Amir Javadifar were two of the prisoners reported to have died from torture at Kahrizak. The autopsy report for Javadifar stated that his death was caused by blunt trauma injury from severe beating.

Abdollah Momeni, an Iranian student leader and activist, was imprisoned for 5 years years for his involvement in the July 1999 protests. According to witness statements, Momeni was subjected to abusive treatment in prison.

Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki is an Iranian blogger and political dissident who was imprisoned in 2009 for his role in the post-election protests that erupted in Iran. On 24 September 2022, he was arrested along with his lawyers by security agents in front of the Evin Prosecutor's Office and transferred to Evin prison where he was tortured and both of his legs broken.

Mostafa Karim Beigi was one of the victims of the Ashura protests, which occurred in Tehran, Iran on 27 December 2009 to protest the outcome of the 2009 Iranian presidential election, which the demonstrators believed to be rigged. A statement issued by the Tehran Metropolitan Police Headquarters on December 29, 2009 announced the death of an unidentified individual as a result of falling from the bridge on the day of Ashura. According to his mother, the forensic department declared the cause of his death as "a strike of a sharp and hard object to the rib cage, however he was shot in his forehead from the left, his head had no backside”.

Neda Agha-Soltan was a student protester shot and killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests.

Taraneh Mousavi was a young Iranian woman who reportedly died after being sexually abused while in custody during the protesting the 2009 election results.

Seyed Ali Mousavi was killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests when he was reportedly shot by security forces during demonstrations against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contested election win. He was the nephew of the 2009 Iranian presidential candidate and opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Mohsen Rouholamini was a graduate student who died in July 2009 at the Kahrizak detention center following his arrest in connection with protests of the 2009 presidential election in Iran

Dr. Ramin Pourandarjani was an Iranian physician who examined prisoners wounded and killed during the 2009 Iranian election protests. He died under mysterious circumstances on November 10, 2009.

Iranian authorities made different claims that Pourandarjani had been injured in a car accident, committed suicide, or died of a heart attack in his sleep at the health center at the police headquarters in Tehran where he worked, and prohibited Pourandarjani's family from performing an autopsy. Iran's judiciary is reluctant to investigate Pourandarjani's death.

Mohammad Amin Valian is an Iranian student who was sentenced to death for participating in a 28 December 2009 demonstration protesting the 2009 presidential election in Iran.

2010s
Human Rights activist Mansoureh Behkish was imprisoned for "assembling and conspiring with the intent to harm national security" and "propaganda against the system". Amirsalar Davoudi, an Iranian human rights lawyer, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and 111 lashes for his human rights work.

Other human rights activists imprisoned or persecuted for peaceful activities during this period include Nasrin Sotoudeh, Vahid Asghari, Majid Assadi, Abdolfattah Soltani, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, Atena Daemi, Farhad Meysami, Ghoncheh Ghavami, Maryam Shafipour, Raheleh Rahemipour, Alireza Farshi, Omid Kokabee, Narges Mohammadi, Reza Shahabi, Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, among others.

Iranian Green Movement

2011–2012 Iranian protestsMahabad riots2016 Cyrus the Great Revolt2017–2019 Iranian protests against compulsory hijab2017–2018 Iranian protests2018 protests in Iran2018–2019 Iranian general strikes and protests2019 protests in Iran2018 Iranian protest movement2019 Sistan and Baluchestan protests August 2018 uprising in Iran Tapandegan

2018 Iranian general strikes

2018 Dervish protests2018 Iranian university protests2018 Khuzestan protests2018 Iranian water protestsUkraine International Airlines Flight 752 protests

Pouya Bakhtiari was an Iranian protester who was shot and killed on 16 November 2019 in Karaj during the 2019 Iranian protests. His death and his parents' reaction garnered nationwide attention; the arrest of several of Bakhtiari's family, who had defied a request by authorities to keep the mourning ceremony low-key, drew international condemnation, including in a Tweet from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali was arrested after anti-government protests in 2018. He was subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of "blasphemy, insulting the former and current leader, and propaganda against the regime".

Sepideh Qolian is an Iranian Political activist who was arrested in 2018 while reporting on a labor protest. Upon release, Qolian confirmed that she had been subjected to torture by the security forces.

Mehdi Karroubi a leader of the Iranian Green Movement, was put under house arrest in February 2011 – reportedly ordered by the Supreme Leader of Iran – without officially being charged, although he is accused of being a "seditionist" and "traitor".

On 20 December 2018, Human Rights Watch urged the regime in Iran to investigate and find an explanation for the death of Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who had been jailed for insulting the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to his family, Nasiri had been on hunger strike, but he was denied medical attention before he died.

2020s
Death of Nika Shakarami, Death of Mahsa Amini

Detainees of the Mahsa Amini protests

Shervin Hajipour Arash Sadeghi

2019–2020 Iranian protestsMahshahr massacre2017–2021 Iranian protests2021–2022 Iranian protests

2021 Iran workers' strike2022 Iranian food protestsAshura protests

Iranian Complainant Mothers

Majid Tavakoli is an Iranian human rights activist who has been arrested several times by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.

Controversies surrounding Capital punishment
Iran is believed to execute the most people per capita.

In July 2005, the Iranian Student News Agency covered the execution of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni in Mashhad who, as initially reported by Iranian sources, were executed for committing homosexual acts; however, when disturbing photos of the hanging were widely distributed around the Internet, and drew international attention and condemnation, it resulted in subsequent allegations by the Iranian regime that they were executed for the rape of a 13-year-old boy. Later that year, another two young men, referred to in the media by their first names, Mokhtar and Ali, were hanged in the northern city of Gorgan for lavat (sodomy).

Hossein Khezri was an Iranian Kurdish activist who was sentenced to death by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court in 2009. The charge was "waging war against God" through membership in the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Mosleh Zamani was a 23-year-old Iranian Kurd who was executed on December 17, 2009 for having an "illicit relationship with his girlfriend" when he was 17 years old.

In 2010, Arash Rahmanipour and Mohammad-Reza Ali Zamani were hanged in Tehran for moharebeh, alleged terrorism, and being a member of the banned Kingdom Assembly of Iran. When they were executed, their execution was falsely reported as being connected to the 2009 election protests, possibly in order to intimidate the opposition, despite their arrest months before the election. Abdolreza Ghanbari's moharebeh death sentence for protesting in the 2009 Ashura protests was upheld in March 2012, meaning that his execution could be carried out at any time. In 2012, 5 Ahwazi Arabs were hanged in retaliation for the alleged death of a policeman during riots a year before. In 2011, when the riots originally took place, 9 men were hanged in retaliation for alleged "deaths and rapes" during the riots, three of them in public. One of them was 16 years old when hanged.

Arash Rahmanipour was one of two people hanged in early 2010 by the Iranian government after being convicted of waging war against God (Moharebeh) and attempting to overthrow the Islamic regime. The regime claimed that the two were members of a political group "the Kingdom Assembly of Iran" and that this association was the reason for execution. The Kingdom Assembly of Iran confirmed it had worked with Ali-Zamani, (but not Rahmanipour) and "dismissed the allegations" and insisted he had been forced to confess. The group said he had played no role in the post-election protests and had merely passed on news to its radio station.

Farzad Kamangar was a 32-year-old Iranian Kurdish teacher and human rights activist who was executed on 9 May 2010. Kamangar was prosecuted on charges of Mohareb "enmity towards God". An Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced Kamangar to death on February 25, 2008 on charges against national security including being a member of PJAK and accusations of active participation in several bombing attacks among which was the 2006 explosion in the Iran-Turkey gas export pipeline. According to his lawyer, Khalil Bahramian, "Nothing in Kamangar’s judicial files and records demonstrates any links to the charges brought against him."

In 2014, Reyhaneh Jabbari was hanged for killing a man she alleged was trying to sexually abuse her, despite an international campaign that sought to avoid her execution. Marjan Davari is an Iranian researcher sentenced to death for blasphemy and an additional 16 months' imprisonment for insulting the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Mohsen Amiraslani Zanjani was an Iranian psychoanalyst, who was executed for blasphemy and insulting to prophet Jonah.

Jafar Kazemi was a political prisoner in Iran who was sentenced to death for co-operation with the Iranian opposition group People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) and was hanged in Evin Prison on January 24, 2011, along with another political prisoner, Mohammad Ali Haj Aghaei. Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani was a political prisoner also member of the PMOI who was executed on 1 June 2014. His execution was highly controversial due to accusations that Khosravi did not receive due process or fair treatment during his trial or leading up to his death.

Hashem Shabani was an ethnic Ahwazi Arab citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In December 2011, in a programme on Iran's Press TV, which Shabani and two other Ahwazi Arabs confessed to being part of an armed Arab terrorist group. Human rights groups say these confessions were coerced under torture. In July 2012, Shabani and the four others arrested with him were sentenced to death on charges of Moharebeh ("waging war on God"), sowing corruption on earth, acting against national security, and spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic. The Iranian Supreme Court upheld the death sentences in January 2013, and on 27 January 2014, Shabani was executed along with fellow Ahwazi Arab Hadi Rashedi.

Shahram Amiri was an Iranian nuclear scientist who disappeared from Iran during 2009–2010 under disputed circumstances, and was executed by the Iranian government in August 2016.

Ramin Hossein-Panahi was an Iranian Kurdish man who was sentenced to death by the Iranian government for taking up arms against Iranian security forces in what Amnesty International alleged a "grossly unfair trial" marred by "serious torture allegations". He was executed on September 8, 2018.

Sarou Ghahremani was an Iranian Kurdish citizen who disappeared after taking part in a protest rally against the Iranian government in Sanandaj. According to his family, on Friday, January 12, 2018, his death was reported to them after 11 days of his arrest by the Sanandaj Information Office. On January 13, his body was buried only in the presence of his parents.

On 12 September 2020, Navid Afkari was executed after having been accused and convicted of murdering a security guard during the 2018 Iranian protests; The U.S. State Department believed he had been tortured into giving a false confession. Afkari had filed a complaint with the Iranian judiciary, and stated in an audiotape recording that was smuggled from prison, that his initial confession had been obtained under torture; the Iranian judiciary denied the torture claims, and Iranian state media broadcast a recording of the confession. Afkari's brothers Vahid and Habib were sentenced to 54 and 27 years, respectively, in prison in the same case.

On 12 December 2020, the journalist Ruhollah Zam was executed for "spreading corruption on Earth."

StopExecutionsinIran is a hashtag originated on July 14, 2020, in response to the news of the order of executions for three young men by the names of Amir Hossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi, and Saeed Tamjidi; who were among the protesters in the 2019–2020 Iranian protests.

On 5 September 2022, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported that two female LGBT rights activists Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani and Elham Choubdar had been sentenced to death on charges of "corruption on earth" and human tracking. The European Union condemned the death sentences.

Executions of minors
The execution of minors in Iran has been a major issue for human rights groups and the Western media.

Iran detains the worldly record for the country executing the biggest number of juvenile offenders. The percentage of executions of minors substantially increased and later dropped in 2015. However, at the beginning of 2016, 160 offenders were on death row in Iran for crimes that they had committed before they had turned 18.

In 2006, a teenage girl of the age of 16, Atefah Sahaaleh, was sentenced to death, and executed two weeks later by hanging in a public square for the charges of adultery and "crimes against chastity". Numerous Iranian journalists and lawyers had "strong evidence that the judiciary had broken Iran's own law in executing Atefah", but this was difficult to show because of Iran's press censorship.

Death row prisoners sentenced while underage include at least one at 13-year-old (executed at 21) and a 14-year-old (executed at 18).

Despite signing the convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran, according to human rights groups, is the world's largest executioner of juvenile offenders. This has been ascribed to the difference in definition of a "minor" between non-Muslim and (some) Muslim countries. Article 49 of the Islamic Penal Code in Iran defines a child as "someone who has not reached the age of puberty (bulugh) as stipulated by Islamic law and as specified in the 1991 Civil Code as 15 lunar years for boys and nine lunar years for girls. Since 1995, Iran's Supreme Court has commuted non-murder death sentences to 2–8 years in prison.

In February 2012, Iran adopted a new penal code, which officially banned the death penalty for minors under the age of 18 in favor of "social penalties" and "educational programs". Minors who commit murder when aged 15–18 can still receive the death penalty in rare cases if the judge is confident that the perpetrator had reached full adult mental development at the time of the crime and that it was committed intentionally with a well thought-out plan. For minors by default and for young adults (older than 18) with low mental development, execution is not used and the perpetrator is prosecuted in a juvenile court. Iran uses the lunar Islamic calendar to determine the age of criminal responsibility, which is shorter than the standard solar calendar, so as a result some people sentenced to death at the age of 18 would be 17 years old in solar calendar years.

Iran has garnered Western media attention and criticism for carrying out executions of minors, despite having signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids executing child offenders for crimes committed under the age of 18. Iran justifies its actions by claiming dispensation in cases where the convention is deemed "incompatible with Islamic jurisprudence". Iran has also been criticized for using stoning as capital punishment, though in 2005, an Iranian judiciary spokesman strongly denied the accusations of stoning and executing minors, describing them as "propaganda against the Iranian state".

At Berlin International Film Festival, on 29 February 2020 Iranian film about executions (There Is No Evil) won top prize.

Women’s rights
Mahsa Amini|Mahnaz Mohammadi Homa Darabi

Yasaman Aryani was charged with "disrupting public order" for not wearing a head scarf.

Soheila Hejab has been imprisoned for her political and women's rights activism.

Shaparak Shajarizadeh

Feminism and women's rights in Iran
Islamic feminists view the discrimination against women as an erroneous interpretation of Islamic texts rather than Islam's spiritual message itself. Islamic feminists content that the concept of intihad (reinterpretation of Islamic texts and applying human reason to the Shari'a legal code) would help ascertain if certain rulings are applicable to current societies. Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi argues that ijtihad gives authoritarian powers a means to repress in the name of Islam. Ebadi says that "Invoking Islam in a theocracy refracts the religion through a kaleidoscope, with interpretations perpetually shifting and mingling and the vantage of the most powerful prevailing."

According to secular feminists, the problem that women face in Iran derives from merging religion and politics.

Transgender and LGBT
The Islamic Republic still considers transgender identity to be a mental disorder and has no laws protecting trans people against stigmatization or hate crimes. Transgender individuals also face extreme social pressures to hide the fact that they are transgender, often being forced to move to a new city, cut ties with any previous relationships, and conform to the strict sex segregation in Iran. Harassment against transgender individuals is common within Iran, and trans people face increased risk of physical and sexual assault, exclusion from education and jobs, poverty, and homelessness. The Iranian government also monitors online transgender communities, often subjecting them to censorship, and police routinely arrest trans people.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has reported that "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children are subjected to electric shocks and the administration of hormones and strong psychoactive medications".

A high number of transgender individuals from Iran have fled the country and attempted to seek asylum elsewhere. Some refugees have reported facing discrimination and being shunned by Iranian expat communities in the countries that they end up gaining asylum in. Refugees can also face issues regarding legal gender recognition and healthcare in their countries of asylum.

In June 2019, in a press conference held in Tehran between Mohammad Javad Zarif Minister of Foreign Affairs and Heiko Maas Minister of Foreign Affairs, openly gay German journalist Paul Ronzheimer of the tabloid Bild asked Zarif "Why are homosexuals executed in Iran because of their sexual orientation?", to which Zarif seem to affirm that execution of gay people takes place by saying that his "society has principles. And we live according to these principles. These are moral principles concerning the behavior of the people in general, and that means that the law is respected and the law is obeyed."

In 2020, protests were held in Iceland over the potential deportation of a trans teenager from Iran who was seeking asylum. The teen had originally intended to seek asylum in Portugal, but had been forced to leave the country and flee to Iceland after the Iranian Revolutionary Guard attempted to arrest him and forcibly return him to Iran.

Political prisoners
The Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI), an Iranian pro-democracy political organization, has had numerous of its members arrested, including Hashem Sabbaghian and Ebrahim Yazdi. Other imprisoned or persecuted democracy activists include Heshmat Tabarzadi, Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, Haleh Sahabi, Arzhang Davoodi, Hossein Rafiee, Mohsen Sazegara, Sohrab Aarabi, Kourosh Zaim, and Shahram Homayoun. Other imprisoned political activists include Emad Bahavar, Mahmudali Chehregani, Piruz Dilanchi, Kamran Samimi, Esmail Bakhshi, Saeed Shirzad, Ali Shariati (political activist), Mohsen Safaei Farahani

Mohsen Aminzadeh is an Iranian reformist politician, former diplomat, and a founding member of the largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. Like many other senior reformist politicians, Aminzadeh was arrested in June 2009 for protesting the disputed re-election of president Ahmadinejad and convicted in 2010 of conspiring to "disturb security" and "spreading propaganda" against the Islamic Republic. Ali Nejati is an Iranian labor activist who was charged with "disrupting public order", "collusion and assembly against national security" and "cooperation in establishing a group intended to disrupt peace and security". Similar imprisonments involve Mansour Osanlou, and Hootan Dolati.

Zeynab Jalalian is a Kurdish Iranian who has been convicted a mohareb and sentenced to death by an Islamic Revolutionary Court for allegedly being a member of the Kurdish group PJAK, which she denies. Jalalian's sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.

Opposition political parties to the Islamic Republic such as Tudeh Party of Iran and People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MeK) have also been supressed by the government. Ali Saremi was a political prisoner in Iran who was sentenced to death for co-operation with the PMOI and was hanged in Evin Prison on December 28, 2010. Saremi's torture and execution was covered in the press and brought international attention to the Human rights situation in Iran. Mohammad Nazari was arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence and was sentenced to death for his alleged membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI). His sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment during the 1999 Eid-e-Qorban pardons by the Supreme Leader of Iran.

Abdolreza Rajabi was a Kurdish Iranian who died under suspicious circumstances in Reja'i Shahr Prison where he was being held as a political prisoner.

The Tree That Remembers is an animated documentary that explores the lives of former political prisoners who faced imprisonment and torture under the Islamic regime.

Sexual violence of political prisoners
Sexual violence against political prisoners is prevalent in Iran. It is allegedly ignored or even facilitated by authorities.

Reports issued to the United Nations allege that rape has been used by interrogators in Iran for decades. During the 1980s, following the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the rape of female political prisoners was so prevalent that it prompted Hussein-Ali Montazeri, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini's then-deputy, to write the following to Khomeini in a letter dated 7 October 1986: "Did you know that young women are raped in some of the prisons of the Islamic Republic?" Two prominent members of Iran's human rights community, the feminist lawyer and journalist Shadi Sadr and the blogger and activist Mojtaba Saminejad published essays online from inside Iran saying prison rape has a long history in the Islamic Republic.

In the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, opposition groups reported thousands were arrested and tortured in prisons around the country, with former inmates alleging mass rape of men, women and children by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, in prisons such as Kahrizak and Evin.

Following the 2009 presidential election, Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi said several protesters held behind bars in Evin Prison had been savagely raped, according to a confidential letter to former president and cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Karroubi said this was a "fragment" of the evidence he had and that if the denials did not stop, he would release even more.

Religious persecution
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran mandates that the official religion of Iran is Shia Islam and the Twelver Ja'fari school, while stipulating that Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are the only recognized religious minorities. The continuous presence of the country's pre-Islamic, non-Muslim communities, such as Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians, had accustomed the population to the participation of non-Muslims in society.

However, despite official recognition of such minorities by the IRI government, the actions of the government create a "threatening atmosphere for some religious minorities". Groups reportedly "targeted and prosecuted" by the IRI include Baháʼís, Sufis, Muslim-born converts to another religion (usually Christianity),  and Muslims who "challenge the prevailing interpretation of Islam". In 2020, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (ICRC) annual statement described the Islamic Republic as a country of particular concern under international law on religious freedom, and US Secretary of State included the Islamic Republic among the most egregious violators of religious freedom.

The Islamic Republic has often stated that arrested Baha'is are being detained for "security issues" and are members of "an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular," but according to Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, "the best proof" that Baháʼís are being persecuted for their faith, not for anti-Iranian activity "is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam ..."

Dhabihu'llah Mahrami was an Iranian Baháʼí who was charged with apostasy from Islam and jailed in Iran. After 10 years in prison he was found dead in his cell. Then They Came for Me is a memoir by Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari chronicling Bahari's family history, and his arrest and 118-day imprisonment following the controversial 2009 Iran presidential election.

Saeed Abedini is an Iranian American Christian pastor who was imprisoned in Iran in 2012 based on allegations that he compromised national security. During his imprisonment, Abedini became internationally known as a victim of religious persecution. Following international pressure, Abedini was released from prison on 16 January 2016 along with other American prisoners.

Youcef Nadarkhani is an Iranian Christian pastor who was sentenced to death (but later acquitted) in Tehran as being a Christian having been born into Islam. Initial reports, including a 2010 brief from the Iranian Supreme court, stated that the sentence on Nadarkhani was based on the crime of apostasy, renouncing his Islamic faith. Government officials later claimed that the sentence was instead based on alleged violent crimes, specifically rape and extortion; however, no formal charges or evidence of violent crimes have been presented in court. According to Amnesty International and Nadarkhani's legal team, the Iranian government had offered leniency if he were to recant his Christianity. His lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah stated that an appeals court upheld his sentence after he refused to renounce his Christian faith and convert to Islam Nadarkhani was again arrested and beaten on 22 July 2018 and is currently in prison in Iran.

Other notable cases of Iranians charged with apostacy include Hamid Pourmand and Abdollah Noori, an Iranian cleric and reformist politician who, despite his "long history of service to the Islamic Republic," was sentenced to five years in prison for political and religious dissent.

Iranian Taboo (Persian: تابوی ایرانی) is a 2011 documentary film by Iranian filmmaker Reza Allamehzadeh about the persecution of Baháʼís in Iran. To Light a Candle (film) also highlights the persecution of Baháʼís in Iran.

Persecution against journalists and bloggers
Notable cases: Masih Alinejad Mohsen Sazegara Yousef Azizi (Bani-Torof) Maziar Bahari

Iranian journalist Mohammad Davari was imprisoned for reporting abuses at Kahrizak detention center. Other Iranian journalists and that have been imprisoned or persecuted include Kouhyar Goudarzi, Isa Saharkhiz, Akbar Ganji, Marcus Hellwig, Soheil Arabi, Kasra Nouri, Hossein Derakhshan

Siamak Ghaderi, formerly an editor with the state news agency IRNA rebutted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim that there were no homosexuals in Iran, publishing interviews with gay Iranians. In 2011 he was sentenced to four years in prison and 60 lashes on the charge of "propagation against the regime," "spreading falsehoods," "creating public anxiety".

Persecution against academics and students
Another major event involved the Chain murders of Iran, which were murders and disappearances of Iranian dissident intellectuals that had criticized the Islamic Republic.

Parvaneh Forouhar, Hashem Aghajari, Pirouz Davani

Ahmad Reza Djalali, Mohammad Ali Taheri

Death of Farshid Hakki, Mehdi Khazali, Mitra Haji Najafi

Behrouz Javid-Tehrani is an Iranian student imprisoned after the Iran student protests of July 1999 and later for belonging to the People's Mujahedin of Iran

The Kamiar and Arash Alaei incident incident involves Dr. Kamiar Alaei and his brother Dr. Arash Alaei, two Iranian HIV/AIDS doctors who were detained in Tehran's Evin prison from June 2008 through Dec 2010 and August 2011, respectively. Prior to their arrest, they developed harm-reduction programs in Iran and developed the program Global Health in the Middle East and Central Asia, an HIV/AIDS training program for regional health experts. The doctors were tried in a one-day, secret trial on December 31, 2008 for alleged conspiracy to overthrow the Iranian government and with a number of charges including: “communications with an enemy government” and seeking to overthrow the Iranian government under article 508 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code.

In the midst of 2017–2018 Iranian protests, 15 Iranian intellectuals published an open letter called for a referendum. The open letter is known as the Statement of 14 Political Activists (Persian: بیانیه چهارده فعال سیاسی), and called for the resignation of Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader of Iran. Weeks after the letter was released, 14 female activists inside Iran issued a similar statement on August 5, 2019. As of September 2019, 16 of 28 signatories, who reside in Iran, have been arrested.

Persecution against artists
Atena Farghadani, Keywan Karimi

Arrests of dual-nationals
Ana Diamond Zahra Bahrami

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Notable cases: Jason Rezaian Zahra Kazemi (Forbidden Iran)

Since 2007, a number of U.S.-Iranian dual nationals or Americans of Iranian ancestry have faced arrest, imprisonment or criminal charges when visiting Iran, such as Omid Kokabee (other examples being Radio Farda correspondent Parnaz Azima, Roxana Saberi, Ali Shakeri, Esha Momeni, Haleh Esfandiari, and Kian Tajbakhsh.