Penal System or System of Belief? / Sina Yousefi

Repentance (tawba) has long been regarded in Islamic jurisprudence as a moral and devotional concept, and over time, it has also gained a significant role in criminal proceedings. Islamic jurisprudence, by linking the realm of religious ethics with the domain of punishment, has created an institution in which inner transformation can lead to the annulment […]...

Read More

A Look at the Role of Qisas in Murder Cases and the Distinction Between Justice and Revenge/ Sina Yousefi

In the legal system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, qisas (retaliatory justice) is not only prominently featured in Book Three of the Islamic Penal Code (2013), but its procedural structure and associated privileges are also legally codified. These include defining the scope of cases eligible for qisas, conditions for the equivalence of the weapon […]...

Read More

Law or Verdict? A Criminal Law Critique of Public Executions/ Mohammad-Hadi Jafarpoor

According to the rule of law, the necessity of implementing and enforcing laws is essential to the life of a social system. Even thieves and murderers believe in the necessity of enforcing the law and respecting legal rulings, and it is precisely because of this awareness that they feel fear and anxiety when committing a […]...

Read More

Tales from within the dark borders; a conversation with three prisoners sentenced to death / Amir Aghaei

When we talk about execution, we are not just talking about the “end of a life”, but about chains of poverty, injustice, and forgetfulness; we are talking about a path that slowly drags a “human” to a point of no return. In the depths of society, where the voices of the weakest are heard less, […]...

Read More

Execution: Administering justice or reproducing violence? A conversation with Shahab Tajri / Azar Taherabadi

Execution has always been one of the most controversial and challenging topics in criminal justice systems around the world. In Iran, this punishment, especially in recent decades, has not only been a legal and religious issue, but also a political, social, and ethical one. In this regard, questions have been raised that go beyond the […]...

Read More

Islamic Republic, record holder of capital punishment in the world / Morteza Hamounian

In the month of Khordad 1391 (June 2012), the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran said in a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the establishment of the ruling system in Iran: “We have set a record.” The reality is that he was right; even before that time, the Islamic Republic was one of the […]...

Read More

Execution as a policy/ Ahmad Alavi

Based on the recent report by Amnesty International (published on April 8, 2025), (1) the Islamic Republic, with a minimum of 972 executions, accounts for more than 64% of all recorded executions in the world. This figure puts the regime ruling over Iran in the first place among the countries carrying out executions in the […]...

Read More

Historical Evolution and Contemporary Challenges of Qisas in Law/ Mostafa Ahmadian

The essence of qisas (retributive justice) has long been based on a natural law: “You kill, you are killed; an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” This well-known principle existed long before the emergence of Abrahamic religions. Historical stone carvings—including the Code of Hammurabi, which dates back to 1800 BCE and […]...

Read More

Is an unjust law still a law?/ Mohammad Hadi Jafarpour

One of the most important issues that is currently being discussed in society is determining the boundary of “civil disobedience” with law-breaking, legalism, and the religious term “oppression”. The attention to this issue has led to the question of the relationship between ethics and law, justice and ethics, or in a religious perspective, the interaction […]...

Read More

قتHuman rights or domestic laws; which one has priority?/ Ehsan Haqiqat

Although the principles and rules of human rights were established in the mid-twentieth century and were codified after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, at the United Nations General Assembly, and further developed with the creation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant […]...

Read More

Social justice is being held captive by plunder, oppression, and inequality; in conversation with Saeed Ma’eedfar / Conversation with Siamak Malamhmoudi.

Dr. Saeed Ma’eedfar, a sociologist and former professor at the University of Tehran, who was also the president of the Iranian Sociological Association from 2004 to 2008, is now working as a social advisor to the Minister of Roads and Urban Development. Dr. Ma’eedfar has numerous publications and articles in Persian and English in the […]...

Read More

Double oppression on women from religious minorities; in conversation with Reza Kazemzadeh, psychologist/Conversation with Mari Mohammadi

In the government of the Islamic Republic, we witness that dealing with unofficial religious minorities (such as Persian Christians, Baha’is, Yarsanis, etc.) is carried out in two ways: direct and security measures, as well as indirect measures and serious social deprivation, with the aim of eliminating them. However, being in groups that are systematically discriminated […]...

Read More