Iran
2026
- GOVERNMENT
- theocratic republic
- CONSTITUTION
- December 1979, revised in 1989 to extend presidential power
- LEGAL SYSTEM
- based on Sharia law
- LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM
- unicameral, Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami)
- JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- Supreme Court
RELIGIONS
Shia majority; 10% Sunni; Christian, Jewish, Bahá'í, and Zoroastrian minorities
From the country
- JANUARY 6, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The wife of death-row Iranian academic Hashem Aghajari,...
The wife of death-row Iranian academic Hashem Aghajari, as well as several jailed liberal opposition members and journalists signed up to stand in Iran's forthcoming municipal elections, officials said
- JANUARY 5, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
A convicted murderer was given a last minute reprieve...
A convicted murderer was given a last minute reprieve by the family of the victim in Saveh, south of Tehran
- JANUARY 4, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
A moratorium on executions by stoning is only temporary,...
A moratorium on executions by stoning is only temporary, a senior Iranian conservative cleric said, while admitting the practice had hurt Tehran's image abroad
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian law imposes the death penalty for possession...
Iranian law imposes the death penalty for possession of more than 30 grams of heroin or five kilos (11 pounds) of opium
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The Kayhan evening newspaper reported that five Iranian...
The Kayhan evening newspaper reported that five Iranian men were hanged, three of them publicly, for a range of offences including murder, rape and armed robbery
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iranian laws dictate that a woman's "blood money" is...
Iranian laws dictate that a woman's "blood money" is half that of a man
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
State-run newspapers, Afarinesh and Sedaye Edalat,...
State-run newspapers, Afarinesh and Sedaye Edalat, reported that courts in Tehran sentenced to death two prisoners
- JANUARY 1, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The state-owned newspaper, Kayhan, reported that five...
The state-owned newspaper, Kayhan, reported that five prisoners had been hanged in two cities in Iran
- DECEMBER 31, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
The Entekhab newspaper reported that there had been...
The Entekhab newspaper reported that there had been rioting in a prison in Ahvaz, where about 300 prisoners prevented an inmate convicted of murdering a policeman from being taken to the gallows for execution
- DECEMBER 29, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranian women, Zahra Baghshirin and Farahnaz Yuly...
Two Iranian women, Zahra Baghshirin and Farahnaz Yuly were executed by hanging in a prison in Gachsaran in southwestern Iran for taking part in the murder of a friend's husband
- DECEMBER 19, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Stoning is to be abolished in Iran as a form of capital...
Stoning is to be abolished in Iran as a form of capital punishment, according to official assurances given to a European Union human rights delegation to Tehran
- DECEMBER 18, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
The European Union handed to Iran a list of individual...
The European Union handed to Iran a list of individual human rights cases during two days of talks on the thorny issue in Tehran, a statement from the 15-member bloc said