Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

The violent repression of peaceful protests and discrimination against women and girls by Tehran led to serious rights violations, many amounting to crimes against humanity, a U.N. experts probe said on March 8.

The trial of a former Iranian official accused of crimes against humanity, arrested in Sweden, has moved to Albania, where several members of an Iranian exiled opposition group People's Muhajedin of Iran, MEK, based in Albania since 2013, will testify.

Iran’s Supreme Leader on Jan. 2 accused “enemies” of the Islamic Republic of stirring unrest across the country as a crackdown intensified against anti-government demonstrations that began last week.

Capital punishment has been decreasing in Iran in recent years. The Iranian parliament is working on an amendment to the death sentence on drug traffickers, which will decrease 70 percent of executions for drug offenses, the Iranian High Council for Human Rights Deputy Chairman Kazem Gharib Abadi said.

Iranian authorities have arrested seven people suspected of helping militants involved in twin attacks in the capital Tehran, a judiciary official said on June 9. 

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings and gun attacks on parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that killed 17 people on June 7. 

Iran's president criticized the use of thousands of undercover morality police in Tehran to report on young women who are not wearing a full Islamic hijab or those who play loud music in their cars.