Abstract
Sociology of penal practice has not systematically investigated religion as a powerful cultural element in shaping the criminal justice system in the modern world. Therefore, this study sought to analyze the potential influence of religion on developing penal policies in Iran. The Islamic Revolution of Iran which occurred in 1978-79 led to a great penal revolution based on the Sharia criminal law. This study, therefore, explores such a great penal revolution through the Durkheimian analysis of religion using qualitative analysis of legal documents, reports, and past journals, seeking to discover the religious nature of punishments as rooted in Iranian society itself. Moreover, applying Durkheim’s sociological approach to religion, the study attempts to unearth the reason behind the harsh policies adopted in this regard despite their failure in achieving their philosophical and criminological objectives.
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Change history
28 June 2023
In this article the e-mail address of the second author Seyyed Mohammad Javad Sadati was incorrectly given as ‘m.j.sadati@um.ac.ir’ but should have been ‘mj.sadati@um.ac.ir’.
Notes
However, he (1995) is not satisfied and believed the old gods are growing old or are dying, and others have not been born (p. 429).
For instance, the theatrical spectacle of punishment and reproduction of crime’s scene through executions are processes of reviving and annulling the crime before the eyes of all: attaching a placard to the back of the accused as a sign of their crime, the declaration of his sentence at the foot of the scaffold, performance of the execution and the exhibition of the ‘corpse of the condemned man at the scene of his crime’ (Foucault, 1995, p. 44), The ritual surrounding public executions is not merely the action of justice, but is a theatrical ceremony, revealing the relationship between the forces of power and law.
Ibid., Article 212. It should be noted that such articles resulted from the Constitutional Revolution of 1905 in which religious leaders (as the symbols of Islamic culture in Iran) played a crucial role. However, the historic competition between West−minded intellectuals and clergymen during and after the Constitutional Revolution gradually led to the victory of intellectuals, as the religious leaders were reluctant to take part in political affairs. Accordingly, there was no inclination among the westerners to implement Islamic penal codes.
In addition to the Revolutionary and Special Clerical Courts, there is another special court in Iran named the Military Court, which is not influenced by religion. In fact, according to the Article 172 of the Constitution Law enacted in 1990, the military court was ‘established by law to investigate crimes committed in connection with military or security duties by members of the Army, the police forces, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and other military and quasi−military groups.’ These special crimes are considered extremely treacherous and treated harshly, whose offenders are prosecuted secretly and punished more harshly than other criminals in similar circumstances.
A mujtahid or faqih is an Islamic scholar (traditionally a clergyman) who has the knowledge of Islamic rules (Sharia) and the authority to interpretation them in various circumstances.
Although sentences should have been issued by the majority vote of three judges, but the jurist members of the board had the veto right as representative of Sharia (Ibid Article 11).
In the Shiite branch of Islam, the term fiqh is the counterpart of Sharia in the Sunni world.
The Special Clerical Court (Dadgah−e vizhe−ye Ruhaniyat) was established based on a letter written by the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini dated on June 15, 1987 (Khordad 25, 1366, Iranian Solar Calendar) by which he appointed Ali Razini as the Sharia ruler (ḥākem−e sharʿ) and Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian as the Prosecutor for the Special Clerical Court. The jurisprudence and functions of the new court were described by Hojjatoleslam Fallahian in a press conference published in several newspapers on 7 July 1987, announcing that the court would ‘investigate crimes such as acts of seditions against the Islamic Revolution, corruption, fornication, unlawful acts, accusations on behaviours incompatible with the status of a clergy, and all crimes committed by a ‘pseudo−clergy’, both in terms of the wrongful acts they commit and the adverse effect they exert on clerical reputation. The courts were to be set up in Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz and Shiraz, and later in other cities as necessary.
Articles 12−17 of the Islamic Penal Code, derived from the fiqh books, especially Tahrir al−Wasilah written by Ayatollah Khomeini (1970).
A sexual procurer as a job.
Following the development of revolution in 1979 and few months before success of the revolution, Shah followed the U.S president, Jimmy Carter, in providing an open political atmosphere, but it was too late to do so. It was considered a sign of his defeat and – along with freeing political prisoners who were deemed as leaders of revolution – stirred revolutionary sentiments and sped up the victory of the revolution.
Those who do not believe this theory are considered dissidents, deprived of some rights and sometimes prosecuted. For instance, a famous Iranian philosopher, Abdul Karim Soroush, who is now working for some western universities in America, Britain, and Germany, was not allowed to teach in Tehran University because he was thought to have propagated the idea of separation of mosque from politics. He is sometimes called the Iranian or Muslim Martin Luther.
Muḥāreba is a type of Hadd.
Ibid. Jihad means sacred war. The term sacred in “Sacred Jihad” is used for more emphasis.
Article 101 provided that the date for performing the hadd shall be announced by the judge, and the number of faithful people who witness its execution must not be less than three.
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Bojnordi, A.J.J., Sadati, S.J. & Alashti, Z.F. Religion and punishment in the post-revolutionary Iran from the durkheimian perspective. Crime Law Soc Change 80, 525–545 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-023-10101-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-023-10101-1