Iran Civil Society Flashcards
What is the central component of Iranian civil society?
Shi’ism
What rights are enshrined in the Iranian Constitution?
Free expression, worship, and organization. Freedom from arbitrary arrest, torture, and police surveillance.
What percentage of the population are Christian Armenians, Christian Assyrians, Jews, and Zoroastrians?
1%
What are the minority religions guaranteed?
5 Majles seats, community organizations, their own schools, places of worship, and family laws.
What two significant religions have ambiguous status?
Sunnis and Baha’is.
How are Sunnis treated?
In theory, as full citizens but their actual status is not spelled-out. Not a single Sunni mosque in all of Tehran. Few institutions cater to Sunni needs. Blocked from high official office. Revolution was resisted most heavily by Sunni Kurds, Arabs, Balachis, and Turkmans which was suppressed by the Revolutionary Guard.
What are Baha’is?
Followers of a 19th Century preacher in Iran who emphasized spiritual unity of all humankind.
How are Baha’is treated?
As heretics because founder proclaimed his own teachings to be superior to both the Old and New Testaments as well as the Qur’an and Shi’i Imams. Also, their main shrine is in modern day Israel even though it predates the creation of the Israeli state.
What percentage of the population understands Persian?
83%
What percentage of the population speaks a language other than Persian at home?
50%
What does the Iranian Constitution say about non-Persian languages?
Local and native languages can be used in the press, media, and schools.
What sovereignty is granted to local populations?
They can elect their own provincial, town, and village councils which can watch over governors general as well as their educational, cultural, and social programs.
In practice how have these rights to non Muslims and non Persian speakers been addressed?
Elections for local councils were not held until 20 years after the revolution. Subsidies to non-Persian media are meager. Jews have been so badly harassed that half the pre-revolution population has left. One third of Christian Armenians have also left, partly as a result of having to adopt government school curriculum and Muslim dress codes.
What was the significance of the creation of Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed?
Borders Iran in the northeast. Some Azeris on both sides of the border have talked of establishing a larger unified Azerbaijan. Iran backed Armenia in the their brief war against Azerbaijan.
How was the Iranian constitution applied in the first two decades after the revolution?
The government violated its own constitution. It closed newspapers, labor unions, and political parties. It banned public demonstrations. It imprisoned tens of thousands without due process and executed an estimated 25,000 political prisoners.
