Human rights in the Imperial State of Iran

This article is about human rights in Iran specifically prior to 1979. For human rights specifically after the 1979 revolution, see Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. For a longer-perspective overview, see Human rights in Iran.

The Imperial State of Iran, the government of Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty, lasted from 1925 to 1979. During that time two monarchs — Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi — employed secret police to stifle political dissent. The Pahlavi dynasty has sometimes been described as a "royal dictatorship",[1] or "one-man rule".[2] According to one history of the use of torture by the state in Iran, abuse of prisoners varied at times during the Pahlavi reign.[3]

While the shah's violation of the constitution, "trampling on the fundamental laws" and rights of Iranians, was one of the complaints of revolutionaries,[4][5] some have suggested the Shah's human rights record fares better than that of the revolutionaries who overthrew him. According to political historian Ervand Abrahamian,

"Whereas less than 100 political prisoners had been executed between 1971 and 1979, more than 7900 were executed between 1981 and 1985. ... the prison system was centralized and drastically expanded ... Prison life was drastically worse under the Islamic Republic than under the Pahlavis. One who survived both writes that four months under warden Asadollah Lajevardi took the toll of four years under SAVAK.[6] In the prison literature of the Pahlavi era, the recurring words had been "boredom" and "monotony." In that of the Islamic Republic, they were "fear," "death," "terror," "horror," and most frequent of all "nightmare" (kabos)."[7]

  1. ^ Google search, Pahlavi royal dictatorship
  2. ^ Pahlavi Dynasty: An Entry from Encyclopedia of the World of Islam By (ed.) Gholamali Haddad Adel, Mohammad Jafar Elmi, Hassan Taromi-Rad, p.15
  3. ^ Ervand Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran, (University of California), 1999
  4. ^ "For Khomeini's proclamations during 1964-1973 see, Khomeini va Jonbesh (Khomeini and the Movement) (n.p., 1973), pp.1-103"] (from: Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, 1982, p.478-9)
  5. ^ "Now that our people in recent years have awakened, risen up to gain their rights, and cried out against oppression ...", Khomeini, "Message to the Pilgrims", September 27, 1978, from Islam and Revolution, 1981
  6. ^ source: Anonymous "Prison and Imprisonment", Mojahed, 174-256 (20 October 1983-8 August 1985)
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Abrahamian, 1999 p.135-6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).