The Use of Flogging in Iranian Law: A List of Offenses from Abdorrahman Boroumand Center
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, 149 crimes are punishable by the cruel, inhuman, and degrading corporal punishment of flogging. Laws related to flogging are broad and encompass a wide array of acts. The criminal code recognizes corporal punishment (hadd and ta’zir) for offenses such as consumption of alcohol, drug use and petty drug dealing, theft, adultery, flouting of public morals, illegitimate relationships, and mixing of the sexes in public.
Flogging is also used in interrogations, presumably to punish the detainee for not telling the truth. In the case of political prisoners, flogging was routinely used in the 1980s and it continues to be used to extract confessions, though less systematically.
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has gathered and consolidated in list form all offenses for which flogging is foreseen in Iranian law. Access this resource in PDF form.