Public executions in Iran
In Iran, public executions occurred regularly during the Qajar dynasty but declined with the Persian Constitutional Revolution and became a rare occurrence under the Pahlavi dynasty. With the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, capital punishment and public executions returned on an unprecedented scale. In 2013, Iran was one of only four countries known to have committed public executions.[1]
Sublime State of Iran (1789–1925)[edit]
Under the rule of the Qajar dynasty (1789–1925), forms of public execution included hanging, throwing the condemned from the city walls, tying them to the mouth of a cannon and blowing them apart,[2] suffocating them in a carpet, or re-enacting the crime on the criminal. There was also Sham'i ajjin, which entailed making multiple incisions in the body and then lighting candles in the cuts until the person died.[3] Before being brought onto the public scaffold, the condemned was paraded through the bazaar.[2] By 1890, public hanging replaced more exotic forms of execution.[3] Whereas the failed assassin of Naser al-Din Shah in 1850 died by Sham'i ajjin, and then had his body quartered and blown from cannons, the assassin of Naser al-Din in 1896 was publicly hanged.[3][4] Judicial reform came with the Persian Constitutional Revolution. In 1909, executions were restricted to hanging and firing squad.[5]
Imperial State of Iran (1925–1979)[edit]
Judicial reform progressed in the late 1920s after Rezā Shāh consolidated Pahlavi rule (1925–1979).[6] Executions largely occurred away from public view, and capital punishment was primarily restricted to murder, high treason, and armed rebellion.[7] One rare public execution during this period was the hanging of the doctor of Tehran's Central Jail shortly after Reza Shah was deposed. The doctor and three others were found guilty of murdering political prisoners.[8]