Is Iran a free country

Answer 1

Answer 1

It is certainly not a bad country, but it has a bad government (currently Ahmadinejad).

Answer 2

Iran is not a bad country per se, and most people who know about Iran have nothing but love and appreciation for its people. However, the government of Iran is very problematic in terms of its constitution and its political aims.

The government of Iran has a very poor human rights record. Some of the offenses of the government include:

• Targeting religious minorities, especially those from religions that Iran does not recognize such as Yazidi, Yarsan, Baha'i, Azali, etc., but generally from any faith other than Shiite Islam, including Sunni Islam, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. It is illegal, for example, to build Sunni mosques in most major Iranian cities, apostasy or conversions out of Islam are considered a death penalty offense, and Baha'i are routinely attacked by government-sanctioned thugs.
• Iran actively maintains a secret police (VEVAK) that kills dissidents to the regime, especially writers and politicians
• Iran also maintains discrimination in women's dress, requiring women to wear the chador or hijaab while having no equivalent requirement for men. Additionally, since women cannot become clergy in Shiite Islam, women are de facto excluded from serving on Iran's national judiciary, which is made up entirely of clergy. There are insufficient protections for women who are raped or the vitim of other sexual crimes in Iran.
• Iran maintains that homosexual sex acts are death penalty crimes and routinely executes homosexuals. Transgender individuals are also targeted under homosexuality laws even though they are not homosexuals.
• Iran also represses ethnic minorities such as the Kurds and Balochis who want increased autonomy, if not independence.

Iran also has numerous foreign policy aims that pose stability problems for other countries, including:

• Supporting Hezbollah and the Assad government while those organizations continue to murder and torture innocent Lebanese and Syrians.
• Iran has made statements and financial actions which evince an intent to remove Israel from the map.
• Iran is actively pursuing nuclear energy and likely pursuing weapons, both in violation to its international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iran's constituion also prevents the people from effectively choosing the government's policy by giving the unelected Supreme Council of Ayatollahs effective control over which candidates can run for political office as well as an overriding veto over any political policy chosen by the Majlis and President of Iran (the elected branches).

Answer 2

Yes. Otherwise known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. Previously known as Persia.

Answer 3

It is supposed to be a democratic country, but there are millions who will diagree with that statement!!