Political repression has been practiced in Iran since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This repression culminated in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's rise to power and the establishment of an Islamic republic, whose political system combines religious and state institutions that it previously overthrew. Human rights organizations have accused the Islamic Republic of executing, torturing, and repressing political opponents and dissidents. Survivors described being blindfolded, waiting in corridors to be brought before a committee, and witnessing prisoners being taken for execution—including those whose health had deteriorated due to torture. Human rights groups have alleged that such practices are used to suppress political dissent. In 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran published a report that categorized the 1981–1982 massacres and 1988 executions as crimes against humanity and genocide. Since the 2026 Iran massacres, repression has become nearly total, with prohibitions against open dissent being strictly enforced.

Establishment of the Islamic Republic and early repression (1979–1989)

1979 revolution and rise of the Islamic Republic The 1979 Islamic Revolution, which resulted in the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy, marked a significant shift in governance for Iran. Following this revolution, political power was held by the clerical leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini; he sought to establish an Islamic state based on the concept of Wilāyat al-Faqīh (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), a doctrine that grants supreme political authority to the highest-ranking cleric.Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, section 8. . Article 109 states that an essential qualification of "the Leader" is "scholarship, as required for performing the functions of mufti in different fields of fiqh".

Having overthrown the previous government because it oppressed civil liberties, Khomeini was first viewed as a unifying figure who did not seek power, but sought only to help liberate the Iranian people, as well as being an ally of the different branches of the Iranian opposition. However, Khomeini's regime subsequently moved to swiftly and systematically eliminate rival political groups.

1980s: revolutionary purges and consolidation of power

1981–1982 massacres

The 1981 massacre was orchestrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which targeted perceived political and religious opponents of the Islamic Republic. Among those targeted were intellectuals, artists, scientists, liberals, monarchists, socialists, ethnic minorities, and members of religious groups such as the Bahá'ís. Lasting from June 1981 to March 1982, this mass violence was part of the Cultural Revolution in Iran, which was initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini in order to remove non-Islamic influences from Iranian society. This purge led to the deaths of thousands of political and religious dissidents, as well as critics of the regime.

In 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur classified the crimes committed during this period as both genocide and crimes against humanity. The report called for establishing an independent international body to investigate and hold those responsible accountable for their actions during the massacre.

1988 executions of political opposition

In mid-1988, Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, ordered the execution of thousands of political prisoners. These executions took place over five months, beginning in July, in at least 32 cities in Iran. The executions were conducted without legal process, after trials that focused on determining neither guilt nor innocence. Many prisoners were subjected to torture, and the executions were carried out in secrecy. The exact number of those killed remains uncertain, but estimates range from 2,800 to 5,000 people, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW); some human rights organizations such as Amnesty International (Amnesty) estimate at least 5,000 people killed.

Most victims supported the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MeK) party, but people from other leftist groups—such as the Fedaian and the Tudeh Party—were also executed. While a possible motive for the killings was retaliation for the MeK's Operation Mersad in 1988, some victims were unrelated to that operation. Ayatollah Montazeri, the Deputy Supreme Leader at the time, claimed that the regime had planned these executions for years, using the MeK operation as a pretext. Survivors have called for accountability. In 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran classified the killings as crimes against humanity, a characterization that was shared by a number of other governments.Rehman, Javaid. “‘Atrocity Crimes’ and Grave Violations of Human Rights Committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran (1981–1982 and 1988),” July 17, 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/iran/20240717-SR-Iran-Findings.pdf

Political repression under Ali Khamenei (1989–2026)

Transition to Khamenei's leadership

In 1989, following the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, Ali Khamenei assumed the role of Supreme Leader of Iran. A former president and a close ally of Khomeini, Khamenei continued the policies of the Islamic Republic. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, he acted by "eliminating opponents and rewarding those loyal to him". Among those targeted by Khamenei were poets.

1999 student uprising The Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran (the Majles) passed a tough press censorship law on July 7, 1999; the next day the reformist newspaper Salaam was shut down, which sparked student protests.

Around 200 students gathered outside a dormitory at the University of Tehran to protest against the press censorship law. Around 4 am on July 9, 400 uniformed men with blue batons stormed the dormitory, beating sleeping students and pushing some from second- and third-floor windows. While the official death toll was two, students claim that five to eight people died, with one confirmed victim being a former student of activist Ezzat Ebrahim-Nejad. Raamin Karimi, a student, was beaten and thrown from a third-floor window; he was "offered to God" as a sacrifice by his attackers.

The student protests spread across 18 cities—including Tabriz, Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, and Yazd—within days. Students demanded freedom of the press, the release of political prisoners, accountability for the security forces, and the transfer of the military from the Supreme Leader to the elected government.

Regime response

Khamenei initially condemned the attacks and called students "my sons and daughters"; however, within days he reframed the protesters as "rioters and bandits backed by terrorist groups and foreign enemies". Khamenei publicly described the protesters as a threat to national security and pledged to "stand in their way". The deputy speaker, Hassan Rouhani, warned that those involved could be executed as mohareb ("fighters against God"). The organization Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM) notes that this pattern of labelling protesters as seditionists or mohareb, and calling for decisive force, recurred in all major uprisings under Khamenei (in 1999, 2009, 2019, 2022, and 2025–26), reflecting an entrenched governance model.

Following the 1999 and 2003 protests, thousands of demonstrators were arrested; many faced torture, solitary confinement, prison sentences, and death sentences later commuted. Some detainees disappeared entirely, while many released students were expelled from universities and prohibited from employment.

The security forces’ accountability was limited: only two policemen received minor punishments, while 15 vigilantes involved in the dormitory raid were acquitted. Iran HRM describes the lack of accountability for state violence as a recurring feature of protests in Iran since 1999.

Repression of 2009 protests

After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of presidential elections—amid allegations by the Iranian opposition of widespread electoral fraud—there were widespread protests known collectively as the Green Movement. This movement was the most significant challenge to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s, with more than one million protesters in Tehran alone. Protesters demanded the annulment of the election results and the resignation of the government, accusing the regime of rigging the election.

In response to the protests, the Iranian government used police, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and its paramilitary Basij militia. Basij members carried out night raids, as well as raids against the homes of Iranians during protests. According to the American newspaper Los Angeles Times, militiamen from the Ansar-e Hezbollah party warned that they would patrol the streets to enforce law and order.

Thousands of people were arrested; hundreds were killed; and many others were tortured or forced into making televised confessions. The movement effectively ended in February 2011, when its leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi were placed under house arrest.

2017–2018 Dey protests Public protests erupted across several cities in Iran starting on December 28, 2017, and continued into early 2018; these protests are often referred to as the Dey protests. The protests initially began in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, before spreading to around 150 cities in more than two weeks. The protests focused on economic issues, specifically a sharp increase in the price of eggs; however, the protests quickly expanded to include political opposition to the theocratic government and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Demonstrators expressed their anger through various chants directed at the regime and its leadership, including the provocative chant "Death to the dictator!" aimed at Khamenei. Fewer than 30 people were killed, including some police and Basij; the regime exercised relative restraint compared to protests in 2019. According to the American newspaper The Washington Post, these protests—along with attacks on government buildings—disrupted a regime with little tolerance for dissent, with some protesters even urging security forces to join them.

2019 fuel protests The 2019 protests were triggered by a sudden increase in gasoline prices on November 15. The protests rapidly spread across 29 out of 31 Iranian provinces, with an estimated 200,000 participants and 7,000 arrests, according to security officials. A 2020 report by HRW found that Iranian authorities continued to tightly suppress peaceful activism—targeting human rights defenders, lawyers, and political prisoners who spoke out against government corruption, mismanagement, and repression. The regime's response to protests, including those in November 2019, involved excessive and lethal force, according to HRW. Security forces killed at least 230 people, according to official figures—though Reuters estimated that the true death toll exceeded 1,500—with tanks, heavy armor, and machine guns deployed in some cities. Iran also took down the Internet nationwide for five days, not only to prevent the spread of dissent, but also to cut off protesters from each other and to control the scale of the protests as seen by outside observers.

According to HRW, the Iranian government is a world leader in carrying out executions, performing 233 executions in 2020. Among those executed were people convicted of crimes when they were children. Human rights defenders, ethnic minorities, and political activists face arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and unfair trials, according to HRW. The government's actions—including the imprisonment of peaceful dissenters and a failure to hold security forces accountable—are said to have deepened public frustration with the regime.

2022 protests