According to a judgment obtained by HANA Human Rights Organization, Branch 119 of the Criminal Court II in Qom has sentenced a woman to 50 lashes for allegedly engaging in an “illicit relationship and indecent acts.” The conviction stems from a complaint filed by her husband and video footage of a birthday celebration at a café, purportedly showing her kissing and embracing another man.
Citing Articles 637 and 638 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, the court subjected the woman’s private conduct to criminal prosecution. The judgment dismisses her denial as unfounded while offering no identifiable forensic basis for its categorical rejection of possible video manipulation. Beyond serious concerns regarding the presumption of innocence and the assessment of evidence, the ruling exposes the extent to which Iran’s criminal justice system intrudes into women’s personal autonomy and intimate relationships.
Judicially imposed flogging constitutes corporal punishment prohibited under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a State Party. No domestic legislation, religious justification or claim of moral authority can override the absolute prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. The deliberate infliction of physical pain and humiliation by judicial order is not the administration of justice. It is an assault on human dignity, bodily integrity and fundamental freedoms.
HANA Human Rights Organization condemns the sentence as a violation of Iran’s international human rights obligations and calls for its reversal and the prevention of any corporal punishment. The judgment remains subject to appeal.
A woman’s body must never become the instrument through which the state enforces its moral authority.