اعدام در جمهوری اسلامی؛: خشونت نمادین و بازتولید قدرت

In recent years, the dramatic increase in death sentences and executions in Iran, especially after the recent nationwide protests, has raised profound questions about the social, political, and ideological function of this punishment in the Islamic Republic. This article attempts to analyze the death penalty not simply as a means of criminal punishment, but also as a mechanism for the production and exercise of power. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theories of sovereign power and biopower and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence, this article shows how the Islamic Republic’s judicial and media institutions reproduce the death penalty within the framework of religious-legal legitimation. By referring to data and reports from human rights institutions, this analysis presents a documented and critical picture of the link between structural violence, political order, and social exclusion.

Contrary to popular belief, executions in the Islamic Republic are not just a judicial response to serious crimes, but have increasingly become a tool for demonstrating power, suppressing dissent, and reproducing political order. In 2024, according to Amnesty International, more than 972 people were executed in Iran, a statistic that places the country at the top of the global list, especially in relation to its population. The executions, which occurred after widespread popular protests, demonstrate the government’s clear use of judicial violence to deter social unrest and create public fear. These executions have often been carried out in processes that lacked minimum fair trial standards, such as forced confessions, closed and incommunicado trials, the absence of a lawyer of one’s choice, and the issuance of hasty verdicts.