Religious Minorities’ Rights in the Iranian Constitution of 1906 and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Although Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian minorities form less than two per cent of the Iranian population, the recognition of their official rights and the institutionalised legal discrimination against them has been a matter of a long conflict between minority rights activists and Muslim jurists since the Constitutional Revolution in 1905. The major part of this controversy relates to the assumed status of non-Muslims in traditional Shi’a jurisprudence. The present study examines and assesses the recognised status and rights of religious minorities in the two constitutions of 1906 and 1979 and their development. Although, due to the formation of new recitations in Shi’a jurisprudence, some changes have been made in identifying the fundamental rights of religious minorities, the domination of the general spirit of the rulings in Shi’a jurisprudence in the formulation of both constitutions means there is still a long way to go before recognising equal human rights for all.