Behind the koranic curtain: a look at life under the rigid theocracy ruling Iran's Islamic Republic, where nonconformity to Shari'a law is punishable by imprisonment, beating, amputation, and even death.

Last April, the bodies of six young women between the ages of 20 and 30 were found dumped in a remote area outside of Tehran. The victims, all unidentified, had been brutally murdered by killers who, under Islamic law, act with virtual impunity. According to Iran's "Islamic Punishment Act," the killing of an individual may be justified if the murderer believes he is acting on religious conviction, or out of a sense of retribution.

What crime had these women committed? Had they failed to veil properly? Were they wearing makeup? Or had they been discovered alone in the presence of a non-relative male? Any one of these transgressions might have provided the justification for their murder in the eyes of Iran's theocratic leaders.

In Kerman, one of Iran's oldest cities, Hezbollah operatives murdered five young men and women. The murderers were acquitted of all charges by Iran's Supreme Court on the grounds that "the defendants were pious individuals and that their determination that the victims should have been killed was not wrong."

In 2001, 13 women were killed in the northeastern city of Mashad for failing to veil properly. The murderer escaped punishment by claiming that he had acted on religious conviction in order to "cleanse society from filth." In reaction to the antihuman act, an Iranian judiciary spokesman curtly remarked that "no court order was needed to confront mal-veiling."

Such is life in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where 68 million Iranians are now subject to near total social and political domination by the all-powerful Shi'a Muslim clergy that controls the state's central power structures.

As in any totalitarian society, political dissent is looked upon as unpatriotic--or in Iran's case, un-Islamic--since it threatens theocratic stability. A literal interpretation of the Koran informs every aspect of daily life, and virtually any activity can come under scrutiny.

A 2001 report by the Special Representative for Iran of the Commission on Human Rights claimed that Iranian authorities, or their proxies, had killed more than 80 individuals over a 10-year period in an attempt to silence dissent.

Although the Iranian constitution prohibits torture, Shari'a law permits cruel and unusual punishment for certain crimes. In June 2005, an Iranian court passed judgment in a case that called for the removal of the defendant's eyes for a crime, and in November 2005, prison authorities amputated the left foot of a convicted felon. In accordance with Islamic law, Iranian penal code calls for the stoning of adulterers. Although the sentence is rarely carried out, it remains on the books, and at least two women suffered the barbaric punishment in 2005.

Despite constitutional guarantees, warrantless arrests are common, and unlike Western courts where there are time limits and mechanisms to determine legality of detention, in Iran there are none.

Paramilitary forces and government-run "morality police" enforce the Islamic Republic's draconian rules of social behavior. In an effort to prohibit the forbidden, members of the morality police have beaten individuals in public for listening to music and (in the case of women) for wearing makeup. Penal codes prohibit women from appearing in public without the approved Islamic uniform known as the hejab, with violators subject to fines, beatings and, in the case of the 13 women of Mashad, even murder. In the wake of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election to the presidency of Iran, parliamentary proposals have been introduced that would codify a "national dress" for women.

Despite supposed constitutional guarantees, freedom of the press is routinely violated. Article 23 of the constitution states that "publications and the press have freedom of expression except when it is detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam." (Emphasis added.) Scores of publishers, writers, and editors have been detained, jailed, and even tortured. Recently, the Iranian Press Supervisory Board closed down Shargh, the leading reformist journal, for publishing a cartoon interpreted as satirizing Iran's nuclear program. Between 1997-2005, hard-line judiciary officials have eliminated more than 100 reformist papers and jailed hundreds of journalists and editors.

Iran's constitution also guarantees freedom of assembly, movement, association, and religion, provided of course that such activities do not violate the principles of Islam. Dissent is not considered a principle of Islam. As a result, student protests of 2003 were brutally suppressed by government-sponsored vigilantes, and police arrested over 4,000 persons.

Iran's constitution allows for the establishment of political parties, professional groups, Islamic religious groups, and those groups associated with "recognized" religious minorities--provided that none violate the principles of Islam, or question Islam as the bedrock of the Republic. In practice, the Iranian government actively restricts freedom of association. The Freedom Movement, the country's oldest opposition party, was dissolved. A number of party members were jailed, and others were barred from political activity for l0 years. When not employing overt measures of prohibition, officials often resort to intimidation. In May 2005, Intelligence Ministry officials prevented members of the Iran Writers Association from meeting in preparation for their annual assembly. Ministry officials informed members that their lives would be in danger should they meet.

The Islamic state recognizes Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians as "protected" religious minorities. According to author Robert Spencer, "Islamic law mandates that non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians, are 'protected people.' These so-called protected minorities ... are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Koran's command that they 'feel themselves subdued' (Sura 9:29)." Although they are not required to wear distinctive dress as in previous times, non-Muslim grocers are required to post their religious affiliation on the front of their shops lest some unwary Muslim stumble into a shop run by an unbeliever. Jews are viewed with suspicion largely because of a perceived association with the state of Israel, and the government strongly discourages the distribution of Hebrew texts.

Rejection of Islam and conversion to a non-Muslim religion is considered apostasy under Shari'a law. The penalty for apostasy is severe, and non-Muslims put their lives on the line if they proselytize. Christian evangelicals are asked to sign pledges that they will refrain from missionary activity. Evangelicals entering church are subject to identity checks, and officials are required to notify the authorities before admitting new members to their congregations.

Since 1979, millions of Iranian citizens have attempted to escape the oppressive Islamic regime. Muslim citizens arrested attempting to leave without official permission are normally subject to a minor fine or a short jail term. Jews, however, are generally subject to much harsher penalties.

A close cousin of Marxism and its totalitarian approach, Iran's Islamic Republic must employ the same brutal tactics, or it will cease to exist. The natural inclination of man is to seek freedom and happiness, and freedom necessarily threatens a rigid theocracy committed to a conformist doctrine. Iran's constitutional guarantees are imaginary. Their Islamic qualifiers render them useless. For in each case the mandatory conformity with Islam reduces individual God-given human rights to mere words on paper.

In fact, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has remarked that human rights "are a weapon in the hands of our enemies to fight Islam."