Iranian criminal justice preserves retributive sanctioning as a right of victims, while at the same time encouraging the same victims to forgo it. Drawing on ethnographic research in Tehran’s criminal courts, this talk will explore the legal status of forbearance through recent legislation, interpretation, and practice.
Arzoo Osanloo is an associate professor in the Law, Societies, and Justice Program and the director of the Middle East Center at the University of Washington, Seattle. She holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and a JD from The American University, Washington College of Law. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections of law and cultural practice, especially with respect to human rights. Her book, The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran (Princeton University Press, 2009), analyzes the politicization of “rights talk” and women’s subjectivities in Iran. She is currently working on a second manuscript that examines the Muslim mandate mercy as it takes shape in Iran’s criminal justice system. Her publications appear in numerous edited volumes and peer-reviewed academic journals, including American Ethnologist, Cultural Anthropology, Political and Legal Anthropology Review, and Iranian Studies. Prior to her academic work, she worked as an immigration and asylum lawyer.