Dog Owners In Iran To Be Punished Under New Law

Dog owners in Iran are set to be punished under a new draft law set to be enforced by the Iranian parliament. Dog owners will be sentenced to 74 lashes if they are caught keeping the pets at home or walking them in public.

Under the Shia branch of Islam, dogs are considered ritually unclean. The majority of the Iran population falls under the Shia denomination.

The current judicial system in Iran was borne out of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and sharia (religious) law has been integrated into civil law ever since that time.

Recently, the Inquisitr reported the death of Reyhaneh Jabbari, the Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by the Iranian government for killing her alleged rapist. The sentence drew criticism from international news agencies and human rights NGOs.

According to Amnesty International, Jabbari’s hanging brings the number of people executed in Iran to over 250 this year alone.

The law follows a series of incidents in which dog owners were fined and had their pets confiscated, as the animals are considered to be “dirty” under Islamic law.

“Anyone who walks or plays with animals such as dogs or monkeys in public places will damage Islamic culture, as well as the hygiene and peace of others, especially women and children,” the draft law states.

According to an article by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, an Islamic jurist and Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, “Dogs were also widely used for protection, sheep herding, and hunting. In the contemporary Muslim world, dog ownership is common only among Bedouins, law enforcement, and the Westernized higher classes.”

While owning a dog is frowned upon in many Islamic cultures, the Koran does not strictly forbid it.

As stated by Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, “The majority of jurists held that there is no rational basis for this command, and that dogs, like pigs, must be considered impure simply as a matter of deference to the religious text. A sizeable number of jurists, however, disagreed with this position. Jurists, particularly from the Maliki school of thought, argued that everything found in nature is presumed to be pure unless proven otherwise, either through experience or text.”

Dog owners in Malaysia enraged the Muslim population by hosting a dog petting event to encourage the proper treatment of the animal.

Dog owners in Iran will only be limited to police, farmers and hunters, as stated by the new bill.

[Image via Google Images]