Iran’s torture practice is equally essential under both its modern regimes

Evidence

Rejali offers a sophisticated account of the role of political punishments in Iran both before and after the inception of modernization in that country. Modern torture, he tells us, is a form of physical suffering that is an inseparable part of a disciplinary society. In Iran the practice of torture is as essential to the Islamic Republic today as it was to the Pahlevi regime it replaced. Both in their own way are modern disciplinary societies. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 501

Categorization

• QUESTION: This claims continuity of torture across the Pahlavi-to-Islamic-Republic transition; worth checking Rejali’s own evidence for what the two regimes’ torture practices share and how they differ.