Punishment Prescribed for Insulting and Cursing People from the Viewpoints of Jurisprudents of Different Islamic Schools of Thought and in Iran and Afghanistan Legal Systems

Insult and curse are the acts which directly belittle the peoples’ prestige, spiritual integrity and dignity. These acts both in Islamic Jurisprudence and penal legal systems are prescribed as crime and they are punishable. The direct injury caused to the peoples’ dignity and prestige is the main legal base for criminalization of the acts in legal systems. Legal systems in Iran and Afghanistan have also criminalized the acts and prescribed punishment for them. Unlike the similarity of the two legal systems regarding criminalization of insult and curse, their nature and examples differ from each other in these two legal systems. In Shia Jurisprudence the person who uses the language of insult, quip or hurt is recognized as insulter or curser and is punishable under the “Ta‘zir laws”. In Sunni Jurisprudence the acts are not admissible and Sunni Jurists have recognized the acts as immoral and blamable. And the insult and curse are punishable as “Ta‘zir” if they belittle the one subject to them. In this article we are to study the concept and examples and punishments prescribed for insulting and cursing people through analyzing the approaches followed by Jurisprudence of Islamic Schools of thought and Iran and Afghanistan legal systems.