Islamic republic
An Islamic republic is a sovereign state that is officially ruled by Islamic laws and is contrasted to Islamic monarchy. As a name or title, four states are Islamic republics, including Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania and Pakistan. Pakistan first adopted the title under the constitution of 1956; Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958; Iran adopted it after the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty; and Afghanistan adopted it in 2004 after the fall of the Taliban government.
Despite sharing the "Islamic republic" name, the countries differ greatly in their governments and laws, and of the four only Iran is a religious theocratic state. As a term, it has come to mean several different things, some contradictory to others. To some Muslim religious leaders in the regions who advocate it, an Islamic republic is a state under a particular Islamic form of government. They see it as a compromise between a purely Islamic caliphate and a secular, nationalist republic. In their conception of the Islamic republic, the penal code of the state is required to be compatible with some or all laws of Sharia and the state may not be a monarchy as many Middle Eastern states are presently. Despite this, there are republics with Islam as a state religion and that are ruled by Islamic laws, but do not carry the "Islamic republic" name - examples include Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Algeria, Maldives and Bangladesh.
Iran officially uses it as a title in all governance names referring to the country as opposed to its equivalents in Afghanistan which are called the Afghan National Army and the Radio Television Afghanistan. Unlike the others, Iran also uses the IRI acronym of the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of official acronyms.
List of Islamic republics
| State | Date of name adoption | Government type |
| 7 December 2004 | Unitary presidential republic | |
| 1 April 1979 | Unitary Khomeinist presidential republic | |
| 28 November 1960 | Unitary semi-presidential republic | |
| 23 March 1956 | Federal parliamentary constitutional republic |
Current
Afghanistan
is an Islamic republic consisting of three branches, the executive, the legislative and the judicial. The nation is led by the president Ashraf Ghani, with Amrullah Saleh and Sarwar Danish as the vice presidents. The National Assembly is the legislature, a bicameral body having two chambers, the House of the People and the House of Elders. The Supreme Court is led by Chief Justice Said Yusuf Halem, the former Deputy Minister of Justice for Legal Affairs.Despite the Islamic name, the constitution formed in 2004 is very similar to the monarchy-era 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan.
Iran
Two months after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the new government held the Iranian Islamic Republic referendum on 10 and 11 Farvardin to change the Pahlavi dynasty into an Islamic republic. On 12 Farvardin, it was announced that 98.2% of the Iranian voters wanted to establish the Islamic republic.Before the referendum, some political groups suggested various names for the ideology of the Iranian revolution such as the Republic or the Democratic Republic. Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, asked people to vote for the name Islamic Republic, not a word more and not a word less.
According to the constitution, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a system based on the following beliefs:
Commentary
According to a commentary on the constitution, just as the establishment of Islamic republic system is based on the beliefs of people, namely governing of right, justice and Quran. However, its continuation lasted with the same principles and there is an important role for the beliefs of Iranian people. Furthermore, those beliefs are of complete and determinate roles in all affairs. They are considered as guidelines for governors and statesmen. There is an important role for beliefs such as the principle of unity of God and believing in it. In spite of that, there are other principles are to the submission in front of Allah and His order. Therefore, legislation is limited to Allah and laws so far as correspond to divine legislation are valid. Belief in divine revelation and prophecy are essential to Islamic worldview and there are two kinds of justice. The first kind is legislative and the other kind is creative. Creative justice is based on justice and equality. Legislative justice is respected to making divine law in Islamic society. Besides, the basis of Shia school is in terms of imamate or leadership.According to the principle of imamate in Shia, it is indispensable to obey of the prophet of Allah and of those possessed of authority. Shia clergy believes that the conception of the term "those possessed of authority" denoted on innocent Shia imams. When the Imam is absent, the valy faghih is in charge of leadership of society. In other words, religious leaders undertake the responsibility of the imamate. There is more emphasizing on the dignity and the high value of humans which is along with freedom and responsibility. The principle of dignity is a necessary condition of the Islamic republic in terms of existence, but there are many meanings for the term dignity. Sometimes it refers to generosity, nobleness and honor, but Islam considers it two sorts of dignity for human beings, namely essential or innate dignity and acquired dignity. According to innate dignity, human being possessed of the right of living among other creatures. The principle is also mentioned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. On the basis of acquired dignity, the human is able to pass the degrees of perfection with the aid of actuality of his potentialities and talents.