What it means
اقرار (eqrâr) means confession, acknowledgment, or formal admission of guilt. It comes directly from Arabic, from the root ق-ر-ر (q-r-r), which carries the sense of settling or confirming something. In Persian legal contexts, اقرار is the technical term for a defendant’s own declaration that they committed an act. It is distinct from اعتراف (e’terâf), which is also used for confession but carries a broader sense of acknowledgment in everyday speech. In strict court procedure, an اقرار carries significant evidentiary weight. Outside the courtroom, the word appears in formal writing and serious speech to mean admitting any difficult truth.
How to use it
- متهم در دادگاه اقرار کرد. (Motaham dar dâdgâh eqrâr kard.) “The defendant confessed in court.”
- اقرار او مستند شد. (Eqrâr-e u mostanad shod.) “His confession was recorded on file.”
- بدون اقرار، اثبات جرم سخته. (Bedun-e eqrâr, esbât-e jorm sakhte.) “Without a confession, proving the crime is difficult.”
- اقرار به گناه اولین قدم توبهست. (Eqrâr be gonâh avalin qadam-e towbe-st.) “Admitting one’s sin is the first step of repentance.”
Cultural note
In Iranian criminal law, اقرار has historically held special status as the strongest form of proof. Classical Islamic jurisprudence, which forms a basis of the Iranian legal code, treats a freely given اقرار as nearly conclusive evidence of guilt. Human rights organisations have raised concerns about how confessions are sometimes obtained under duress in Iran, and contested اقرار cases frequently appear in public discourse around political trials. The word therefore carries both a strict legal meaning and a broader cultural weight relating to justice and truth.