Fâsed is Arabic for corrupt, rotten, spoiled. Persian uses it for literal spoilage and for moral or institutional corruption. The state deploys the moral sense against political and social targets, and the legal system formalizes it through the charge of mofsed-fel-arz (corrupter on earth).
Mofsed-fel-arz is a capital charge under Articles 286 of the Islamic Penal Code. The prosecutorial threshold is loose, and the charge has been used against protesters, including in Mahsa Movement death sentences. The word fâsed in regime media is the rhetorical preview of the legal step.
The regime built its self-image on contrast with Pahlavi-era decadence, so fâsed is its working label for anyone outside the moral fence. We document it because the rhetorical use and the legal use sit on a continuum, and learners reading court reports need to recognize both.
Fâsed shows up in Friday sermons, judicial press releases, and state TV graphics. The Mahsa Movement death sentences traveled through this vocabulary. Knowing what the word does is part of reading Iranian legal news honestly.
فاسد (fâsed) is Arabic for corrupt, rotten, spoiled. In Persian it covers both literal spoilage (rotten food) and moral or institutional corruption. The latter is where the political weight lives. The Islamic Republic was founded on a self-image of moral purity against the Pahlavi era’s accused decadence, so fâsed names anyone the regime needs to write outside the moral community. The word lands on women whose dress does not comply, on journalists who file from inside protests, on academics who sign open letters, on businessmen who back the wrong faction. The related noun fesâd (corruption) builds the legal category mofsed-fel-arz (corrupter on earth), which carries the death penalty.
Sources
- Amnesty International: Iran Death Penalty in Protest Cases (2023)
- IranHRDC: Iran Legal Code Analysis
- Dehkhoda Dictionary: فاسد
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