Saudi Arabia vs Iran

Apart from Israel, most of the Middle East Countries embrace an Islamic religion which is commonly used as the source of the administrative laws widely known as the sharia law. However, some of these countries differ greatly depending on their local organization and participation in international issues such as conflict resolution and global integration. For these reasons, the current paper compares and contrasts Iran with Saudi Arabia with keen interest to the democratic elements embraced in both countries. The two countries have almost similar organization in their executives. On the one hand, the Iranian executive includes the chief of state, heads of government and the cabinets. This is because the Iranian parliament is a unicameral Islamic counseling council commonly known as Majles-e Shura-ye Eslami (Seyahooei and Mohammad 119).

This body comprise of 290 members with 285 members elected to represent their constituencies and five members to represent non-Islamic communities such as Zoroastrians, Assyrian, Jews, Armenians in the north and south, and the Chaldean Christians (Seyahooei and Mohammad 119). Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia’s legislative Branch is a unicameral counseling assembly commonly recognized as Majlis al-Shura. The branch comprises of 150 members appointed by the monarch. In contrast to the Iranian legislature where members are elected irrespective of their gender, the Saudi legislature was a masculinity association until 2013 when the monarchy granted women thirty seats in the parliament. The appointed judges serve one to two years of probation before signing permanent contracts. The subordinate courts include the first-degree courts, court of appeals, the specialized criminal courts, and labor courts (Maisel 307).

The royal decree appoints all the judges serving in all these courts. Moreover, these countries have unique military functions. The Iranian military commonly known as the Islamic Republic of Iran Regular Forces (Artehs) include the ground forces who are obliged to protect the country from external land threats, the Navy which protects the state from sea inventions and the air force (IRIAF) which protects the country from aerial interventions (Cordesman 21). The Saudi Arabian’s administration emphasizes on the strict sharia laws which have been criticized for being the main source for the gender inequality and denial of basic human rights for its citizens. To begin with, the kingdom restricts the freedom of women, children and non-citizens. In particular, women are restricted from holding several political privileges, attending social functions such as watching football matches and making independent decisions (Brooker 28).

Also, the monarchical structure of the government denies the Saudi citizens the right to free civil and political participation. On the contrary, the Iranian constitution states that the country’s judiciary is of importance in protecting the rights of the Iranians. Public participation in Iran is commonly practiced after every four years. During this participation, the Iranian citizens are bestowed with opportunities to elect leaders at different levels of administration including the council and village levels, the administrative levels and the national levels (Karshenas and Hassan 73). In these elections, citizens are supposed to have attained the legal minimum age of eighteen years to be allowed to vote. Also, citizens participate in other public forums irregularly to provide their views about the administration on certain administration aspects (Karshenas and Hassan 73).

However, public participation is paralyzed in the Saudi Arabian organization since citizens are not allowed to select their representatives in the government institutions. Therefore, it is apparent that Iran is more democratic as compared to Saudi Arabia. Works Cited Altawyan, Ahmed. "The legal system of the Saudi judiciary and the possible effects on reinforcement and enforcement of commercial arbitration. Asgharzadeh, Ailreza.  Iran and the challenge of diversity: Islamic fundamentalism, Aryanist racism, and democratic struggles. CSIS, 2005. Cordesman, Anthony H.  Saudi Arabia enters the twenty-first century: The political, foreign policy, economic, and energy dimensions. Vol. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003. " The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Routledge, 2018. Rafizadeh, Majid. “Say Goodbye to Due Process of Law in Iran. ” Arab News, Arabnews, 4 July 2018, www.