Non-Muslim’s public consumption of intoxicants in Imamiah jurisprudence and Iranian law

According to Article 266 of the Islamic Penal Code (adopted in 1392), non-Muslims are sentenced to eighty lashes if they use intoxicants publicly. The legislator has been silent about defining and explaining the concept of “publicly” as well as explicitly explaining the circumstances of its occurrence, so the fundamental question arises that the use of intoxications by non-Muslims how should be perpetrated or what characteristics should it have to say him have publicly used it? Judgments from the judiciary suggest that in order to commit this crime, non-Muslims must commit drunkenness in public and in a place that is open to the public without scrutiny. This must also be done notoriously. In addition, non-Muslim’s behavior must be seen by others. It should be noted that the viewer of the perpetrator must always be a Muslim who maintains the forbidenness of intoxicants; therefore, publicly using intoxications will not take place in front of other non-Muslims, even if intoxicants are forbidden in their religion or in front of a Muslim who is consuming intoxicants himself. This research has been written using descriptive and analytical methods and with the approach of documentary studies.