To qualify for asylum, Sharif must prove that she is a refugee. Because Sharif fails to establish asylum eligibility, we will address only her asylum claim. As a preliminary matter, we note that Sharif has offered virtually no evidence of past persecution. On the contrary, in order to be an act of persecution, the behavior in question must threaten death, imprisonment, or the infliction of substantial harm or suffering. The act need not be life-threatening to equal persecution.
Torture qualifies as persecution.
So too does economic deprivation when the resulting conditions are sufficiently severe. However, harsh conditions shared by an entire population do not amount to persecution. Nor does punishment which results from violating a country's laws of general applicability, absent some showing that the punishment is being administered for a nefarious purpose. The facts of this case demonstrate that the Iranian government's treatment of Sharif did not constitute persecution. Sharif lived in Iran for many years free from harm.