Iranian Christians- Questions of minorities and their rights are among the most important human rights issues in the world

http://www.gozaar.org/english/articles-en/Iranian-Christians.html
Iranian Christians
An Ethno-Religious Minority
مسیحیان ایران، اقلیتی قومی - مذهبی
01 October 2006 Levon Haftvan
Questions of minorities and their rights are among the most important human rights issues in the world. Respecting the rights of minorities whether related to ethnicity, religion or language, are essential duties of governments and among the basic characteristics of democratic states. Freedom of expression, religion, press, social gatherings and freedom of movement are some of the key freedoms emphasized in the human rights charter. These freedoms are also the tenets of most political parties and are lauded by many governments throughout the world. They are accepted by members of the United Nations through the recognition of human rights charters. However, based on reviews by international organizations, the Islamic Republic has denied the rights of the minorities living in Iran.

Iran with an area of 631,660 square miles is the home of about 70 million people of various ethnicities. Ninety-seven percent of the population is Muslim, of which 89 percent are Shiites and eight percent are Sunnis. The Sunnis include Turks, Arabs, Baloch and Kurds which are also regarded as ethnic minorities. The followers of Sufi brotherhood are scattered all around the country, but there are no reliable statistics on their numbers.

According to the last national census of 1996, there are about 59.8 million Muslims, 30,000 Zoroastrians, 79,000 Christians, 13,000 Jews, 28,000 ‘others’ and 47,000 ‘not known’. The biggest non-Muslim minority number belongs to Baha’is with approximately 300,000 to 350,000 scattered throughout the country. The size of the Jewish community varies between 20,000 and 30,000. The figure, however, shows a significant reduction in a population of 75,000 to 80,000 who used to live in Iran before the 1979 revolution. According to UN between 100,000 to 300,000 Christians, mostly of Armenian origin, live in Iran. The Christians of Iran include Armenian and Assyrian and Chaldean minorities. Before the 1979 revolution in Iran, there were about 250,000 Armenians all over Iran. After 1979, almost 50 percent of their population left for Europe and United States.

According to unofficial estimates, the population of Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in Iran is about 100,000. There are also Protestants, including Evangelists, living in Iran. According to UN statistics, the annual rate of Christians migrating from Iran stands at around 15,000 to 20,000. The Mandeans who belong to Gnostic sects from the pre-Christian era, live mainly in the province of Khuzistan in the southwest and number around 5,000 to 10,000.

In spite of the fact that the Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are officially recognized as minorities by the present constitution in Iran, these groups are face constant discrimination. The social stature of Christians in Iran, after the establishment of the Islamic state, has been restricted. There are numerous reports about arrests and tortures of Christians due to their faith. According to Mario Galgano, a delegate to a conference of Swiss bishops who had a short trip to Iran a few years ago, “the Christians of Iran do not have total religious freedom; they can practice their rituals only within their own community gatherings, behind closed doors. They can pray and they can organize services, but nothing beyond that; they are not allowed to talk about their religion outside of their community.”

The Islamic regime of Iran vigorously applies restrictions over religious activities of Evangelical Christians, by closing down their churches and arresting new Christian converts. The members of the Evangelical church must carry their membership cards to be able to hand over a copy to the officials. The identities of members are controlled by the officials standing by the entrance doors during gatherings. The government has limited the services to Sundays only and the church authorities are ordered to inform the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance (Ershad) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), prior to accepting any new members. The church administrators are regularly forced by the Islamic officials not to accept any converts and to stop them from entering the church.
A member of Church under Siege society, an institute close to Vatican that investigates the issue of Christians in countries where religious freedoms are not respected, in an interview with Radio Farda, said “we have received a copy of Ahmadinejad’s speech in a gathering of governors. During this meeting the president of the Islamic Republic asked the governors to outlaw the activities of Christian groups especially when conversions of Muslims are in question.” According to him, the non-Muslim grocery store owners are required to indicate their religious affiliation on the fronts of their shops.

The officials have pressured evangelical Christian groups to compile and submit membership lists of their congregations, but evangelicals have resisted this order.

We have to remember that pressures over Christian minorities in Iran did not begin with the establishment of the Islamic Republic; but they have increased over recent decades and been ‘legalized.’ About a century ago, the early constitutionalists had refused to accept the idea that ‘a non-Muslim, could not rule over the Muslims,’ by appointing Yeprim Khan, the Armenian militia man as the head of the military. However, the constitutionalist revolution did not succeed in keeping the Muslim clergy away from social and political affairs. Sheikh Fazlullah Noori, a well known anti-constitutionalist member of the clergy during the same period had argued that:

“What is constitution? The constitution of us Muslims is Islam itself, and the priority of majority census is illicit (haram) according to Shariah, it is an innovation against tradition. An article in the so-called constitutional law, the damned misleading epistle, declares that people re equal. Damn it! You dishonored man! The lord of Shariah has bestowed upon you a special honor for being Muslim. And look what you do now! You throw your advantage away and you say you want to be equal and brethren to some dirty Zoroastrians, Armenian, and Jew?!”

Subjugation, Trial and Killing of Religious Minority Activists
Though historically it has existed in Iran, the lack of tolerance for dissident thinkers became lawful with the establishment of the Islamic republic. After 1979 revolution, the imams of Friday prayers, especially in small townships, banned Christians from free participation in community commerce. Thus a significant part of the minorities were either pushed to isolation within their own societies or went into exile as immigrants.

But limitations of, and social or cultural abuse of Christians were never limited to that. A list of names of a number of church ministers or Christian activists, who have been murdered by pressure groups, was recently published. The names of two ministers, Arastoo Sayah and Bahram Dehghani Tafti, stand out. They were murdered during the first years of Revolution in Shiraz. In 1990, Hossein Soodmand, another minister, was hanged in Mashhad. During 1997, the world watched in horror the brutal killings of Hayk Housepian Mehr, Tatavous Mikhailian and Mehdi Dibaj, three Christian ministers. The regime blamed the Mujahedin and even arrested three women who, according to the officials, acknowledged committing the murders and confessed their connection to the Mujahedin. After the investigation of political serial killings, it was revealed that the murder had been carried out by ministry of information officials.

According to Amnesty International, after the incident, some members of the church were forced to blame Mujahedin for the murders in some interviews in the media. Some of them refused to be interviewed and fled the country. Two years later, on September 1996, the body of Mohammad Bagher Yusefi was found in the deep woods of Mazandaran. He was hanged by his murderers. Sudden assaults on New Year gatherings and Christian services and imprisoning and torturing Christians is routine under the Islamic state.

In August 2004, the security police attacked a gathering of a Christian group and arrested 80 people. One of them was Hamid Poormand, who according to reports, had converted to Christianity 25 years ago and was at risk of being executed. The conversion of a Muslim to a non-Muslim religion is considered apostasy under the law and is punishable by the death penalty. By January 2005, he was tried in a military court for espionage. On February 16, he was found guilty and was sentenced to three years in Evin Prison. The court’s ruling was re-confirmed by a review court. Poormand was expelled from the military and he lost all his income, retirement insurance, and his home.

In 2000, ten members of the 13 Jews who were arrested for illegal contacts with Israel, hiring spies, organizing an unlawful group were tried and sentenced for four to 13 years in prison. The review court cancelled the sentence for the establishment of an illegal organization and employing spies, but found them guilty of having unlawful contact with Israel and reduced their sentences. During and after their trials, some Jewish business centers were ransacked in Tehran and Shiraz.

The anti-Semitic policy of the new government, and its popularity among hardliners who believe all the Jewish citizens belong to the Zionistic movement and are associated with the government of Israel, created an unfriendly atmosphere against this small community. The Jewish leaders of the community, scared of the hostility of the officials, are not wiling to take the risk of attracting sympathy for being mistreated by the state. Meanwhile the number of Jews in Iran has decreased to a fifty percent of the figure before the revolution.

Legal Discrimination
In addition, religious minorities are discriminated against by the legal system. They receive less in compensation in cases of legal suits for loss or damage, but they get more severe punishments. In January 2005, the Expediency Council approved of appending a clause to the article 297 of Islamic Retaliation Act of 1991. According to this clause the dieh (blood money) of a Muslim and non-Muslim became equal. But this does not include the Bahais, and their murder has no punishment.

By law, religious minorities are not allowed to be elected to a representative body or to hold senior government or military positions. A total of five seats are dedicated to religious minorities in Islamic parliament (Majles), three of the seats belong to Christian minorities (two of which belong to Armenians and one seat to the Assyrians and Chaldeans). One seat belongs to the Jews and one to the Zoroastrians. The Sunni minority do not have any seats, though they are not banned from access to official positions in government. All religious minorities, including the Sunnis, are allowed to vote. But no religious minority members could be elected as the president of the Islamic republic. All religious minorities suffer from official discrimination, especially in the fields of employment, education and housing.

The members of religious minorities, except Sunnis, are banned from serving in judicial offices, the secret service, and school boards. The applicants for government offices are reviewed for their degree of beliefs in Islam and their knowledge of religion. Government employees who do not follow Islamic rules are liable to punishments. The Islamic republic constitution requires the army to be Islamic and only those who believe in the Islamic revolution objectives are recruited. Nevertheless, no members of minorities are exempted from military service. The applicants for college or university courses are required to go through a basic Islamic theological test. This in turn limits the access of minority members to higher education. Meanwhile taking courses and subjects on Islam is obligatory for all students of public schools including non-Muslim students.

Education and Cultural Discrimination
Government has permitted the recognized religious minorities to establish and run their own social, cultural, sports, or charity organizations. They are allowed to teach their religion to members in separate schools run by private budget. The Ministry of Education, however, supervises these schools and regulations their curriculum. Beyond a few exceptions, the school principals have to be Muslims and all the course books and even the religious texts have to be approved by the Ministry of Education. To get approval, they have to be translated which is an enormous expense for the communities.

Armenian schools in Tehran have only one principal and eight Armenian vice principals. Other Armenian schools of the country are run by Muslims. For six Zoroastrian schools in Tehran, there are only two principals. The four schools for Jews and two Assyrian institutes are not run by Jews or Assyrians. In fact, of the 32 schools belonging to religious minorities in Tehran, only three are run by minority members.

Up until 1983, according to Clause I of Article I on employment of school principals ‘belief in Islam, Islamic fundamentals, Jurisprudent rule and Islamic republic constitution’ were the main requirements to becoming a school principal. This prohibited employing non-Muslim principals. In 2003, a clause was added to Article I of the requirements: “in the case of religious minorities, belief in the constitution would be enough.” According to this document there are no legal difficulties regarding the employment of principals from members of the minorities. If they had other qualifications of a principal, they could run a school in their community. But this has not happened very often. As of now, in the total of fifty schools belonging to minorities, only three principals in Tehran and two in Urumieh have been employed.

According to George Vartan, Parliament member for the Armenian community of Tehran and other Northern provinces, all Armenian schools where shut down by the beginning of the revolution. Armenians had difficulty teaching of the Armenian language. The education officials expected Armenian religious courses to be taught in Persian and eventually the schools closed down. Based on agreements during later years, they were able to teach religion courses in Armenian. Teaching the book “Religious Teachings,” is compulsory for minorities in their schools. After the reopening Armenian schools, Armenian principals were replaced by Muslims. According to George Vartan, Muslims running Armenian schools caused the educational objectives of Armenian culture to deteriorate.

The fact that the Jewish community is scattered over a wider area and the number of Jewish students has decreased has caused a number of Jewish schools to be closed down, according to Maron Yashayai, President of the Jewish Society in Tehran. He believes that the reason for this is that “they have stopped employing teachers from the community and eventually we have preferred to have Muslim principals. They have a better connection with the government and society in Tehran in general.” Two Assyrian education centers in Tehran – Hazrat Maryam (for girls) and Behnam (for boys) – have been run by Muslim principals ever since the revolution began.

A summary of the issues
Apart from political pressures right now, the issues can be summarized as:

Education: Mother tongue and religious affairs are taught by members of minorities according to the constitution in separate schools but with full control of officials within a confined environment.

Culture and religion: Freedom of religion is not possible with so many existing restrictions. The spread of minority religions is forbidden and members are harassed in various ways. They are regarded as spies of the West and Israel and the activists are summoned to court. Leaving Islam to convert to a new religion is not permitted and brings danger to Muslims who dare convert. Armenian women like the Muslim majority have to follow Islamic veil regulations and be judged by Islamic Shariah courts on family matters.

Social and political: Recently, bylaws regarding the ban on employing religious minorities and the diyeh money was canceled, by the approval of the parliament and the Expediency Council and with the order of the supreme leader. But minorities still can not be elected or elected as president of the country, prime minister, and minister. Since most ethnic minorities are religious minorities as well, the discriminations are compounded.

The Islamic Republic has legalized discrimination and the judicial system and the military have imposed it on the people. The only way to establish a national and democratic system is to change discriminatory laws, accept ethnic and language rights and identity for people of the country, and establish a federal system with equal rights for all ethnic or religious minorities. Accepting democracy and the rights of people ruling themselves are among the most fundamental human rights. It requires acceptance of the rights of all ethnic populations living in Iran, such as Turks, Kurds and Baloch: to choose for themselves and practice their rights, to educate, to speak their own tongue, to extend their culture and beliefs and to believe in freedom of expression and religion for all Iranians.

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