2022-09-01
Fred Petrossian–The “I am A Christian too” campaign was launched by a group of Iranian Christian converts living in Stockholm, Sweden, in October 2020 in order to pursue policy change in Sweden and Iran. “I Am A Christian Too” is a loosely organized but sustained campaign among a group of Iranians who share Christianity as their core belief and set their main goal of being recognized as refugees by the Swedish government. As of July 2022, this campaign has held almost 50 gatherings in Stockholm, making it the most persistent street movement among Iranian religious minorities and even Iranian asylum seekers in the diaspora. At each meeting, between 20 […]
2021-11-24
Molavi Abdolhamid, a prominent Sunni religious leader and the Friday prayer leader in Zahedan, welcomed the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan, which surprised many in Iranian society and provoked various reactions. Afshin Shahi, a senior lecturer in Middle Eastern politics and International Relations at Bradford University, discussed with Mvoices the possible impact of Molavi Abdolhamid’s Taliban support on Iran’s Sunni community: “First and foremost, we have to remember that there is no such thing as a singular Sunni community in Iran. The Sunni population of Iran is very diverse. They are made of different ethnicities. They speak distinct languages and dialects and are geographically scarred. This reality is reflected through […]
2021-11-24
Recent reports indicate the Iranian State continues its repressive policy and violence against the Bahá’í community, using almost any imaginable means in recent months: hate speech on social media such as Instagram and Clubhouse, confiscating lands from Bahá’í villages, closing shops, banning them from higher education and imprisoning them. Such hostile actions have occurred since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution. However, in recent months, according to the Bahá’í International Community (BIC), “this machinery of hateful propaganda to demonize the Bahá’í community is reflected in a growing and coordinated network of hundreds of websites, Instagram accounts, Telegram channels, and Clubhouse rooms, with content such as “ Bahá’ís are unclean and […]
2021-11-24
The Iranian citizens in “Your Voice” talk about the discrimination against religious minorities that they have witnessed. They provide short stories about the suffering of millions, who have become “simple incidents” in Iran. This is a story of Neda, a Jewish woman, who shares her testimony when she had to go through a “humiliating “ process to get a passport. It was the year 1987 that she set to apply for a passport and leave Iran but for her, getting a passport was not as much of a breeze as she once thought it was; actually, the Jews had to face questioning and contempt by the authorities in the process. […]
2021-11-24
The Yarsan faith, or Ahl-e Haqq, is a religious minority not recognized by the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, its followers face constant discrimination and harassment in Iran as many of them are forced to deny their faith in public. Some have even resisted the government’s de-identification by organizing cultural groups and publishing open letters to officials. Seyed Amin Abbasi, a member of the Yarsan Civil Activists Advisory Council, told Mvoices: “The forced abandonment of faith by some Yarsanis has weakened their identity and promoted hypocrisy among them. Religious acceptance is no longer based on individual interest, desire, or awareness, but primarily aimed at obtaining […]