2021-03-14
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 Niloofar and three other 8-10 year old Zoroastrians girls, 30 years ago in the city of Yazd, who were told that they were “impure” and could not swim at the public swimming pool again. Cleanness and Cleanliness have always been the most important principles for our family, since our Iranian ancestors have frequently underlined the importance of avoiding contamination of water, soil, air and fire; I learned many things from my family about cleanliness […]
2021-03-13
Fred Petrossian*–Security forces break into your house in the middle of the night. They confiscate your cell phones, photos, and religious books. They interrogate you, and maybe even have you beaten and jailed. You will be deprived of your business and education. Your crime, in the eyes of the Islamic Republic, is your religious identity—and the authorities will do all they can to break it. Many members of religious minorities who have not surrendered to the will of the regime and its de-identification policies had this bitter experience. Some were even murdered or executed. It seems this de-identification policy aims to publicly dehumanize religious minorities when the leading figures […]
2021-03-12
Many Christian converts seeking asylum, even after leaving Iran, have been painfully dealing with the denial of protection by their countries of destination for years now. About a year ago, a group of Christian converts living in Stockholm launched the campaign “I am a Christian too” to raise awareness of the systematic violation of rights of Christian converts in Iran and to change the approaches used to examine Christians’ asylum applications. These Christian converts have been staging regular protest rallies outside parliament in the Swedish capital of Stockholm for about 70 days. The campaign also protests the ongoing human rights abuses in Iran and the repression of civil society activists […]
2020-09-28
Reza Kazemzadeh is a Belgium based psychologist and writer. He is the head of Exile, which is a medical psychological center for victims of torture. He spoke with MvoicesIran about why the Iranian society is, in many cases, indifferent to the persecution of religious minorities and its silence and the internalizing of fear during 40 years of repression and discrimination. Last year,when the Islamic Republic of Iran removed the “other religions” option from the national ID card application form, a move that appeared to be designed to deny millions of Iranians full citizenship such as Baha’is, Christian converts,Yarsans,there were no big protest or campaign within Iran’s society. why? When considering […]
2020-09-28
International organizations, including the United Nations, have condemned the Islamic Republic several times for violating human rights and the rights of religious minorities. Sanctions on those minority communities have ranged from imprisonment to being banned from university and from losing jobs and property to even being killed. MvoicesIran talks with Said Mahmoudi, Professor Emeritus of International Law at the University of Stockholm to discuss religious and conscious rights in international law, violation of those rights in Iran, and the capacity of international organizations to curb such actions by States. The rights to freedom of thought, religion, and conscience, which include the freedom to change religions or beliefs and to worship […]