• “You’re Jewish, you can only leave the country once”
    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. […]
  • The Bitter Taste of Discrimination
    The Yarsan faith, also known as Ahl-e Haqq (People of the Truth) is estimated to have about two million followers in Iran, most of whom live in the western, predominantly Kurdish provinces, especially in Kermanshah. This religion also has some followers in Turkey and Iraq. This religious minority is not recognized by the Iranian Constitution, and the members of this community have faced continuous discrimination and persecution in the country. Sirvan, a follower of the Yarsan religion, from Sarpol-e- Zahab in Kermanshah province, remembers a bitter day of discrimination in school 25 years ago. Sirvan says: “I grew up in a moderately religious Yarsani family. The Yarsan religious traditions and […]
  • “Impure” Zoroastrians Banned from Swimming Pool
    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 […]
  • The day that  Baha’i Nurses Were Fired
    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. Alireza, a resident of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said (video is in Persian) in 1983 that he was an accountant at a hospital when, one day, he was surprised to see a veteran nurse come to his office to settle accounts after her resignation. In the following days, other experienced nurses resigned one by one. Alireza’s patience ran out, and he asked one of the nurses why she was resigning. The nurse cried and said: “You do not […]