2023 Report of the US Commission on World Religious Freedom. Experts speak of “systematic and flagrant violations”, in line with the repression of demonstrations for rights and freedoms after the death of Mahsa Amini. The Islamic Republic is a “country of particular concern”.
Tehran () – In Iran there is a “clear setback” in the situation regarding religious freedom, in line with the increasing repression by the authorities, linked to the protests that broke out after the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the moral police for not wearing the hijab correctly. The complaint is contained in the 2023 report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom that was published a few days ago, which calls for the reclassification of the Islamic Republic as a country “of particular concern (CPC)” for its “systematic violations and flagrant”.
The cover of the document is dedicated to the 22-year-old Kurdish girl who was killed by morality police after being arrested for violating Islamic headscarf rules while on vacation in Tehran in September last year. The death sparked a popular revolt for freedom and rights, the most imposing since the months-long Islamic Revolution of 1979. This was bloodily repressed by the security forces with a balance of hundreds of victims, thousands of arrests and executions by hanging. Protesters “risk severe punishment, permanent injury and even death.”
The authors also report, along with Amini, the names of many citizens who are in prison for their faith, including a dozen Christians. The cover, the authors of the report explain in a note, wants to “honor so many Iranians, known and unknown, imprisoned in 2022 for their religious beliefs, their activities or their personal identity.” A long list, add the authors of the USCIRF report, of people who are “victims” of the lack of “freedom of religion or belief.”
The study records the names of the victims of persecution, but also recalls the cases of Christian converts from Islam who “suffered strong threats for abandoning their faith” and the “pressure” on the heads of the Armenian and Chaldean Churches “to publish statements of support for the government. “The repression of freedom of religion or belief by the Iranian authorities – denounces the study – is part of a campaign that has been going on for ten years and whose objective has been both religious minorities and members of the Shiite Muslim community” , which is “majority” in the Islamic Republic.
“Along with the repression of the protesters, Iranian leaders – the authors emphasize – continued to attack members of the Bahá’í, Christian, Gonabadi Sufi, Zoroastrian, Yarsani, Sunni, Shi’ite and atheist communities with arrests, jail sentences and prohibition to participate in political life”. For this reason, the USCIRF calls on the State Department to reconsider Iran’s position, including it among those countries of particular concern for “the systematic, flagrant and continuous violations of religious freedom”. It also calls for ” targeted sanctions” against government agencies and officials responsible for abuses and greater “international coordination” to “lift the veil” on the climate of impunity enjoyed by Tehran’s leadership, as well as the relocation of “victims of persecution “.
Finally, the report denounces cases of persecution and violations of civil rights guaranteed by the laws of the Islamic Republic inspired by Islam, as well as cases of impunity for men who have killed women for an alleged violation of the so-called “family honor”. ”. In January of last year, two homosexuals were hanged in a jail accused of “sodomy” and two more in July. A month later, in August, a court in Urmia sentenced two LGBTQI+ rights activists to death on charges of “corruption on earth”.
