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Essay: UN Working Group ruling serves as an important reminder of the plight of religious minorities in Iran

Iran Pastor Nadarkhani and three other Christians arrested with him

ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, looks at the case of Iranian church leader Yousef Nadarkhani and why a ruling from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his case is important

Last month, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made public an important ruling which found that the detention of Iranian church leader, Yousef Nadarkhani, was arbitrary and in contravention of multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The opinion adopted by the Working Group is the latest development in a long history of international condemnation of the Iranian authorities’ mistreatment of Pastor Nadarkhani, as well as of other Christians and religious minorities.

Iran Pastor Nadarkhani and three other Christians arrested with him

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani with three Christians he was arrested with in the city of Rasht in May, 2016. PICTURE: Via CSW.

 

“The findings of the UN Working Group on the pastor’s case are important as they send a message to the Iranian Government that the international community has not forgotten about him. So too is the Working Group’s call on Iran to ‘take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr Nadarkhani without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms’.”

The pastor was arrested along with three other Christian men in the city of Rasht in northern Iran in May, 2016. He had previously served multiple prison sentences, including a three year period from 2009 to 2012, during which he was sentenced to death for apostasy after questioning Shi’a Islam’s monopoly on the Iranian education system.

While the death sentence  was overturned and he was subsequently released, he continued to face intense harassment in the years leading up to his arrest in 2016. On that occasion, the pastor and those arrested with him were charged with ‘acting against national security’ by ‘promoting Zionist Christianity,’ and were each sentenced to 10 years in prison, with Pastor Nadarkhani and one of the other church members, Mohammadreza Omidi (Yuhan), also ordered to serve an additional two years in internal exile.

The four Christians were released on bail pending an appeal but were informed in May, 2018, that the sentences had been upheld. They were subsequently re-arrested in a series of raids from 22nd to 25th July, 2018 and taken to Evin prison to serve their sentences. While two of those arrested with him have since been released on appeal, one into internal exile and another who was granted conditional release, the pastor has remained imprisoned ever since, along with his fellow Christian Deacon Saheb Fadaie.

During this time, Pastor Nadarkhani has gone on hunger strike to protest the treatment of his children whilst he has been imprisoned, and in June, 2020, he and Deacon Fadaie saw their sentences reduced to six years on appeal. Calls for the pastor and deacon’s release were even ignored when tens of thousands of prisoners were granted temporary furlough owing to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in Iran’s prisons.

The findings of the UN Working Group on the pastor’s case are important as they send a message to the Iranian Government that the international community has not forgotten about him. So too is the Working Group’s call on Iran to “take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr Nadarkhani without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms”.

However, it is vital that we as Christians continue to pray for the pastor’s immediate and unconditional release, and that of the many others like him in Iran who face harassment, intimidation, detention and even persecution solely because of their religion or belief.

Earlier this year, a report published by CSW in collaboration with several other organisations working on the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Iran found that an estimated 115 Christians were arrested during 2020, 38 of whom were detained. Other violations reported include the monitoring of both official and unregistered churches, and the summoning and interrogation of members of house churches.

“[I]t is vital that we as Christians continue to pray for the pastor’s immediate and unconditional release, and that of the many others like him in Iran who face harassment, intimidation, detention and even persecution solely because of their religion or belief.”

This crackdown has shown no signs of slowing down in 2021. In early February, CSW received reports that authorities in the city of Karaj had summoned 11 Christian families for interrogation, where they were warned to stop their house-church meetings and not to visit each other’s homes even for social purposes.

More recently, CSW learned that Iranian Christian convert Ebrahim Firouzi had been released on bail after spending nearly three weeks in detention for releasing a series of videos exposing the harassment he was experiencing from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) whilst serving a two year sentence in internal exile.

Christians are not the only community targeted by the government. Members of the Baha’i, Sufi Dervish and Sunni Muslim communities are also regularly targeted, facing judicial and extra-judicial execution, property seizures, torture, imprisonment, and general harassment on account of their faith.

It is clear that religious minorities across Iran are in urgent need of our prayers. Please join CSW in praying for the release of all those detained on account of their religion or belief, and for an end to the Iranian authorities’ policies of repression and restriction of those who do not adhere to their strict interpretation of Shia Islam.

Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW.

 

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