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UK government expresses concern about Bahá’ís in Iran
Filed Under Human Rights, Iran, Parliamentary | Leave a Comment
24 June 2008 – The UK government said today it will continue making representations to Iran to express concern over the country’s treatment of its 300,000 strong Bahá’í community.
Responding to a question in the House of Commons about the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran from Mr Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington, Dr Kim Howells, Minister for the Middle East, stated, “When I raised with the Iranian ambassador to London the UK’s great concerns about reports of maltreatment of adherents of the Bahá’í faith in Iran, he told me that Bahá’ísm is not officially recognised as a religion in Iran.”
“We receive reports that Iranian Bahá’ís face routine discrimination and harassment on the grounds of their faith, and the informal Bahá’í leadership has been detained for more than a month now,” said Dr Howells, “We remain deeply concerned by the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran and will continue to raise our concerns with the Iranian authorities.”
106 MPs have now signed a Parliamentary motion addressing the plight of the seven leading Bahá’ís who remain in custody in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.
In a supplementary question Mr Brake also raised the threat of executions of converts to the Bahá’í faith, Christianity and other Iranian minorities, if a new draft apostasy law comes into force. “We are very concerned that the draft code makes apostasy punishable by death and that the provisions contravene the principle of religious freedom,” replied Dr Howells. “I called in the Iranian ambassador to express the UK’s concerns on 1 April. We are keeping a close watch on the issue, and I very much hope that our concern will help to galvanise international opinion against this barbaric proposal.”
Further questions were put to the Minister by David Lepper MP and Mark Pritchard MP, raising other elements of human rights problems for Bahá’ís in Iran, such as the ongoing denial of access to education.
“That is one example of the way in which Bahá’ís in Iran are being marginalised because of their beliefs,” responded Dr Howells. “That is wholly without justice and is a very worrying development.”
In recent months the Iranian Bahá’í community has faced a widening pattern of repression that has seen its national leadership arrested without charge; imprisonments, harassment and bullying of school-children by their own teachers; state-sponsored propaganda vilifying their faith; and violent attacks by vigilante elements.
Speaking after the questions, Mr Brake welcomed the government’s engagement with the Bahá’í issue and the draft apostasy law. “The Minister has promised to monitor very carefully progress on the draft penal code as more details emerge,” said Mr Brake. “Hopefully the government will maintain and increase if necessary pressure on the Iranian authorities if the human rights of Bahá’ís, Christians and other faiths and minorities are placed at risk.”
Read the full transcript of Foreign and Commonwealth Office questions on Hansard
Technorati Tags: Bahai, Baha’i, Iran, human rights, Kim Howells, persecution, UK parliament
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