Minority Rights in Iran: Keep Hoping, Official Says
WASHINGTON DC – Ali Younesi, the Iranian government’s advisor on minority rights, has blamed a small clan of hard-liners for hindering minority rights on security grounds, but called on minorities not to lose hope.
Younesi, who is adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, said that “some individuals in hard-line movements” viewed minority issues from a security perspective, and implied their actions were inconveniencing the government’s agenda.
Speaking to the ISNA news agency, he said they were a “small group” with loud voices, who usually act on their own and ignore the guidelines and principles of the Islamic Republic. Younesi underscored comments by Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who in a speech in Iranian Kurdistan declared that “insulting Sunnis and their sanctity is not permissible.”
Last month, Younesi blamed the execution of three jailed Kurdish activists on hard-line groups.
Human rights groups and activists often accused Iran of restricting religious and minority rights. When Rouhani appointed Younesi, his position was described as equal to that of a vice president.
During campaigning, Rouhani had promised to appoint a minister to look after the rights of minorities, including the country’s large Kurdish population, which is largely Sunni.
Many minorities, including the Kurds, voted for Rouhani. But after election, he appointed Younesi as an adviser, not as minister.
Speaking to the Iran newspaper this week, Younesi said that he and Rouhani are still working on getting a minister in the post.
“Other decisions have been suggested, but I am not at liberty to mention them for fear the resolutions may be obstructed,” said Younesi.
Younesi has also stated that the first thing Rouhani asked the ministries to do after his election was to appoint individuals from minority groups in high-ranking positions. However, there has been persistent discrimination against minorities by the security forces, universities and other groups.
Younesi criticized groups and individuals who deem minority members as “aliens who can’t be trusted with sensitive positions (inside the regime).”
“He gave false promises of more political room for ethnic groups at local governments in their regions,” Salah Bayaziddi, the representative of Iranian opposition group Komala in Washington, told Rudaw.
He said that Rouhani had played the same card played previously by the so-called “reformist” administrations in Iran, and that the basic rights of the ethnic minorities remained unchanged.
He said that Younesi’s remarks “should not be viewed as a change in policy of the Islamic regime” toward Iran’s marginalized ethnic minorities, such as the Kurds, Balochis and Azeris.
Dr Marianna Charountaki, professor at the UK’s University of Reading, told Rudaw that “the 21st century developments in the Kurdish issue appear to have opened the ox-skin bag of Aeolus, containing the great winds for the reshaping of the Middle Eastern region.”
But she cautioned that potential developments for Iranian Kurds are unlikely to occur in the same way – externally and by force – as in the case of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region.
Younesi also said in the interview with ISNA that today Iran’s Kurdistan Province is more secure than Tehran, even though “some do not believe it.”
Responding to a question about whether Iran should monitor its Kurds when they express solidarity with their Kurdish kin in Iraq or Turkey, Younesi said: “Iran is not worried about Kurds leaving to Turkey or Iraq for trade or education. Why should we worry if Kurds from Iraq come and visit Kurds in Iran. We respect international borders but ultimately consider all the Kurds in the world as Iranians, just as we consider all Tajiks as Iranians.”
Younesi also called for the justice ministry to “forcefully confront” groups and movements that create divisions among Iranian minorities.