Christmas in Teheran: discrimination in land of the Magi
by Dariush Mirzai

AsiaNews.it, Italy
Dec 22 2006

There are "native" Christians who are discriminated against but have
legal status. They prefer to meet in their "clubs". Then there are
foreigners who turn to embassies and consulates for support. Worst
off are the "illegals", Muslims who converted or children of mixed
couples: police watch churches to stop them from entering.

Teheran (AsiaNews) – Christmas is drawing near for the very few
Christians (officially 340,000) in the Islamic Republic of Iran. As
in other countries in the Middle East, ancient Christian communities
are discriminated against and migration is a strong temptation for
those faced with the twofold impact of growing Islamism and the draw
of the globalized world. Persia is the country of origin of the Magi
who followed the star up to Bethlehem. Like the Three Kings of
tradition, Christians in Iran could be divided into three groups,
with three different ways of celebrating the nativity of Christ.

First of all, there are the "natives", the largest in number,
descendents of the ancient Christian communities, Catholic and
Orthodox, with Armenian and Assyrian-Chaldean rites. It is not only
about ritual: families still speak Armenian and Aramaic – these
communities are cultural minorities too. Nearly all are Iranian
citizens, discriminated against on legal and social levels but with
legal status. They enjoy freedom of worship: Christmas in celebrated
in church in Teheran and other cities. They also enjoy the right to
freedom of association and gathering: their "clubs" organize
Christmas bazaars (during Advent) and community Christmas feasts,
concerts, and parties or they meet as families. As is the case with
other Iranians, it is not easy for them to party in the streets or in
restaurants because some food and drink, certain music, clothes and
gestures are banned. To party in peace, the best option is to
celebrate within your private circle.

Then there are the "foreigners": Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants.

There are very few non-Iranians who follow the eastern rite and a
similarly small number of Iranians follow the Latin one. Mass is
celebrated in the Latin rite in four churches in Teheran consecrated
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, [Our Lady of] Consolation, Abraham and
Joan of Ark. The liturgy is celebrated in Farsi, Italian, English,
French and Korean. There are small communities with members
permanently residing in Teheran, "expats" who would be diplomats,
students and businessmen in Iran for a few months or years, and at
times tourists. There are close ties with embassies, including the
Apostolic Nunciature, to allow for the legal existence, always
precarious, of places of worship and cemeteries. Some embassies are
de facto "protective powers", somewhat like the four consulates
(Italy, France, Belgium, Spain) that according to protocol should
attend Christmas Mass in Bethlehem.

Then there are "illegal" Christians living in Teheran and elsewhere
in Iran. They celebrate Christmas at some personal risk. They are
Muslims who converted to Christianity or Christians who "repented"
after formally accepting (in the case of mixed marriage) conversion
to Islam, or the children of Muslim-Christian couples. Church
surveillance by police serves not only to protect public order – or,
to be more precise, public order includes a ban on church attendance
for those who are not "legally" Christian. Especially fragile is the
status of Christians that belong to Protestant communities organized
into "local house churches". Less protected from arbitrary measures
and often less cautious than apostolic Churches, these "underground"
communities are targeted by the regime: a few days ago, the secret
police arrested between 10 and 15 members of such groups in several
cities.

In the streets of Teheran, there are no Christmas decorations. "If
heaven wills it, we will have a white Christmas and the most
beautiful decoration, the dazzling snow in the plane trees under the
sun," a Christian from Teheran said poetically. But just as the
pollution caused by man is at its worst in December and January,
Christmas will probably be rather grey.

In our times, the Three Kings would have found it much harder to
contemplate the starry sky in Teheran. There are several traditions
about the Kings, with different cities claiming to be the place of
origin of one or other. Their relics are in Cologne in Germany (which
is just as well – in the Iran of the mullahs, the tomb of a
Zoroastrian or a Christian does not enjoy the same inviolability as
that of a Muslim). Something worth recalling is that six centuries
after the Magi – before the dawn of Islam – the Sassanidian invaders
swept out of Persia. They destroyed everything in the Holy Land
except for the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. There, they
recognized, depicted in mosaics, the Zoroastrian Magi. The mosaic of
Bethlehem is no longer there but the Three Kings may still be admired
in Roman catacombs and in the mosaics in Ravenna, dressed in Persian
style.