Christian Science Monitor

Iran’s nuclear crisis: Obama could play the human rights card

One issue that should be put on the table is what Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put on display this week in New York: Iran’s
religious minorities.

By Jamsheed K. Choksy and Nina Shea
from the September 26, 2009 edition

Bloomington, Ind.; and Washington – Today’s announcement by President
Obama and European leaders that Iran is building a secret underground
nuclear facility adds fresh urgency to an issue that’s been festering
for years. Tensions will now be considerably higher among negotiators
at the planned Oct. 1 meeting about Iran’s nuclear program.

Already, there is talk of much-harsher sanctions if Iran does not meet
international demands in the next two months. "Everything must be put
on the table now," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

One issue that should be put on the table was displayed by Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week in New York: Iran’s religious
minorities.

Iran’s deplorable record on human rights is often treated as separate
from the nuclear issue. It’s not. If Iran’s government can’t be
trusted to treat its own citizens with basic dignity, how can it be
trusted with nuclear technology?

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s theatrics involved including five religious minority
parliamentarians in his entourage to the UN General Assembly, this
week. This act shows how eager Tehran is to be accepted back into the
community of nations. Thus, the human rights card could be
considerable leverage for Western powers in coming weeks.

When he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23,
Ahmadinejad professed concern for "justice, freedom, and human
rights." He apparently thought his five props would help him project a
tolerant, peace-loving face. It was a stiff performance.

Iran is one "big and unified family" with full legal rights for
religious minorities, he declared when choosing these minority
representatives, according to official reports. Yet these people could
not refuse.

Not o
uld they be punished if they resisted, their religious communities
would suffer the hard-line regime’s reprisals as well. "Communal
welfare is important," a well-placed Iranian religious leader
explained before the New York trip. "So absence will not be possible."

Iran’s Constitution technically grants all citizens freedom of
worship, sanctity for holy sites, equal standing under the law, and
access to employment. But the Islamic Republic has destroyed its great
cultural patrimony and reduced freedoms to unconvincing, exploitative
acts of propaganda.

Under the Constitution, the election of these five representatives is
one of the few rights afforded the four "recognized" religious
minorities predating Islam in Persia. These minorities live
essentially as dhimmis, the protected though subjugated "people of the
Book" of medieval times.

Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, they have been barred from high
government office. Their religious ceremonies and celebrations are
subject to police raids to ensure they abide by "Islamic standards."

Their synagogues, churches, fire temples, and tombs (including that of
the prophet Daniel) are frequently defaced with monumental photos of
ayatollahs and other propaganda. Their schools are administered by
Iran’s Education Ministry, which imposes a state-approved religious
textbook and typically appoints the principals.

Any non-Muslim found guilty of a Muslim’s death faces capital
punishment, though the opposite does not hold true. Store owners often
are compelled to display prominent signs indicating they are najasa or
ritually unclean. Non-Muslims experience high unemployment at more
than double the national average of 12.5 percent, especially as they
are discriminated against in employment by the large state sector.

Apart from the four heritage religious minorities (Jews, Armenian
Christians, Assyrian-Chaldean Christians, and Zoroastrians) that are
allotted parliamentary seats, there are other groups who have even
fewer rights. Bahais, treated as heretics from Islam, have
ns. They can be robbed and murdered with impunity since Iranian law
declares that their blood is mobah or can be spilt. Major Bahai
shrines have been demolished and the people can assemble only in
secrecy.

Religious discrimination and persecution were not always the norm in
Iran. In the Persian empire of antiquity, Cyrus the Great established
a policy of religious tolerance. His attitude of acceptance is
sometimes described as the first charter of human rights.

Collectively, Iran’s non-Muslim communities have dwindled from
approximately 10 percent of the country’s 70 million people to 1979 to
no more than 2 percent today . Under constant pressures because of
their religious faiths, they have fled the country since the 1979
Islamic revolution in far greater proportions than Muslim Iranians.

Members of Iran’s religious minorities and other oppressed groups have
indicated they expect the US administration to press Ahmadinejad’s
regime into ameliorating their situation. They seek viable, lasting,
solutions based on implementing the rights that Iran’s Constitution
claims all citizens enjoy.

If Ahmadinejad’s regime meets obligations to its fellow Iranians, then
it is more likely to fulfill agreements with the international
community. Transparency and well-being, rather than secrecy and
aggression ` as reflected yet again by the recently revealed nuclear
facility ` are necessary in Iran’s national and international affairs.

Ultimately, when free to express their beliefs and ideas, Iran’s
people will be the best guarantors of their nation’s fidelity in world
affairs.

As Britain, China, France, Germany, the US, and Russia sit down with
Iran on Oct. 1, they should see Ahmadinejad’s posturing for what it is
and use the meeting to address not only the issue of nuclear strategy,
but also human rights.

The current Iranian regime’s three-decade-long record of intolerance
and violence cannot be ignored.

Jamsheed K. Choksy is a professor of Iranian studies and former
director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at I
niversity and serves as a member of the US National Council on the
Humanities. Nina Shea directs the Hudson Institute’s Center for
Religious Freedom and serves on the US Commission on International
Religious Freedom. The views expressed here are their own.