Homayoun Sameh Najafabadi's warning to Iranian Jews: "Stay away from Israeli media"
Homayoun Sameh Najafabadi's warning to Iranian Jews to distance themselves from Israeli media showed that religious minorities in Iran continue to be under pressure, even when they have no language other than prayer.
Homayoun Sameh Najafabadi, a representative of the Jewish community (Kulimians) in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, recently issued an open letter to his co-religionists, asking them to unfollow channels and pages belonging to the Israeli regime and Israeli social media, and to delete any "likes" or "comments" they have previously made on "untrue or sensitive" content. He acknowledged that he himself was summoned by security agencies after these activities.
His letter states: “If you have posted unusual, sensitive, or misleading comments or likes, please delete them as soon as possible.” He also emphasized that continuing to subscribe to channels attributed to the Israeli regime could lead to legal prosecution.
This new warning should be seen in the context of the ongoing repression of religious minorities in Iran. Reports indicate that following tensions with Israel, Iranian security agencies have summoned or detained dozens of members of the Jewish community in cities such as Tehran and Shiraz.
Some Jewish citizens have even refused to go out on the streets, work, pray in synagogues, or attend gatherings for fear of mass violence following political criticism or tensions with Israel.
All of this indicates a situation in which religious minorities are harmed not only by the government, but also by social fate and general anxiety; a religious minority that has a history of several thousand years in Iran, but at least today is faced with a wave of suspicion and security and social pressure.
Iran, according to its official law, has accepted the presence of religious minorities such as Christians and Jews. The Jewish and Christian community of Iran has had representatives in the parliament for years; but this same legitimate and recognized minority is today under pressure to redefine its place in the media, cyberspace, and public life, by “self-censoring” every simple action. Homayoun Sameh’s warning to Jews to delete likes and comments, or to leave Israeli channels, is in fact an acceptance of the fact that even citizenship, history, identity, or official law can be ignored in the face of security and politics.
This incident (a warning to the Jews of Iran) should not be limited to the Jewish community. This trend is a warning to all religious and ethnic minorities in Iran. When the government and security agencies, under the guise of "national security," control the media, communication, and freedom of expression of religious citizens, no Christian, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, or Jew is safe from feeling insecure.
Such a policy is not only a violation of individual rights, but also a profound sign of a structural distrust of religious and cultural diversity in society, and its ugliness increases when minorities have legal recognition and representatives in parliament.
Freedom of expression, the right to communicate, freedom of religion and belief, and even the right to hold political opinions should not be a privilege, but should be the right of everyone. But the fact that even the official and representative law cannot defend the Jewish minority is a wake-up call about the fate of all minorities in Iran.
Today's warning from Homayoun Sameh Najafabadi should not only be meaningful to Jews, it should remind everyone in Iran that "citizenship," "identity," and "religion" become conditional lives when placed within a security-oriented framework.
As long as such an attitude prevails, the hope for equal rights for minorities such as Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Baha'is, etc. will remain in the shadows or will be difficult to realize.
