Christian Believers Issue Protest Statement Against Violation of Their Employment Rights in Iran

Some Christian believers have issued a statement noting that “the Islamic Republic has deprived Persian-speaking Christians of the right to work and employment,” saying this policy is implemented with the aim of “disabling and eliminating” the Christian community.

The statement emphasizes that Persian-speaking Christians have faced targeted threats over the past four decades, including “serial killings, executions, imprisonment, and the destruction, closure, and confiscation of churches and church properties,” and furthermore have been deprived of “human, civil, social, cultural, and economic rights.”

Christian believers have described the Islamic Republic’s actions as violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing that “the government sometimes overreaches into their tables and seizes their bread in order to take their lives.”

Although the Islamic Republic’s constitution recognizes Christianity as a religion, in recent years the Islamic Republic’s authorities have implemented extensive restrictions on religious minorities and the propagation of religions and sects other than Shiism in Iran.

Several human rights organizations reported in a document published in early Bahman 1400 of “punishment for faith” and the continuation of “widespread violations” of the rights of Iran’s Christian community, despite “denial” by Islamic Republic authorities.

Javaid Rehman, Special Rapporteur on human rights issues in Iran for the United Nations, reported in Bahman 1400 the detention of at least 53 Iranian Christians in the previous solar year.

Source: Radio Farda