Iran's Broadcasting Organization's employment discrimination against women, people with disabilities, and non-Muslims
In its latest recruitment advertisement, published on July 26, 2019, the IRIB announced that “having complete health and no physical disabilities” and “practical belief and commitment to Islam and the guardianship of the jurist” in all cities and “being male” in all provincial centers except Tehran were the conditions for employment in the organization. The meaning of such an advertisement is that only Muslim men without disabilities can be employed in the IRIB.
The announcement requires discrimination based on disability, gender, and religion, as well as the Inquisition. According to the announcement, in provincial capitals except Tehran, signing an employment contract will be subject to submitting a “ten-year notarized commitment not to change jobs or move workplaces.” However, this restriction is considered a violation of the right to freedom of employment and choice of residence, which are stipulated in the Constitution, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
A Tehran-based lawyer who spoke to the Iran Human Rights Campaign on condition of anonymity said in response to the contents of the job advertisement in question: “Sada and Sima have proven that they do not care about enforcing the law and do not pay attention to the rights of women, religious minorities, and even the disabled. If the Administrative Court of Justice gets involved, it will most likely find a violation of the law, but the court’s proceedings are usually very slow, and in Iran we do not have active organizations that follow up on such cases. For someone to make a commitment that they will not have the right to change their job or place of work for ten years is both illegal and a form of forced labor, because it deprives the person of the right to choose a job and choose their place of residence for a long period of time.”
Violation of domestic and international obligations to provide equal employment for people with disabilities
In its recruitment advertisement for specialists in the fields of electricity, mechanics, and computers, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting announced “full health” and “no physical disability” as general and primary conditions for employment. This action directly violates the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, according to which member states, including Iran, are obliged to provide all necessary measures to ensure equal and non-discriminatory access to employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. Article 27, paragraph 1, of this convention explicitly prohibits any discrimination based on disability in employment conditions. Also, according to Article 15 of the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was approved by the parliament in March 2017, “the government is obliged to allocate at least three percent of official, contractual, and labor employment permits in government and public agencies, including ministries, organizations, institutions, companies, public and revolutionary institutions, and other agencies that use the country’s public budget, to qualified persons with disabilities.”
However, in recent years, employment exams have repeatedly violated the rights of people with disabilities, resulting in the exclusion of these individuals from taking the exam. For example, in the manual for the fifth centralized employment exam for the country's executive agencies, which was published in May 2018, the section on medical conditions for applicants for the teaching profession, by setting minimum requirements for the vision and hearing of candidates, effectively deprived blind and partially sighted people, as well as deaf and hard of hearing people, from the opportunity to obtain this job, which offers the greatest employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Following this incident, a group of people with disabilities published an open letter addressed to the president, demanding that the exam be stopped and that the government's employment quota of three percent be allocated to people with disabilities in Iran be actually implemented. Despite this request, the fifth employment exam for the government's executive agencies was held on time. However, the issue of the non-implementation of the three percent quota law at the community level led to numerous follow-ups and comments on this issue. Among the achievements of these efforts is the issuance of a circular by the Administrative and Employment Affairs Organization in September 2018 requiring the presence of welfare representatives during employment interviews for people with disabilities.
The Iranian Broadcasting Corporation's move to include not having a physical disability as a requirement for employment has sparked numerous reactions among people with disabilities and activists in this field.
Mohammad Kamali, former dean of the Faculty of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences and a long-time activist promoting the rights of people with disabilities, tweeted: “The gentlemen at #Iran_Radio_and_Sima once again broke the law and violated Article 7, Section A, of the Comprehensive Law on the Rights of People with Disabilities [Article 15 of the current Law on the Protection of People with Disabilities]. While the law explicitly requires a 3% quota for them. Then the BBC proudly uses a presenter with no arms below the elbow for a children’s program.” The Campaign for the Rights of People with Disabilities also tweeted on its Twitter account, announcing the exclusion of people with disabilities from employment at the IRIB: “In addition to producing and broadcasting series and films that are negative about disabilities, this time, in an extremist approach, it announced “having perfect health and no physical disabilities” as a general recruitment requirement!”
A user named "Nada," who introduced herself as hearing-impaired and a member of the campaign to pursue the rights of people with disabilities, reacted to this discrimination in a tweet: "Our group studied with great difficulty, even in university, they were much more successful than healthy people. Unfortunately, instead of supporting official employment, the government takes away the three percent quota for employment rights under the pretext that people must be in perfect physical health. They should officially say that disabled people should go and die."
Of course, different jobs require different physical and mental activities that may not be possible for some people with disabilities, but firstly, the number of such cases is much more limited than imagined, and in many cases, it is possible to employ people with disabilities by providing conventional facilities in the workplace. Secondly, many people with physical disabilities who will not be able to take the IRIB employment test due to the condition of "full health and no physical disability" do not even need special facilities to do the job. For example, those who are considered physically disabled due to the lack of one or more fingers or the shortening of one of their legs will easily be able to perform the job duties of an electrical or computer engineer.
Repeated discrimination against women and non-Muslims
In addition to people with disabilities, women and religious minorities have also been directly and explicitly discriminated against by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization. The IRIB recruitment advertisement does not impose gender restrictions only in Tehran province, and in other provinces, according to the explicit text of the advertisement, “the applicant must be a man and a native of the relevant province.”
Depriving women of the right to employment in many professions, especially engineering professions, is common in many private and government advertisements, and employers, without giving any reason, declare that the applicant must be a “man.” In contrast, for administrative and secretarial professions, in many cases, employment is exclusively for women. This practice clearly shows how widespread gender stereotypes are in Iran. This is despite the fact that any type of discrimination in employment that is based solely on gender is illegal and violates Article 20 of the Constitution, Article 3 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 3 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
On the other hand, the advertisement mentions “belief in and practical commitment to Islam and the authority of the jurist” as a condition of employment, which means the exclusion of religious minorities, even those recognized in the constitution. Also, making belief in Islam and the authority of the jurist a condition means the authorization of inquisition, which the constitution prohibits.
A Tehran-based lawyer who spoke to the campaign about the legal objections to the ad said: "There was a lot of debate about whether belief should be a condition or a practical obligation, and some people suggested that practical obligation is sufficient, meaning that it is enough that a person does not do something contrary to Islam and the guardianship of the jurist, because determining the belief of individuals requires inquisition, which is unacceptable. But this ad still talks about the issue of belief and has issued a permit for inquisition."
He also said about the ban on hiring non-Muslims: "Unfortunately, the requirement of being Muslim is very common in government advertisements, and even in simple jobs such as administrative work that have no political or cultural sensitivity, it is seen that non-Muslims are excluded, for reasons that are not clear."
Workers' commitment not to stop cooperation and not to request to leave the premises is an unnecessary and illegal restriction.
The IRIB’s recruitment advertisement, along with other discriminatory conditions, made hiring individuals in provincial centers conditional on them signing a notary’s promise that they would neither change their jobs nor request a change of workplace for ten years from the date of starting work. The reason for this condition is apparently that many individuals change their jobs or workplace after a short period of work in deprived and remote provinces, depriving the organization of a specialist workforce that has improved its professional skills after an initial period of work.
But no interest justifies the simultaneous deprivation of the right to choose a job and the right to choose a place of residence for a period of ten years. First, according to Article 21 of the Labor Law, resignation is the right of the worker, and the worker, like the employer, has the right to terminate the employment contract with prior notice and a period of one month. While the notarial commitment mentioned in this advertisement means the deprivation of the worker's right to resign. Regarding the prohibition on requesting a change of location, it should be said that if this prohibition were raised alone and without the deprivation of the right to resign, it could have been justified, but the juxtaposition of these two prohibitions will put workers in difficult situations.
Articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which are also binding and have the force of law for the Iranian government, oblige the government to respect the freedom of individuals to choose their occupation and, in addition to not creating obstacles to the professional growth and advancement of individuals, to also provide the necessary facilities in this regard.
On the other hand, a ten-year commitment to employment and consequently residence in a specific location and not requesting to leave the location violates the right of individuals to choose their place of residence and prohibits forcing them to reside in a specific location. Only by law and as a punishment can a person be forced to reside in a location for ten years and not request to leave the location. As mentioned, it is understandable that organizations, due to the tendency of individuals to work and reside in large cities, face a shortage of skilled labor in deprived cities and want to counter this trend. However, the way to counter such a trend is certainly not to deprive individuals of the freedom to choose their place of employment and residence by obtaining an official commitment letter for a period of ten years. On the contrary, considering special and tangible benefits for employment in deprived areas, or declaring that the employer is not obligated to agree to a change in place of employment, can be appropriate solutions to solve this problem.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
