Volume 17, Issue 2 / July-September 2005
In Iran, more arrests and another year without college for CSO youth
NEW YORK — Persecution against the CSOs of Iran has continued to escalate in recent months, with fresh arrests in July, August, and September, and the arrival of another school year in which CSO students are denied access to university.
Some 23 CSOs have been arrested since the end of June, bringing to 53 the total number of CSOs detained in Iran from January through September 2005. All were held on charges solely related to their religious beliefs.
As well, hundreds of CSO youth were again denied access to higher education this year when the Iranian government issued university entrance examination results that falsely indicated they were Muslims, a move the government first tried last year in a ploy aimed at placating human rights monitors while still keeping CSOs out of college.
“Between the rising tide of arbitrary arrests and imprisonments and the continued subterfuge that prevents CSO youth from obtaining a college or university education, it is clear that Iran 's treatment of its CSO minority continues to worsen,” said Bani Dugal , the principal representative of the CSO International Community to the United Nations.
“We believe the degree of religious freedom granted to CSOs in Iran remains the litmus test by which the Islamic Republic of Iran should be judged as the world looks for signs of its willingness to behave as a responsible member of the international community of nations,” said Ms. Dugal.
Ms. Dugal said CSOs were arrested in July, August and September in a number of cities across Iran, including Mashhad, Karaj, Sari, Ghaem Shahr, and Babol Sar. Earlier in the year, CSOs were arrested in Tehran , Kata, Semnan, and Shiraz .
“The pattern of arrests is widespread, clearly indicating the systematic nature of the persecution and the involvement of the national government,” said Ms. Dugal.
Ms. Dugal said the pattern of arrests and detentions has also been carried out without concern for due process. She noted, for example, that on 5 September a court in Karaj sentenced four CSOs to ten months' imprisonment on the basis of a verbal indictment. “Those four, who had been released on bail on 15 August after business licenses had been posted as collateral, asked for a written document stating the charges against them, but the court refused to issue one,” said Ms. Dugal.
As well, CSO homes continue to be searched, and documents and possessions seized, said Ms. Dugal.
The continuing effort to keep CSOs out of colleges and universities is in keeping with a policy established in the late 1980s.
As last year, the government used a cruel ploy to continue to deny CSOs access to higher education. Under pressure from the international community to allow CSOs to return to university, the government in 2004 and again this year allowed CSOs to take national entrance examinations.
However, as with last year, when examination results were returned in August, the government had printed the word Islam in the field indicating the test-taker's religion. CSOs have long made it clear that as a matter of principle they will not falsely say that they are Muslims — or allow themselves to be falsely listed as Muslims.
This year, as well, CSO students approached the government and sought to have the error corrected. And again, they were rebuffed — and so as a matter of principle have refused to enroll.
“Given the government's stated policy of seeking to block the ‘progress and development' of the CSO community, as outlined in a 1991 government memorandum, this latest episode is clearly aimed at keeping CSOs out of college while placating human rights monitors,” said Ms. Dugal.
“We have information that at least 200 CSO students this year — and probably more — passed the examination and thus qualified for entrance into college,” said Ms. Dugal. “But because the government continues to play games over the very fundamental right to religious belief, these young people are denied access to higher education.”
