Head of Sanandaj Religious School: Sunni Clerics Are Not Allowed to Travel to Sunni Cities

Hassan Amini, the head of Imam Bukhari Religious Sciences School in Sanandaj, announced that the situation for Sunnis under Hassan Rouhani's government has "worsened," stating that Sunni clerics are not allowed to travel to Sunni-majority cities, and the Ministry of Intelligence has prevented him from traveling to Zahedan. In an interview with the Human Rights Campaign in Iran, he expressed his intention to attend a graduation ceremony for Sunni students in Zahedan, which was obstructed by the Sanandaj Intelligence Office summoning him. Amini also mentioned that he was detained for ten days after a speech at the graduation ceremony of Maki Mosque's Dar al-Uloom in Zahedan in 2009, and since then, he has been barred from traveling to Zahedan. Another prominent Sunni cleric, Molavi Gorgij, the Sunni Friday prayer leader of the Baluch in Azadshahr, Golestan province, was also prevented from traveling to Zahedan for the same graduation ceremony on April 12. Amini stated that Sunni clerics are only allowed to meet each other in Tehran. He added, "The Ministry of Intelligence told me I should not go. I asked why not, and they said the ceremony is specific to them. I said religious and scientific ceremonies are not exclusive; you invite everyone from all provinces to Tehran for Unity Week, including foreign countries, so how can this be exclusive?" Molavi Abdulhamid, the most recognized Sunni figure within the Islamic Republic framework, also reported last December that he faced restrictions on traveling to most provinces in Iran. The travel restrictions on Abdulhamid come despite the Supreme Leader's unprecedented response in September 2017 to his letter criticizing discrimination against Sunnis, stating that the pillars of the Islamic Republic must not discriminate among Iranians "according to the Constitution." Meanwhile, Ali Younesi, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani on ethnic and religious minorities, called for "positive discrimination" for the presence of "ethnic minorities" and Sunnis in government positions, stating that depriving minorities of social positions is contrary to "national security and cohesion." However, Amini stated that the situation for Sunnis has not changed positively since Rouhani's presidency and has "worsened." He announced that the Council of the Sunni Jurisprudence Assembly in Kurdistan has halted its activities due to summons and threats from the Ministry of Intelligence, and some Sunni schools have also been closed. The Jurisprudence Assembly of a group of Sunni scholars in Iran suspended its activities on July 13, 2017. Sunnis are also deprived of having mosques in Tehran, and in 2015, a Sunni prayer house in the Punak area of Tehran was demolished "by municipal forces" with "support from security and police forces." Prominent Sunni figures supported Hassan Rouhani in the 2017 presidential election, with Kurdistan and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces giving him the highest votes at 75% and about 73%, respectively. After Rouhani's victory, the Sunni representatives' faction in the parliament requested that "prominent Sunni elites also have a significant presence among the proposed ministers of the twelfth government," but ultimately, no Sunni minister was appointed. Following that, Hasal Daseh, a Kurdish political activist and former parliament representative, stated anonymously that "some Shia religious authorities contacted Hassan Rouhani and some reformist leaders, requesting that no Sunni minister be appointed." The appointment of a Sunni governor for provinces with a Sunni majority was also among the demands from Rouhani's government, but this request was ignored. Meanwhile, reports indicate that Hasal Daseh and Jalal Jalali Zadeh, two former Sunni parliament representatives and officials in Rouhani's campaign in western Iran, were summoned and interrogated by the Ministry of Intelligence in the fall of 2017. In Rouhani's first government, Emad Hosseini, a Sunni parliament representative, was appointed as Deputy Minister of Oil, and Saleh Adibi was appointed as the first Kurdish Sunni ambassador to Vietnam and Cambodia. In Rouhani's second government, Soleiman Pak Seresht, a Kurdish Sunni from Iran, was appointed as the head of the Technical and Vocational Organization of the country. In addition to Sunnis, followers of Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian religions in Iran, recognized as three religious minorities in the Constitution, are also deprived of holding high government positions. Meanwhile, the status of Sepanta Niknam, a Zoroastrian member of Yazd City Council who has been suspended by the Administrative Justice Court, remains unclear. Baha'is, another religious minority group in Iran, are also deprived of rights such as education in universities and holding government jobs.