Mohammad Yazdi: The Expulsion of Zoroastrian City Council Member from Yazd is 'Irreversible'

Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardian Council, stated on Tuesday, October 24, in an interview with Tasnim News Agency, that the expulsion of Spenta Niknam, a Zoroastrian member of the Yazd City Council, is definitive and irreversible, asserting that the election of this religious minority in Yazd is 'against Sharia'. He emphasized: 'The Constitution and the action of the Guardian Council state that the election of this gentleman in the Yazd City Council is illegal and against Sharia, and this violation of Sharia cannot be overturned by anyone.' Following a complaint by Ali-Asghar Bagheri, a defeated candidate in the Yazd City Council elections, the Administrative Justice Court issued a ruling in September to suspend Spenta Niknam's membership in the council, and this ruling has been executed. The Administrative Justice Court announced that this ruling was issued based on the opinion of Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the Secretary of the Guardian Council, who deemed the membership of religious minorities in city and village councils to be prohibited. This decision has faced protests, with Gholamali Sefid, the head of the Yazd City Council, insisting that he will not comply with this ruling, Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, calling the ruling 'illegal', and Esfandiar Bakhtiari, the representative of Zoroastrians in the Assembly, stating that Spenta Niknam was elected and should be reinstated. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, also deemed the expulsion of Spenta Niknam from the Yazd City Council unacceptable and announced that if the disagreement with the Guardian Council is not resolved, the issue will be pursued through the Dispute Resolution Committee of the powers. Larijani's comments about pursuing the issue of Niknam's expulsion through the 'Dispute Resolution Committee' come despite the fact that this committee had previously upheld the Guardian Council's opinion in a disagreement between the Guardian Council and the Ministry of Interior regarding the 'annulment' of the votes of Minoo Khalighi, the third elected representative of Isfahan in the tenth parliament. In his interview with Tasnim on Tuesday, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi commented on the protests against Niknam's expulsion, stating: 'The parliament has no right to intervene in this matter, as the Sharia aspect of parliamentary resolutions must also be according to the opinions of the Guardian Council's jurists, and these jurists must approve the resolutions from a Sharia perspective; therefore, they have unnecessarily stirred up noise about this issue and turned it into a political and social matter.' This member of the Guardian Council explained the reason for Niknam's expulsion by stating that 'in any case, he was elected in a manner that is against Sharia, as the vast majority of the people of Yazd are Muslim, and a minority of a few thousand are Zoroastrian. If a matter pertains to Zoroastrians, their representative should decide on their personal affairs, but in public matters, they are subject to general regulations, and their legal and criminal claims must be referred to the judiciary, while their personal status claims should be addressed by their own leaders in each religion.' Yazdi mentioned that 'a gentleman has come and been elected as a member of the Yazd City Council, and this report was submitted to the Guardian Council,' stating: 'I was present in the six-member session of the Guardian Council's jurists, and the majority of the jurists unanimously declared that this religious minority has no right to make decisions for a population that is mostly Muslim, and this is against Sharia.' Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardian Council and President of the Society of Teachers of Qom Seminary, emphasized: 'This decision is a legal, Sharia-compliant, definitive, and irreversible decision, and no one can overturn this law.' Meanwhile, a reporter from Tasnim News Agency asked Yazdi, 'Specifically, please explain why religious minorities can have representatives in the Islamic Consultative Assembly and elect them, but this is not the case in city and village councils?' He explained that 'religious minorities have representatives in the Assembly and can express their opinions on the Assembly's resolutions, but they cannot express opinions in other areas. In this situation, where a Jewish and Christian representative has voted on an Assembly resolution, if after referral to the Guardian Council, this council deems it against Sharia, the Assembly is obliged to amend its resolution and cannot act according to the opinions of minorities.' Spenta Niknam was also a member of the Yazd City Council in the fourth term. In the fifth term of the Yazd City Council, he was elected as the seventh member with 21,717 votes. The state news agency of Iran reports that given the population of 6,000 Zoroastrians in Yazd, a significant portion of his votes came from 'Muslim' citizens of the city. Mr. Niknam announced on October 13 regarding his expulsion that there would be a 'calm and peaceful sit-in' by the people of Yazd in front of the Yazd governorate and called on officials to 'respect the people's votes as they chant.'