Second-Class Representatives

"You have just become a minority for four years and you protest so much; what should we say, who have been a minority for 3000 years?" This statement was made by Maurice Motamed, the Jewish representative in the seventh parliament, when reformist representatives visited Mehdi Karroubi and spoke about the pressure from conservatives. The presence of religious minority representatives in the parliament has been repeatedly highlighted in the Islamic Republic's propaganda to prove that religious minorities in Iran have equal rights with other citizens. However, these representatives, based on unwritten laws, do not play a serious role in the Iranian parliament and are considered second-class representatives. They even face many difficulties in selecting their office managers from among their co-religionists, and most of their office managers are Muslims because finding someone from religious minorities who is both approved by the responsible authorities in parliament and familiar with the laws and administrative conditions is very difficult. It is even rumored in parliament that some of their office managers are close to security institutions. Religious minority representatives are also not active in political matters and rarely speak in opposition or support of bills, to the extent that when Maurice Motamed signed some of the reformist representatives' notices, journalists referred to it as a special event. The representatives of religious minorities have the experience of Sargun Bit Oushana, the representative of Assyrian Christians and head of the health commission in the first parliament, before them. He was one of the prominent figures in the first parliament, both due to his presidency of the health commission and his jokes and personal traits. As Serge Barsghian wrote in Iranian history, he would tell other representatives that "I am Imam's line" and during the intense conflicts of those days in parliament, he would separate the parties with his large stature and say to send blessings... However, he also understood the "Imam's line" closely when he was asked in detention if he knew where he was, and he said, "the end of Imam's line!" Sargun Bit Oushana was arrested on charges of membership in the Tudeh Party and was forced to confess on television to issues such as espionage. However, his position as head of the health commission saved him, and as Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani wrote in his memoirs, on October 12, 1983, in a meeting with him and Ayatollah Khamenei, the then-president, with judicial, security, and executive officials about determining the status of detained members of the Tudeh Party, it was decided that Sargun Bit Oushana would be released on bail. This member of the first parliament was also a member of the Assembly of Experts for Constitution and one of the designers of Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution, which emphasizes the transfer of governmental activities to the private sector. After Sargun Bit Oushana, other representatives of religious minorities did not have the opportunity to chair parliamentary commissions. Membership in the presiding board is also almost impossible for them due to the usual red lines and lack of ability to negotiate with other representatives. In the elections for the presiding board of parliament, either candidates from victorious political factions win or representatives from some provinces form coalitions. The presence of one of the representatives of religious minorities in the presiding board of parliament has never been a priority for any of the political factions in parliament. The salary of religious minority representatives for a month is equivalent to the salary of a day for Muslim representatives. The main activities of religious minority representatives are summarized in following up on the affairs of their constituents and their speeches. These speeches sometimes protest against discriminatory laws, the discriminatory performance of government agencies, or the confiscation of cultural centers, cemeteries, and lands of religious minorities, albeit in a milder tone than the critical speeches of other representatives. Every now and then, religious minority representatives prepare proposals to reduce some of the discriminations against their co-religionists. However, most of these proposals are archived by the end of the parliaments, and only a few of them may yield results after several years. Among the issues that all religious minority representatives have repeatedly protested in recent years is "Article 881 of the Civil Code," which states that "a non-Muslim does not inherit from a Muslim, and if there is a Muslim among the heirs of a deceased non-Muslim, the non-Muslim heirs do not inherit even if they are prior in class and degree to the Muslim." According to these representatives, this law has become an excuse for some religious minorities to claim that they have converted to Islam and thus inherit all their parents' wealth. In 2012, 39 members of parliament proposed a bill that would exempt religious minorities recognized in the constitution of the Islamic Republic from this law. However, after more than four years, this bill has still not yielded results. Religious minority representatives also occasionally deliver speeches and take actions that are interpreted as obligatory speeches or based on expediency. For instance, whenever the conflicts between Israel and Palestine escalate, the Jewish representative delivers a speech condemning Israel's actions. It has happened that Muslim representatives have allocated their one-day salary to help Palestine and similar issues, but religious minority representatives have allocated their one-month salary. In their discussions with other representatives and journalists, they always complain that they are under pressure from both sides. The security institutions of the Islamic Republic closely monitor them, radical representatives of parliament protest against them, and on the other hand, some human rights groups abroad accuse them of collaborating with the government, especially when they accompany human rights delegations or officials on foreign trips as a common practice. However, they say that those members of religious minorities who insist on living in Iran and do not emigrate have no choice but to pursue their rights through interaction with the Islamic Republic, as their situation is not of much importance to political currents, media, or even the public. In the Iranian constitution, only Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are recognized as religious minorities. Southern Armenians, Northern Armenians, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews each have one representative in parliament. However, Islamic Republic officials are not very keen on using the term Jewish, and therefore the term "Kilim" is used for Jews in the laws. Sunni representatives and the double minority of Sunnis in Iran, although considered a religious minority, have a different status in terms of laws and conditions than religious minorities, and there is no specific quota for them in the laws of Iran. They can run for elections and be elected like Shiites. Usually, representatives from cities with a Sunni majority are Sunni, and in some cities like Urmia, there has also been a Sunni representative in some periods. Although there is no legal prohibition against Sunni candidates from large cities like Tehran, political groups do not include them in their lists, and they have no chance of being elected from these cities. On average, about 20 Sunni representatives, mainly from the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, and Khorasan, enter parliament in each parliamentary term. Sunni representatives have a suitable opportunity for negotiation and presence in the presiding board of parliament in terms of numbers, but even so, for the first time in the tenth parliament, a Sunni member was elected to the presiding board. In the elections for the temporary presiding board of the tenth parliament, Mohammad Qasim Osmani, the representative of Boukan, and Abdul Karim Hossein Zadeh, the representative of Naqdeh and Oshnavieh, were elected as members of the presiding board, but in the elections for the permanent presiding board, only Osmani succeeded in joining the presiding board. Mohammad Qasim Osmani was politically active in previous parliamentary terms and spoke in defense of the impeachment of Ali Kordan, the Minister of Interior in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, in the eighth parliament. In the sixth parliament, Jalal Jalali Zadeh, the representative of Sanandaj, was also elected as a member of the temporary presiding board, but several religious authorities contacted Mehdi Karroubi, the Speaker of Parliament, and Mohammad Khatami, the then-President, to protest the presence of a Sunni representative in the presiding board. After these protests, several reformist representatives did not vote for Jalali Zadeh in the elections for the permanent presiding board, and he was thus prevented from joining the permanent presiding board. Sunni representatives in parliament are also in a double minority due to their ethnicity. The provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, Kurdistan, and West Azerbaijan have always been the scene of armed conflicts with the Iranian government. Due to these conditions, representatives from these provinces are more closely monitored by security institutions. On the one hand, government-affiliated agencies expect these representatives to condemn armed opposition groups, and on the other hand, they are sometimes accused of collaborating with the government in their electoral constituencies. These representatives even sometimes face jokes from other representatives due to their last names, for instance, after Abdul Malik Rigi became famous, the surname Rigi at the end of Hamid Reza Pashang Rigi's name caused him trouble in parliament, and for this reason, this suffix was used less in parliamentary discussions over time. Shiite representatives in parliament, if they are not elected in subsequent terms and are among the representatives close to the government, take on government positions. However, Sunni representatives and religious minorities are deprived of this opportunity as well. Emad Hosseini, the representative of Qorveh in the seventh and eighth parliaments, is the first Sunni to be appointed as a deputy minister, but it is unlikely that Hassan Rouhani's government would have the courage to appoint former representatives of religious minorities to high government positions.