Younesi Describes Treatment of Dervishes as 'Self-Directed' and Contrary to Interests

The special assistant to the President of Iran for ethnic and minority affairs described the treatment of dervishes in the country as 'unfortunate' and a 'self-directed action' that is contrary to the 'interests and laws of the Islamic Republic.' According to him, these actions occurred in the past and have not 'repeated.' In a press conference on Friday, January 6, Ali Younesi, special assistant to Hassan Rouhani, responded to a question about the treatment of dervishes in recent years, stating: 'They were unfortunate events and it was not in the interest for them to happen, and they have not been repeated.' This senior official's claim about the non-recurrence of these 'unfortunate events' comes despite evidence and reports, particularly during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, indicating their recurrence and a lack of will to prevent them. Younesi characterized these actions as 'self-directed' and 'outside the will of the government and the authority of the Islamic Republic,' adding that the Islamic Republic 'is in no way in favor of these extremisms.' He further stated: 'The law grants rights to every Iranian citizen, and if that citizen belongs to any religion or sect, they have rights, and no one has the right to infringe on the rights of another, and this act is a crime.' He emphasized: 'What happened was contrary to the interests and laws of the Islamic Republic.' The Human Rights Defenders Center, chaired by Shirin Ebadi, wrote in an open letter to Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, that the Gonabadi dervishes in Iran have faced 'continuous harassment such as imprisonment, deprivation of social rights, threats...' for over 15 years. Following the rise of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government in 2005, the destruction of Gonabadi dervish prayer houses and their arrests intensified in several cities. Concurrently, some Shia clerics also attacked dervishes in their speeches. For instance, Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamadani, a Shia cleric in Qom, stated in 2007 that 'in the narratives from the Imams, it is mentioned that Sufis are our enemies.' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has also criticized what he calls 'emergent mysticisms' in recent years. In response to these attacks, Mehdi Karroubi, the Secretary-General of the National Trust Party, criticized the destruction of dervish prayer houses and their treatment in a letter to clerics in 2006. Several Gonabadi dervishes who have been arrested in recent years remain in prison, and some have gone on hunger strikes. For instance, in September, nine imprisoned dervishes in Evin prison in Tehran and the Shiraz prison went on hunger strike for 34 days. A number of Gonabadi dervishes held three protests in support of these prisoners in front of the Tehran judiciary, which turned violent when security forces attacked, resulting in the arrest of several protesters. In this context, a 'peaceful gathering' of Gonabadi dervishes in front of the Ministry of Justice in Tehran called for the release of imprisoned dervishes in Iran. Nine dervishes in Tehran and Shiraz prisons ended their hunger strike. The special assistant to the President of Iran stated that keeping a dangerous individual for national security is better than eliminating him.