John Bowis, MEP, and Justin Hinchcliffe stand up for Iran's religious minorities 11/07/06

The European Commission has promised to continue to keep a close eye on Iran over the way it treats religious minorities after John Bowis, a Conservative MEP for London, wrote to the External Affairs Commissioner at the request of Justin Hinchcliffe, Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives.

The Commission said that it shared Conservative concerns with regard to the deteriorating situation of religious minorities in Iran.

Justin Hinchcliffe said: “Iranian religious minorities, even the constitutionally-recognised minorities of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, are denied equal rights in law and in practice. Among them, unrecognised religious minorities such as the Baha’i community are at particular risk; their followers face arbitrary arrests and detention, harassment and ‘demonisation’ campaigns in the Iranian state-controlled media.”

John Bowis, a Conservative MEP for the London Region, wrote to Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the External Affairs Commissioner, to voice his concerns over widespread intolerance towards religious minorities and women. A recent law passed by the Majlis, aims to regulate women’s fashion and the creation of a fashion house that would make ‘Islamically appropriate’ clothing – leading to fears that the State would soon seek to draw up a specific dress code and/or identifying badges for religious minorities.

John Bowis, MEP, commented: “The treatment of religious minorities, women and minority groups in Iran is appalling as basic human rights are violated. I am pleased that the EU is to continue to monitor the situation and keep the pressure up. I will ensure that those two pledges are honoured.”

The EU’s General Affairs and External Relation Council (GAERC) has now adopted the following motion: “The Council remains deeply concerned about the situation in Iran. It expresses its concern about the increasing number of executions, arbitrary detentions, the growing restriction on access to information, the increasing violations of freedom of speech and religion as well as the intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders, lawyers and minority groups”.

ENDS.