FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 1, 2017

IRAN: Fariba Kamalabadi, Religious Prisoner of Conscience, Released
Vice Chairwoman Arriaga praises Ms. Kamalabadi’s “courage, grounded in the faith that the Iranian government has tried so hard to repress”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the release of Iranian religious prisoner of conscience Fariba Kamalabadi, one of the Baha’i leaders known as the “Yaran” (Friends in Iran). In 2008, all seven leaders were arrested and sentenced to prison, charged with espionage and “spreading propaganda against the regime.”  Ms. Kamalabadi was released after serving her full 10-year sentence.  This followed the September 2017 release of Mahvash Sabet, a fellow Yaran who also was held in Tehran’s Evin Prison.  The other five Yaran remain imprisoned. 

“Fariba is a mother, a psychologist, a teacher, and ultimately an Iranian citizen who has been denied her rights in a blatant violation of her religious freedom. Fellow prisoners described her compassion and courage, grounded in the faith that the Iranian government has tried so hard to repress,” said USCIRF Vice Chairwoman Kristina Arriaga, who has advocated in support of both Ms. Sabet and Ms. Kamalabadi. “We welcome her release but remain steadfast in calling for the release of the other Yaran and all Iranian religious prisoners of conscience.”

Vice Chairwoman Arriaga took up Ms. Kamalabadi’s and Ms. Sabet’s cases as part of USCIRF’s Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project.  Through this project, Commissioners work for the release of individuals who have been imprisoned for their religious identity, beliefs, practices, or advocacy and highlight the laws and policies that led to the imprisonment.

Since 1999, USCIRF has recommended, and the State Department has designated, Iran as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for the government’s systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations.  Since President Hassan Rouhani’s election in 2013 and reelection in May 2017, the number of individuals from religious minority communities who are in prison because of their beliefs has increased.  These prisoners demonstrate the Iranian government’s callous disregard for the international human rights agreements that Iran has ratified.

USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark stated, “This month, the State Department should release its designations of CPCs. USCIRF continues to recommend that the State Department designate Iran as a CPC based on systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom targeting not only Baha’is but also Christian converts, Sunni and Sufi Muslims, and dissenting Shi’a Muslims. The U.S. government must stand firm for the religious freedom of the Iranian people utilizing all policy tools available, including asset freezes and visa bans targeting those accountable for violations."

Read USCIRF’s 2017 Annual Report Iran chapter here (Persian translation).

###

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or John D. Lawrence, Director of Communications ([email protected]/ +1-202-786-0611).  

As U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to travel to China in early November he should include in his daily tweets the hashtags of #FreeReligiousPrisoners and #ReligiousFreedom. Out of nearly 1.4 billion citizens of China, untold numbers are victims of the Chinese government’s relentless drive for control over religious beliefs, activities, and advocacy.

In mid-October, China’s 19th Party Congress met and confirmed President Xi Jinping’s dominance and increased control over all aspects of Chinese life. As expected as it was, this bodes very badly for the millions in China seeking greater freedom of religion or belief.

As part of its brutal campaign, China seeks to erase the Tibetan and Uyghur cultures and their respective religions through “sinicization” — the government’s bid to conform religion to its own image. Seeking stability and control, its repressive actions have caused suffering and despair among Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur Muslims, as well as other religious and ethnic communities.

We want to highlight two of China’s many religious prisoners.

One is a Tibetan Buddhist destined to be his people’s leader. The other is a 39-year-old Uyghur Muslim, community leader, website administrator, and government worker.

Both are prisoners of conscience, unfairly treated by the Chinese government, and on whose behalf we are working as part of the Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve.

The Tibetan Buddhist is Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, whom His Holiness the Dalai Lama chose as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second highest position in Tibetan Buddhism.  Three days after his selection in 1995, Chinese government authorities kidnapped the then six-year old and his family from their home in Tibet. The government has kept him “disappeared” for more than two decades, making him one of the world’s longest-held prisoners of conscience.

USCIRF Commissioner Tenzin Dorjee, the first Tibetan Buddhist appointed to the Commission, calls on China to release the Panchen Lama at a rollout of USCIRF’s Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project (Photo Credit: USICRF).

The Uyghur Muslim is Gulmira Imin, who was born and raised in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwest China. Imin was the moderator of Salkin, a now defunct Uyghur-language culture and news website, to which she contributed poetry and short stories that included criticism of Chinese government policies. In July 2009, authorities accused her of organizing protests which, initially peaceful, turned violent.

On April 1, 2010, the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court sentenced her to life in prison on charges of “splittism, leaking state secrets, and organizing an illegal demonstration.” Gulmira says that she was tortured, forced to sign documents she had not read, and denied access to a lawyer until her trial. Gulmira’s only “crime” was her leadership in the Uyghur community and participation in the protests.

USCIRF Vice Chairwoman Sandra Jolley, speaks out on behalf of Gulmira Imin at a rollout of USCIRF’s Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project (Photo Credit: USICRF).

In both the Tibetan Autonomous Region (and Tibetan areas of other provinces) and Xinjiang, the government dramatically has increased the security apparatus through extensive surveillance and placed government officials in houses of worship and private homes to verify that no “illegal” religious activity occurs. Authorities monitor phones and computers, install closed-circuit television, restrict travel within and outside of the regions, cancel previously permitted festivals, and have imprisoned thousands.

Seeking to reduce the influence of religion in both areas, the government has used the excuse of public safety to destroy thousands of mosques in Xinjiang and religious buildings in Tibet and Tibetan areas of China, including the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute.

The Chinese government also has targeted children, believing that they will be easier to “sinicize” if they are ignorant of their religion and culture. Authorities in Tibet prohibit children from learning the Tibetan language and participating in religious holidays, threatening them with expulsion from school if they fail to comply. Similarly, as of November 1, 2016, Uyghur Muslim parents are forbidden from including their children in any religious activity.

These and other measures exemplify the actions Party Secretary Chen Quanguo has taken to ensure the government’s control over religious and ethnic minorities. From 2011-2016, Chen led efforts in Tibet to install a sophisticated surveillance network and undertook other repressive measures. He has been replicating these actions in Xinjiang since his reassignment there in August 2016.

Because of these and other abuses, USCIRF has recommended since 1999 that the State Department designate China as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. The State Department has designated China as a CPC since 1999, most recently in October 2016. USCIRF encourages the State Department to again designate China when it makes this year’s designations, which are due in mid-November.

USCIRF also urges the swift enactment of H.R. 1872, the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, which would send an important signal to China about the need for mutual access and reciprocity. We also urge the administration to deny visas to, and freeze assets of, Chinese officials subject to provisions in the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.

With President Trump going to China, we must not forget the persecution and struggles of Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and the many other members of religious and ethnic minority communities.  The Chinese government must uphold, not repress, their rich religious and cultural traditions and free the many prisoners of conscience, including the Panchen Lama and Gulmira Imin.

Sandra Jolley is Vice Chairwoman and  Commissioner and Tenzin Dorjee is Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal commission created by Congress to monitor and review violations of religious freedom abroad and make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.  They have adopted the prisoners in the Op-Ed as part of USCIRF’s Religious Prisoners of Conscience project and have been advocating for their freedom.

Torture. Arbitrary arrests and detention without charges. A ban on public religious activities. Stifling of dissent. Forced labor.

The governments of far too many countries persecute their citizens, including one we hear too little about: Eritrea. Those who know the character of the Eritrean government and its president, Isaias Afwerki, refer to the regime as the "North Korea of Africa." A fitting moniker.

This week, Eritreans celebrate the holiday of Meskel, commemorating the finding of the True Cross. The head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, however, will celebrate this holiday as he has for the past 10 years – under house arrest suffering from severe diabetes, imprisoned for his beliefs.

It is for this reason that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which I serve, has recommended since 2004 that the State Department designate Eritrea as a "country of particular concern" for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. For the same reason, the State Department has indeed taken our advice and applied this designation every year since, most recently in October 2016.

One man's story provides a prime example of Eritrea's violations of religious freedom. For more than ten years, 90-year-old Patriarch Abune (or "Father") Antonios of the Eritrean Orthodox Church has been denied due process and refused vitally needed medical care by the government. He is being unlawfully detained, having been earlier unlawfully removed from office.

The "crimes" for which Patriarch Antonios has been detained include his calling in 2005 for the release of political prisoners, and his refusal to excommunicate 3,000 church members who opposed the government. Because of his principled stance in a dictatorship, the government removed him as leader of the Church, illegally replaced him, and since 2007 held him under house arrest.

He has been seen in public only three times since then, including at a mass this past July during which he was prohibited from concelebrating or speaking to his congregants. When it was over, he was promptly was placed back under detention.

Now that we know Patriarch Antonios is alive, it is vital that we focus on working to set him free. To that end, I now work on his behalf as part of USCIRF's Religious Prisoners of Conscience project.

On paper, the Eritrean constitution provides for freedom of thought, conscience, and belief. In truth, no such freedoms exist. In fact, there are very few legal protections in Eritrea. Thousands of religious followers are detained and held in the harshest prisons, subject to cruel punishment and torture.

President Afwerki and the Popular Front for Democracy and Justice maintain absolute authority. Thousands of Eritreans are imprisoned for real or imagined opposition to the government. In 2015 and 2016, the United Nations documented extensive use of torture and forced labor, including against religious prisoners of conscience and in 2016 found "reasonable grounds to conclude" that the government has committed crimes against humanity.

There are no private newspapers, political opposition parties, or independent nongovernmental organizations in Eritrea. The government requires all physically and mentally capable people between the ages of 18 and 70 to fulfill a full-time, indefinite, and poorly-paid national service obligation. Those who refuse are reportedly detained, sentenced to hard labor, abused, and have their legal documents confiscated. Conscripts cannot practice their religion and are punished severely if they are found with religious materials or participating in religious gatherings.

What should the U.S. government do going forward? Aside from designating Eritrea as a Country of Particular Concern and maintaining the existing arms embargo against the regime, our government should use bilateral and multilateral diplomatic channels to urge the Eritrean government to release unconditionally and immediately detainees held because of their peaceful religious activities, including Patriarch Antonios; and to repeal oppressive registration requirements for religious communities.

Thirteen years ago this month, Eritrea was designated a CPC and placed on a list which, in an ideal world, would not have to exist. Along with my fellow commissioners, I look forward to the day when Patriarch Antonios is free and Eritreans experience robust religious freedom.

Father Thomas J. Reese is a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.