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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized Iran for repressing the religious rights of people of a variety of faiths from Bahai to Zoroastrian and nonreligious communities and decried the use of violence against girls and young women who protested in the wake of Mahsa Aminis death. Amini, 22, perished after the countrys morality police detained her last year based on an accusation that her visible hair breached a headscarf law.

While religious freedom conditions in Iran were extremely poor even before protests began in September 2022, they have deteriorated considerably due to the governments severe brutality against Iranians peacefully asserting their religious freedom, said USCIRF Chair Nury Turkel, during a Monday (May 1) virtual event when the 2023 USCIRF report was released.

Irans security forces have shot and killed peaceful protesters, detained and tortured others, and engaged in a systematic campaign of sexual and gender-based violence against not only women and men, but boys and girls as well.

These circumstances were determined by USCIRF to be systematic, egregious, and ongoing religious freedom violations, which qualify Iran to remain on the State Departments list of countries of particular concern, or CPCs.

The watchdog has called for the redesignation of a total of a dozen countries as CPCs: Myanmar (which the department and USCIRF refer to as Burma), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

Protesters are pressing the Iranian regime for changes since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

In addition to Iran, USCIRF drew special attention to violations it has observed in Cuba and Nicaragua, two nations that were added to the State Departments list last year.

In Cuba, religious freedom conditions in 2022 worsened considerably, with the government seeking total dominance over religious life in the country, the watchdog said in its report. Additionally, the regime in Nicaragua has sharply increased its persecution of the Catholic Church by imprisoning clergy, shuttering church-affiliated organizations, and prohibiting Catholic rituals.

In its new report, USCIRF recommends five other nations be considered as additional CPCs: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Syria, and Vietnam.

Turkel expressed the commissioners disappointment that the State Department had not listed Nigeria nor India in its recent lists of CPCs. He noted that parts of Nigeria are hotbeds of persecution and said the Indian government enforces religious nationalist policies, including restriction on citizenship, religious conversion, interfaith marriage and cow slaughter that negatively affect people of a range of faiths.

USCIRF Vice Chair Abraham Cooper added that, while the commissioners appreciate the efforts of the Biden administration and Congress to address religious freedom, they would like to see the U.S. government do more to address the most egregious violations.

For example, we continue to urge the administration to use the CPC designation tool more effectively, as too many of the State Departments CPC countries are repeatedly named as such each year, but results in little to no substantive change, he said during the event. Accordingly, we recommend that the State Department impose meaningful consequences on violator governments when it actually names its CPC list, such as by not reissuing the waivers based on other U.S. interests that have so far allowed Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan to avoid penalties and other repercussions.

Other commissioners spoke of continuing concerns about blasphemy laws across the globe and ongoing Islamophobia and antisemitism, especially in Europe. They also addressed the violence aimed at clergy and religious institutions in Ukraine since the invasion by Russia, as well as the destruction of holy sites there.

USCIRF also is seeking for the first time that Sri Lanka be placed on the State Departments second-tier special watch list, citing discrimination against religious minorities in the form of targeted arrests using problematic legislation and appropriation of land and property.

The watchdog said two countries, Algeria and the Central African Republic, should be kept on the special watch list and Sri Lanka should be added along with eight others: Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.

The State Department currently includes Comoros and Vietnam on that second-tier list.

Overall, the bipartisan and independent advisory body assessed 28 countries for its 2023 annual report.

USCIRFs report includes other recommendations to the Biden administration and to Congress.

Among them was a request that the administration strengthen the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and prioritize for resettlement survivors of the most egregious forms of religious persecution. It also asked Congress to make USCIRFs reauthorization permanent.

The watchdog, which was last reauthorized in 2022, has in recent years received official approval to continue within weeks of a potential shuttering.

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Iran, 27 Other Countries Critiqued by Watchdog for Religious ... - Word and Way

In remarks during his annual speech at the shrine city of Mashhad on the occasion of the Persian New Year, which fell on March 21, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei touched on the perception that Iran is increasingly alienated from the rest of the world. The efforts and strengths of the Iranian nation resulted in us being able to join a number of important regional treaties. We werent isolated. Quite the contrary: We rose to prominence, and our relations with the regional governments and nations were empowered, Khamenei said. Strong relations with Africa and Latin America are part of our definite agenda and, God willing, we will pursue this plan, he added.

But despite the tendency of Iranian officials to present Irans supposedly strong ties with African states as a replacement for its atrophying relations with the European Union and lack of diplomatic ties with the United States, Iran has failed to forge robust partnerships across Africa. Iranian officials frequently talk about Africas untapped potential for trade. At present, however, Iranian-African trade remains marginal. According to the Iran and Africa Business Club, the trade volume between Iran and African countries reached just over $1.2 billion from March 21, 2022 to February 19, 2023. The Foreign Ministry speculates that trade with Africa will exceed $2 billion in 2023, which is still quite limited.

Over this period, the top destination for Irans exports in Africa was South Africa, importing goods totaling $304 million. South Africa exported $13.7 million worth of goods to Iran, as well. With figures this low, Iran is not even included among South Africas top 25 trade partners. And Tehran has failed to court other African heavyweights.

Tehrans footprint in the region pales in comparison to that of its neighbors. Saudi Arabias trade with South Africa exceeded $4.8 billion in 2021, and the kingdom is now seizing on $15 billion in deals signed with South Africa in 2022 to pursue long-term cooperation on renewable energy, industry, mining, tourism, and agriculture. Turkey reached over $34 billion in trade with African states in 2021 and has launched joint business councils with 45 countries on the continent.

With fewer than 20 embassies in Africa, Irans limited diplomatic presence underscores its lack of a vision for developing comprehensive relationships in Africa to compensate for its isolation elsewhere. In contrast, Turkey has embassies in 44 African countries, which it has used to develop strategic and diplomatic clout across the continent. Likewise, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has visited 30 African countries since taking power in 2003, former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani didnt visit Africa during his eight years in office, and the same holds true for his successor, Ebrahim Raisi, almost two years into his presidency. In late April, the Iranian government announced plans for Raisi to visit several unnamed African countries later in the year, and some African heads of state and government have been invited to Tehran as well.

Tehrans diplomatic absence is not the only reason it has been relegated to the role of a junior player on the worlds second-largest continent. Iran is also perceived as a malign actor by many governments in Africa largely due to its efforts to export its favored version of political Islam making them suspicious of Irans intentions and reluctant to embrace it as a trusted partner.

Morocco, a key player in the Muslim world and Africas sixth-largest economy, has been consistently antagonized by Iran, and the two countries relations have been checkered for years. In 2009, Rabat severed relations with Tehran after an advisor to Khamenei questioned Bahrains sovereignty while charging Iran with seeking to spread Shia Islam across Sunni-majority Morocco. After restoring relations five years later, Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Iran again in 2018, accusing it of using Hezbollah to support the Polisario independence movement.

Irans relations arent much better with Egypt, which doesnt have an official embassy in Iran and maintains travel restrictions on Iranians. Egypts 1979 peace treaty with Israel has long displeased Iranian officials, who, despite the emergence of the Abraham Accords and related Israeli-Gulf security cooperation, still bitterly view the pact as a toehold for Israel to integrate itself into the Muslim world.

Sporadic efforts aimed at a thaw have been mounted with the reform movements emergence in Iran in the late 1990s, and former President Mohammad Khatamis trip to Cairo in 2007 was a landmark visit that played a role in the two Muslim world powers working toward mending fences. Relations deteriorated under the hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and no ground was broken under his successor, Rouhani. However, there have been discussions recently about the possibility of a detente and improved relations. For instance, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has publicly acknowledged Tehrans interest in developing new bonds with Cairo and repairing a damaged relationship.

Despite the supreme leaders New Year assertions, Irans efforts to strengthen its foreign relations in key regions, including Africa, have made little headway. The ruling elites putative commitment to engagement in Africa hasnt produced concrete successes to validate their assertion that forging ties on the continent will allow Iran to overcome diplomatic and economic isolation. Countries in Africa indeed boast substantial capacities and resources that make them attractive economic and diplomatic partners, but without the theory of synergy translating into a detailed roadmap, no breakthrough should be expected for Irans overseas agenda.

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Why Isolated Iran's Turn to Africa Has Fallen Flat - Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington

At least 50 labor activists in Tehran, Kordestan and Gilan provinces have been summoned on the eve of International Workers Day.

Pressure increased on teacher and worker union activistsahead of International Workers Day, but rallies took place in Tehran and other cities mostly by retired workers.

Security agents have warned labor activists they are forbidden from attending May Day gatherings on Monday.

The Free Union of Iranian Workers announced that two members of its board of directors, were threatened and interrogated by intelligence agencies.

According to Hengaw Kurdish-Iranian human rights monitoring group, at least eight other labor activists have been summoned in the Western Kurdish city of Sanandaj.

The summons issued while calls for holding a rally to commemorate May Day have been published by the labor activists.

Meanwhile, the Writers' Association of Iran has called for the unconditional release of all labor activists, including Keyvan Mohtadi and other political prisoners.

The Council of Retirees of Iran also published a statement to slam the economic policies of the regime which have destroyed the life of workers.

On the eve of the international day of protests, the Central Council of Iran's National Front released a statement claiming Iranian workers are increasingly under economic pressures facing the most severe livelihood problems.

On Sunday, a group of 15 trade unions and civil rights groups issued a statement on the eve of International Workers' Day to voice support for the ongoing protests and strikes in Iran.

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Iran Regime Summons Tens Of Labor Activists Ahead Of May Day -

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An ongoing wave of dissent relentlessly continues across Iran. With the clerical regimes demise on the horizon, there are various speculations about what strategy results faster in regime change. Among the promoted options is civil disobedience. But would it work?

Civil disobedience is a form of nonviolent resistance where individuals intentionally break laws or regulations to challenge unjust government actions or policies. It was popularized by Henry David Thoreau in his essay Civil Disobedience in 1849, where he argued that individuals had a moral obligation to resist unjust laws.

Some of the most notable examples of civil disobedience include Mahatma Gandhis Salt March in India in 1930, the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the US in 1955, and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

In other words, civil disobedience can be realized in a country with true reform is possible and a ruling establishment that tolerates peaceful dissent.

The Iranian regime is a unique political system that is governed by a Supreme Leader who has absolute power over all branches of the regime, including the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive. A brutal security apparatus, including the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij paramilitary force, also characterize the regime.

In a country like Iran, where the regime is medieval, civil disobedience does not lead to the regimes overthrow. The regime responds with the most brutal suppression of any protest threatening to overthrow it. This is evident from the regimes history, marked by the violent suppression of dissent.

Until June 1981, when there was a quasi-democratic atmosphere in Iran, opposition groups tried to express their point of view on the political scene of Iran through political activities. But the mullahs regime banned any activity and started arresting and killing the opponents. The regimes response was swift and brutal, with thousands of political activists and intellectuals detained, tortured, and executed.

As the leading progressive-Muslim opposition group in Iran, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) fervently pursued the reformation of the new Republic after the 1979 revolution. Despite their numerous meetings, protests, attempts to participate in elections, and criticism of the governments curtailment of liberties, MEKs efforts were met with ruthless suppression. Supporters of the MEK were subjected to brutal beatings, with many paying the ultimate price for their beliefs. Between November 1978 and June 20, 1981, more than 50 MEK members were killed by extremists for distributing the organizations newspaper, Mojahed, or participating in meetings.

One of the most infamous episodes in the history of the Iranian regime is the 1988 massacre of political prisoners when over 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in a matter of months. The victims were mainly members and supporters of the MEK.

Over the years, the Iranian regime has sought to deceive by promoting civil disobedience as the sole means of effecting change in the regime or its behavior. Through this tactic, the regime has succeeded in buying time for its oppressive rule. The regime has used the idea of reformists within its ranks as another facet of this strategy, advertising that change was attainable from within the system.

In the 1990s some of the most extremist individuals and groups rebranded themselves as moderates and reformists. But instead of becoming a force of real change, the so-called reform movement turned out to be a political and diplomatic tool for the regime to maintain its hold on power and delude the international community with a faade of democracy.

While the regime has put the so-called reformists and moderates in high positions of power, including the office of the president, Iran has seen nothing in terms of reform. Freedoms continue to be suppressed, dissidents are arrested, tortured, murdered, and executed. Religious and ethnic minorities continue to be denied their most basic rights. And women continue to be treated like second-class citizens.

Meanwhile, the regime has continued to mislead the international community by putting up a show of competition between different hardline and moderate factions. In reality, the power resides within the office of the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards. It has been proven time and again that under this regime, any kind of complacency and change from within is doomed to fail.

Encouraging civil disobedience in Iran which ranks among the worst countries in freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and gender equality, among other criteria is not only socially, politically, and historically unfeasible but also detracts from the ongoing uprising that many perceive as a burgeoning revolution in Iran. Proponents of this method cling to a firm belief in usurping office in a possible transfer of power, heavily relying on regime insiders, specifically the IRGC thugs, to assist them in pursuing authority.

The Iranian people fervently desire regime change and rightfully demand that the international community acknowledges their right to self-defense. In light of this, the discussion of civil disobedience is undeniably undermining their rights and demands.

Thus, those who promote civil disobedience implicitly attempt to hinder a revolution and instead persuade the people to continue believing in the long-disproved notion of moderation or the illusion of a transition of power with a Supreme Leader who is among the oldest and longest-standing tyrants. Therefore, the global community should lend its support to the Iranian peoples aspiration to entirely upend the regime.

The regime disregards the principles of lawful governance, necessitating its forceful overthrow. Recognizing the Iranian peoples right to self-defense is the primary action required to assist them in achieving their objectives, and this overdue measure must be taken without delay.

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Is Civil Disobedience the Answer to Iran's Ongoing Uprising? - NCRI - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would stop Iran from strangling the Jewish state with a "noose of terror."

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, he said the countrys security personnel are working on this matter around the clock and we will continue to act both offensively and defensively against the aggression of Iran and its terrorist satellites.

The Israeli Prime Minister's statements about the aggressions of the Islamic Republic come at a time when Irans foreign minister toured Lebanons border with Israel Friday during a visit to the Arab nation, and was documented looking out at the Jewish state his regime regards as an archenemy.

After meeting with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian took the tour along with several Lebanese parliamentarians and members of the Iranian-backed terror group.

Positive developments in the region will lead to the collapse of the Zionist entity, he said during his tour.

Mehr state news agency called Amir-Abdollahian's presence at the Israel-Lebanon border a "response" to the move by Israel's foreign minister, who visited Iran's borders during the opening of the country's embassy in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.

Meanwhile, an Israeli air attack near the city of Homs hit Iranian targets early Saturday, while Syrian state media reported that some missiles were intercepted.

Meanwhile, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the United Kingdom, reported that Israeli missiles fired from warplanes destroyed a Hezbollah ammunition depot near Homs airport.

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We Will Not Allow Iran To Put Noose Of Terror Around Us: Netanyahu -