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Australia and the international community must do everything to pressure Iran to allow members of the Baha’i Faith in Iran to practice their faith free of persecution, the Federal Member for Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg MP, told the Australian House of Representatives today.
“In my meetings with the Baha’i community, they have raised with me the horrific treatment suffered by their fellow believers at the hands of the Iranian government,” Mr Frydenberg said in his address in the chamber of the Parliament.
“Arrests and intimidation, detention and questioning, the confiscation of businesses, school expulsions and the prohibition from centres of learning such as universities are common forms of persecution meted out to Baha’is in Iran,” said Mr Frydenberg.
Prior to his election in 2010, Mr Frydenberg served as a senior adviser to the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
His speech follows a similarly strongly worded speech by the Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Technology and Personnel, Stuart Robert MP, on the Gold Coast last week.
Mr Frydenberg told the Parliament today that since August 2004 545 Baha’is have been arrested in Iran.
“More than 100 are still in prison, including seven Baha’i leaders who have been incarcerated for more than 10,000 days.
“Such behaviour by the Iranian authorities is not only in breach of Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights but also abhorrent to freethinking people the world over.”
Mr Frydenberg said he was pleased to say that the Australian Parliament and successive governments have consistently condemned Iran’s behaviour in a bipartisan manner.
The latest condemnation came in February this year when Government and Opposition MPs backed a successful motion introduced by Ms Melissa Parke MP in the House of Representatives.
That motion called on Iranian MPs to investigate the denial of access to higher education to Baha’is and others for reasons other than academic ability, and to seek a judicial review of trials of prisoners of conscience, including those of seven former Baha’i leaders and human rights defenders and lawyers.
Mr Frydenberg noted in his speech today that world leaders, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, have called on Iran to respect the rights of the Baha’i community.
He also quoted the United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, who told Baha’is last year: “I remain deeply concerned about the ongoing plight of seven Baha’i leaders and the continued attacks on the Baha’i Faith in Iran. Your dignity and patience is admirable in the face of such severe discrimination and intimidation for simply staying true to your faith.”
Mr Frydenberg said that he has had the good fortune to meet a number of people who share the Baha’i Faith.
“Indeed, my electorate is home to the newly-planned Victorian Baha’i Centre of Learning in Canterbury, and the Baha’i Bookshop and Information Centre exists in Hawthorn.”
Watch Mr Frydenberg give his speech.