Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion advanced by the member for Blair. The persecution of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran has been the subject of international attention and condemnation for several decades. Unfortunately over those decades little progress has been made, and many members of this House have noted, I believe correctly, that the human rights situation in Iran seems to be worsening.

I have a quite strong and reasonably large Iranian community in my electorate of Parramatta. I have every community in Parramatta, including the Iranian one, and I have come to know my Iranian community as some of the most gentle, well-educated and I use the word civilised people you can imagine. In fact, even when I am doorknocking, before a person tells me their background is Iran there is something about these people, the way they have been educated, the way they have been raised, that just sets them as Iranian. It is quite remarkable. I say to them quite often that it is beyond belief that a country that can produce the people that I know as Iranians can also produce the kind of regime which has brutalised them for so long. I know that they share that view and they wish some day to be able to return to the Iran that they remember. I absolutely share that wish with them.

Among my Iranians I have a very strong Baha’i community, who well and truly keep me informed about what is happening in Iran and have asked me specifically to speak on this issue on their behalf. They have visited me in the last month to raise their concerns for the seven Baha’i leaders: Mrs Fariba Karmalabadi, Mr Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr Afif Naeimi, Mr Saeid Rezaie, Mrs Mahvash Sabet, Mr Behrouz Tavakkoli and Mr Vahid Tizfahm, all of whom are detained in Tehran. They have spent more than two years in temporary detention. The seven former leaders of the community were known as ‘friends of Iran’ and were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on 9 August.

The Baha’i faith was founded more than 150 years ago in Iran, so it has been around for 1½ centuries there. The Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979, so it is relatively new. Members of the Baha’i community had been living peacefully in Iran prior to the formation of the Islamic Republic, but since then the Baha’i community have been harassed and persecuted. Many Baha’i are now living in other parts of the world, including in Australia. I have been very fortunate to know them. The strongest Baha’i community groups of Parramatta, Holroyd and Blacktown, in and around my electorate, have been calling for the fair and humane treatment of the Baha’i in Iran since their arrival in Australia.

Six of the seven Baha’i leaders have been in custody since May 2008, when they were arrested in a raid of police forces on their homes. The seventh one, Mrs Mahvash Sabet, was arrested in March 2008 in Mashhad. It should be mentioned that the Raja’i prison in Mashhad has frequently been criticised by human rights advocates for its unsanitary environment, lack of medical services, crowded prison cells and unfair treatment of inmates by guards. Before this, but after the recent execution of the five political prisoners in Iran, some political prisoners and journalists were transferred from Evin prison to Raja’i prison in Karaj.

When I talk about human rights violations, there is no real way to describe the kinds of things I am talking about. I have received descriptions from some of my Iranian community of the conditions of family members after spending time in these places. No language that we use in this parliament will ever be able to convey the horror that some of these people experience at the hands of this regime.

The first trial of the seven prisoners was held on 12 January this year, and it was there that they first heard the charges that were being levelled against them. The charges included propaganda activities against the Islamic order, espionage, the establishment of an illegal administration, sending documents outside the country, cooperation with Israel, acting against the security of the country and the corruption of the earth. All seven of the prisoners have strenuously denied the charges.

The Baha’i leaders arrested nearly two years ago had their second court appearance in August. It was closed to family members. At that trial they were found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in jail. I call on the Iranian government to abide by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to act in a fair and transparent humane way towards the seven Baha’i leaders. (Time expired)

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