Overview:

• Twelver Ja’afari Shia Islam is the state religion.

• Although Sunni Muslims, Bahá’ís, Christians and Zoroastrians are recognised as minorities, this has not exempted them from being persecuted by the government.

• Abuse of recognition in Iran is widespread and there exists a systematic and sophisticated apparatus of tools imposed to restrict all aspects of the religious lives of citizens, both Muslims and non-Muslims but with particularly severe retributions for the latter if rules are not followed.

• There exists no recognition system in Iran and therefore no formal procedures either for existential recognition of groups not already recognised as minorities or for legal registration.

• The Iranian government interprets human rights through the paradigm of Sharia law which does not correspond to international standards of religious freedom.

• The rule of mandatory registration violates the Bielefeldt provision and there exists several other aspects of the Iranian government's actions that severely violate the Durham principles including the lack of means for unrecognised groups to gain any type of legal protections.

Positive elements:

• Nil.

Recommendations:

• Complete dismantlement of the present system established by the regime must first occur before any further recommendations can be made.