An open letter by the “International Organisation To Preserve Human Rights in Iran” addressed to Hojatoleslam Ali Younesi, the adviser of President Hassan Rouhani on political and security affairs in matters relating to ethnic and religious in Iran.

Dear Hojatoleslam Ali Younesi,

As you are aware, it has been a while since the repression pressures by the extremist movement against the students of the school of Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi Order, who are the true Muslims and true followers of the Holy Quran has reached to its end. The Dervishes have suffered to the extend that they have began an indefinite hunger strike regarding the current plight, by publishing their wills’ and clearly stating their demands in Evin and Nezam-Abad Prisons. On the other hand, the continuous disregard of the judicial authorities in regards to dealing with legitimate demands of the Dervish prisoners and their families has caused a large number of the friends and families of the dervish prisoners to travel to Tehran, to show their support and engagement with the Dervish prisoners who are under torture and suffering, and demanding to be arrested and imprisoned in order to express their sympathy with the Dervish prisoners.

Today, due to the responsibilities that have been assigned to you, you can no longer remain silent in regards to the situation of the Dervish prisoners.

Bottom line is that in the eleventh cabinet presided by Mr Hassan Rohani, in the twenty first century in Iran, a Person named Mahmoud Alavi, as the Minster of Information, peaks about the reactionary positions in the style of torturers and inquisitors by inviting teachers from across the country to deviate from their teaching responsibilities and forcing them to serve in the “Engaging Inquisitorial System” and “Excommunicating Inquisition” against the primary and secondary school students.

You do realise that this matter has never been precedent in such explicitly manner in the history of Iran, nor a similar matter has ever been occurred in the past thirty five years period after the arrival of the system (Islamic Republic of Iran) in which you are the presidential adviser.

It seems that in this eventful meeting with the teachers across the countries, during which Mr. Mahmoud Alavi has been influenced by the ideology and radical thoughts of the group called ISIS (Daesh).

Last year when you accepted the responsibility to become the presidential adviser for religious and ethnic groups, you optimistically expressed that gradually within less then a year you would neutralizes the pressures by the extremist groups, and to respect the Civil Rights of the Dervishes and other religious groups, which was written by the presidential legal officials, including Dr Elham Aminzadeh.

However, over the past year as you mention and it has been witnessed “there are people in this country who do not allow the rights of ethnic and religious groups to be respected”.

The question is, so what is the responsibility of the government authorities? To ignore?!

Certainly citizens are not indifferent to their fundamental and human rights, and will not remain apathetic. Among Sufis there is a strong unity and empathy.

Sufis are not after political games and partisanship, and Sufism in not a security matter.

Disregards to the human rights and the legal requirements of Dervishes’, can cause serious consequences. As it has been witnessed, the simultaneous up-rise of our fellow Bakhtiari citizens in eleven cities and fives estates.

On the other hand, the conscious members of societies in America, Canada and European countries are not indifferent towards the continues abuse of civil and human rights of our fellow Muslim Sufis in Iran.

From this week onwards in major cities around the world, there will be widespread protests to express their empathy and solidarity with the hunger striking imprisoned dervishes.

In addition, if no action has been taken to meet the legal needs of our imprisoned dervishes, the irresponsible managers of the Judiciary and Security Forces in Iran will witness how the criticizes of the free world in western countries will begin voluntary and unrestricted hunger strikes to express their solidarity and sympathy with imprisoned dervishes who are currently on hunger.

The International Organisation to Preserve Human Rights In Iran.

Thursday 25th September 2014

Berlin, Toronto, Washington