US commission targets Iran for religious-freedom violations
May 07, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: In its annual report for 2024, the bipartisan US Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommends special sanctions against Iran, where a new campaign punishes women who do not wear the Islamic hijab.
The USCIRF report for 2024 again includes Iran on the list of “Countries of Particular Concern”—the countries where religious-freedom violations are most severe. Also on that list are China, Cuba, Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. This year the USCIRF recommends adding five more countries to that list: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Nigeria, and Vietnam.
The report also includes a “special watch list” of countries where severe violations of religious freedom are tolerated: Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
Finally the report includes “entities of particular concern”—non-governmental powers that engage in severe violations of religious freedom. These groups include Islamic terrorist organizations in Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and regions of Africa.
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