Madam President:

Iran’s government has, for decades, denied the rights of its Baha'i citizens. Now they are taking this further by denying them their official identities – the national ID cards that allow any Iranian citizen to carry out every-day civil and official tasks.

Opening a bank account is impossible, without an ID card. Applying for a loan is impossible, without an ID card. Obtaining work permits, making bank transactions, buying or selling homes, applying for passports; no one in Iran can do any of these without an ID card, and the Iranian government has effectively barred every Baha'i in Iran from applying for one.

This ID card should be available to every citizen. Baha'is are blocked from applying for it because the entry form lists only four religious identities; Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian.

Madam President,

When a Baha'i in Iran recently tried to apply for their ID card, the Document Registration Office said that their religion was not sanctioned by the law and advised them to use one of the four available options. Baha'is will not lie about their faith on principle. How strange for a government to advise citizens to lie and to falsify official documents. This the Baha'is will not do.

Mr Rehman,

Barring Baha'is from applying for ID cards turns each of them into non-persons. What can the international community do to stop a new and far reaching form of persecution that appears designed to hollow-out the Baha'i community once and for all?