Iranian Jews 'not forced to stay'
Dr Ivor Shorts (Letters, September 22) writes that Iranian Jews remain there because they are "forced to stay" by the Islamic regime.
The US State Department paints a different picture in its 2009 International Religious Freedom Report for Iran, which states: "Jewish citizens were free to travel out of the country but were subject to the general restriction against travel by the country's citizens to Israel. This restriction, however, was not enforced."
In a similar vein, the BBC reported in 2006: "Gone are the early days of the Iranian revolution when Jews -- and many Muslims -- found it hard to get passports to travel abroad."
The report quoted Iran's Jewish MP, Maurice Motamed, saying that: "In the last five years, the government has allowed Iranian Jews to go to Israel freely, meet their families and when they come back they face no problems." Happily, it appears that Iranian Jews who wish to emigrate to Israel or elsewhere are free to do so, and many have done so since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Dr David Morrison
Lansdowne Road, Belfast
Irish Independent
