Jews cannot be happy in Iran
Dr David Morrison ('lranian Jews are happy at home', September 15) admits that three-quarters of the Iranian Jewish community left the country after the Islamic revolution. That only a quarter still remains is hardly a positive advertisement for the regime. Official anti-semitism and Holocaust denial is rampant.
There are many reasons why the remaining Jews do not leave Iran: compulsory military service is one.
Besides, it is not easy to uproot oneself and one's family from a country where Jews have lived for 3,000 years, especially the elderly. Although Jews can and do travel, they are said to be denied the multiple-exit permits normally issued to other citizens: in other words, members of the family are kept back as hostages.
Sharia law imposes certain handicaps: a Jew cannot occupy a senior post in the government or army. Jewish schools are run by Muslims. There is continuous pressure to convert to Islam: a Muslim convert to Islam becomes the sole inheritor of his family's property.
And, as in the well-publicised case of Sakineh Ashtiani, who is threatened with stoning for adultery, all Iranians -- including Jews -- could fall victim at any time to the human rights abuses of this appalling regime.
Mrs L Julius
London
Irish Independent
