Baroness Afshar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Afshar on 2016-06-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Iran about the protection of the human rights of Iranian women and scholars.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

As mentioned in the 2015 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Human Rights report, women do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as men in Iran and continue to face discrimination. There are continued restrictions on freedom of expression and belief. We repeatedly call on the Iranian government to guarantee the human rights of all Iranians and will continue to do so. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), most recently raised the issue of human rights with Foreign Minister Zarif when they met on the 17 May.