members of the Guardian Council, of the Assembly of Experts and of the Expediency Council must all adhere to Shi’a Islam.41 These constitutional rules exclude persons belonging to religious minorities such as Sunnis, Jews, Christians, Zoroastians, Yarasan or Baha’is from these key positions. It also indirectly excludes most Kurds, Turkmen and Baloch who are Sunni in majority. No province governor belongs to an ethnic minority. None of the provinces that are populated in majority by minority groups, like Kurdistan, Sistan-and-Balochistan, Golestan, East and West Azerbaidjan, is run by a person belonging to that minority. 42 Positive developments have been slow and limited in scope, like the appointment by the government of three Sunni county governors belonging to the Turkmen, the Baloch and the Kurd minorities in 2017 and 2018. There are 324 counties in Iran, and therefore less than 1% are currently headed by a person belonging to an ethnic minority. While President Rouhani created a new post of Special Assistant to the President for Ethnic and Religious Minorities’ Affairs after his election in 2013, the person appointed to this position does not belong to any ethnic or religious minority himself. 43 In municipal executives as well, minorities remain largely under-represented. In September 2017, protests erupted in Ahwaz after the results of municipal elections showed that only three out of 13 seats on the municipal council had been won by Arab candidates, which many suspected was the result of fraud. The Baluchi, Kurdish and Turkmen minorities are also underrepresented in high- and medium-ranking political posts according to Minority Rights Group International.44 Additionally, Members of minorities face serious hurdles in accessing public sector employment due to the gozinesh process.45 Such process bars de facto minorities or anyone who are unable or 41 The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Articles 5, 91, 109, 111 and 115. https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wpcontent/uploads/constitution-english-1368.pdf 42 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, Abdorrahman Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fICS%2fIRN%2f42313 &Lang=en 43 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, Abdorrahman Center, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), Impact Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran, 2020, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fICS%2fIRN%2f42313 &Lang=en 44 Minority Rights Group International, Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, Centre for Supporters of Human Rights, Rights Denied: Violations against ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, March 2018, p.28, accessible at: https://minorityrights.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/03/Rights-Denied-Violations-against-ethnic-and-religious-minorities-in-Iran.pdf 45 See http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/92541 (in Persian). 6