education department, reportedly announced that the health assessment plan for pre-school children will include an evaluation of the children’s level of proficiency and comprehension in Persian. 40 Children who fail to pass the assessment will not be able to attend State kindergartens, therefore severely limiting access to pre-primary education for children from ethnic minorities, such as the Ahwazi Arabs, Turks, Kurds and Balochs who will be directed to an intensive training in the Farsi language. In light of the above, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not ensured that all members of ethnic and religious minorities are able to enjoy their own culture and are able to use their own language in media and schools. C.Ensure that all members of ethnic and religious minorities are able to participate in public affairs Representation and participation in public affairs by members of ethnic nationalities or religious minorities is limited. For instance, the Iranian Constitution places religious requirements on certain high-ranking positions. The President, the Supreme Leaders, members of the Guardian Council, of the Assembly of Experts and of the Expediency Council must all adhere to Shia Islam.41 These constitutional rules exclude persons belonging to religious minorities, such as the 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. As of February 2021, 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 40 ISNA News https://www.isna.ir/news/99031005237/ 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 Ibid. 41 6