Sepanta Niknam ( fa, سپنتا نیکنام) is an Iranian politician who serves as a councillor in

Yazd Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located southeast of Isfahan. At the 2016 census, the population was 1,138,533. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a Wor ...

since 2013. He is the first and only

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...

to have served as councillor in the city, and the only non-Muslim in the city councils of Iran.

Career

Suspension

On 18 April 2017,

Ahmad Jannati Ahmad Jannati ( fa, احمد جنتی, born 23 February 1927) is an Iranian conservative politician. He was born in Ladan, Isfahan. Jannati is known for his anti-LGBT rhetoric and opposition to secularism. He is also a founding member of the H ...

, chairman of the

Guardian Council The Guardian Council, (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, fa, شورای نگهبان, Shourā-ye Negahbān) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence i ...

tried to prevent Niknam's reelection in 2017 local election, issuing a directive to disqualify all non-Muslim candidates. Following Niknam's reelection, rival candidate Ali Asghar Bagheri filed a lawsuit against Niknam, based on the Guardian Council's decree. On 9 October 2017, Administrative Court of Justice ruled to suspend him, on the grounds that religious minorities should not have a representative in towns where the majority of the population was Muslim. On November 26, 2017, Iranian lawmakers approved, as a consequence of his suspension, the urgency of a bill that would give the right for members of the religious minorities to nominate candidates for the city and village councils elections. The bill secured 154 yes votes, 23 no and 10 abstention. A total of 204 lawmakers were present at the parliament session.

Views

Niknam is self-described politically independent. He endorsed

Hassan Rouhani Hassan Rouhani ( fa, حسن روحانی, Standard Persian pronunciation: ; born Hassan Fereydoun ( fa, حسن فریدون, links=no); 12 November 1948) is an Iranian politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. ...

in the 2017 presidential election.

Electoral history

References

Living people 1985 births Iranian Zoroastrians People from Yazd Iranian city councillors {{Iran-politician-stub