The suspension of Sepanta Niknam, an Iranian Zoroastrian councillor suspended on religious grounds, has polarised opinion among senior officials of the Islamic Republic and led to a campaign on social media calling for him to be reinstated.
#Sepanta_Niknam has been used more than 8,100 times on Twitter since the decision by a senior court ruling Niknam could not take his seat in Yazd, a Muslim majority city, despite winning election earlier this year.
Niknam is one of approximately 25,000 Zoroastrians living in Iran, a predominantly Shia Muslim country of 80 million residents, while Yazd is home to Iran's second-largest Zoroastrian community, after Tehran.
Some critics of his suspension pointed out the Iranian constitution recognises Zoroastrianism as a legal faith and allows Iranian Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Armenians to each elect one MP to the national parliament.