Aadel Collection
The Persecution of Iran's Baha'is – An Update, A Congressional Hearing (World Order – Winter 1983-84)
I
• .VOLUME' 18,. NUMBER 2• PUBLISHEL
The Full Force of Hatred
EDITORIAL
RAN'S MULLAHS are relentless in suppressing everything they dislike or do
not understand. Since that covers a great deal of what many people love,
admire, and respect—including science, music, women's rights, and freedom
of thought—the mullahs must conduct a perpetual struggle against millions
of their subjects.
However, the clerical rulers of a state that calls itself an Islamic Republic,
though it is neither, reserve their strongest emotions for those who dare to
differ with them in matters of religion.
The Christians, the Jews, and the Zoroastrians are looked upon with un-
concealed disdain, but formally they are tolerated. It is the Bah Yfs that bear
the full force of hatred unleashed by men who presume to have an exclusive
knowledge of the will of God and to speak in His name. They find the Bah 'I
Faith intolerable because it has no mullahs, discriminates against no religion,
accords equal rights to women and men, teaches love of all humanity, and ab-
hors violence. In the eyes of Iranian authorities the adherents of such a faith
arc heretics worthy of extermination.
The hearing on the persecution of the Bahá'Is in Iran held before the Sub-
committee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on May 2, 1984, once again demonstrated to the
American public the lengths to which the mullahs will go to eradicate Iran's
Bahá'I community. The testimony of Said Eshraghi, a young man whose par-
ents and a sister were hanged in Shiraz, for a moment lifted the curtain and
revealed a corner of hell where humiliation, torture, and death would reign
supreme were it not for faith, devotion, and heroism. His moving story
brought tears to the eyes of an audience well acquainted with tragedy and
pain.
The story must be told often and in full. Silence would serve only to en-
courage the wicked and to prolong the horror.
4. WORLD ORDER: /V NTER 1983—84
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OPENING STATEMENT
THE HONORABLE GUS YATRON
READ BY THE HONORABLE TOM LANTOS
“Religious Persecution of the Baha'is in Iran”
May2,1984
HE EYES of the world focused on Iran in February of 1979 as a new era in Iran-
ian history paraded boldly before us. We saw a ruthless Shah deposed and the
emergence of Ayatollah Khomeini. Many looked to find a new religious and politi-
cal tolerance but instead discovered a primitive religious fanaticism.
For those who have been forced to look at what has happened in Iran during the
I past years, the sight for them has been an ugly one. Executions of political or reli-
gious victims is an almost daily occurrence. Since 1979, according to Amnesty In-
ternational, approximately 5,500 people have been summarily executed by the
Iranian government. However, this figure reflects only othcially announced execu-
tions, and excludes those secret executions not announced by the authorities.
Those citizens who have not lost their lives encounter restrictions of their basic
freedoms—freedom of speech, political freedom, and freedom of religion. Count-
less numbers of Iranians sought shelter frOm this tyranny in other countries.
/Ve are here today to examine the problems of the largest religious minority in
Iran—the Baha'is. The other religious minorities in Iran include Zoroastrians,
Jews, and Christians.
The Baha'i Faith is not recognized in Iran, and Baha'is are deprived of their ba-
sic huiiian rights. Members of this peace-loving community are the principal tar-
gets of the current regime. Over 150 prominent Baha'is have been executed since
Khomeini came into power. Their places of worship have been destroyed, their
possessions have been confiscated, and their religion has been banned.
The Baha'is have no one in the government who hears their appeal, and they
have no place to go to escape from persecution. Instead of the clergy, courts, and
authorities providing protection for the Baha'is, they provide propaganda and
prosecution for the Iranian government.
The Baha'is in Iran have long suffered tremendous pressure and persecution,
but they are now being slaughtered by the Khomeini regime for adherence to their
faith, it is time once again to look intently at the gruesome picture that Khomeini
is painting for the world in Iran. But we must not only watch—we must denounce
and condemn this savagery.
a
6
Shining a Light in Darkness
STATEM ENI BY CONGRESSMAN JOHN PORTER
BER)RE THE SUBCOMMI'FflIE ON HUMAN
R IC FITS A ND INTER NATIONAL ORGANIZA-
lIONS, MAY 2, 1984
CHAIRMAN, thank yOU for the oppor-
IV! unitv to testify today.
All Americans have been shocked by reports
from Iran describing the violent persecution of
Baha'is. Initially I was concerned that public
exposure and discussion of this situation by
members of Congress might jeopardize Baha'is
in Iran. However, after several discussions with
Firuz Kazemzadeh, Secretary of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is, I believe that
calling attention to their plight will not further
endanger those in Iran, but might help to im-
prove the atmosphere and reduce the excesses,
Firuz put it well recently when he said, “It is
more difhcult to kill, more dif cult to torture
in broad daylight.”
The Baha'i faith was established in Persia—
now Iran—over 140 years ago. Its followers be-
lieve in the unity of mankind, world peace and
world order. The religion teaches the essential
tenets of all organized religions, social equality,
pacihsm, and tolerance.
It is a horribly ironic crime against all hu-
manitv that these gentle people have been per-
secuted in their homeland throughout their
14 O-vear history, but especially since the rise to
power of the murderous Khomeni regime.
Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, 170 Ba-
ha'is have been executed. Among these victims
were three teenage girls who were hanged last
summer despite a plea from President Reagan,
and a woman who was slain shortly after the
delivery of her child, who was then taken away
by Moslem fanatics. Just this week I learned of
reports of the execution of three more Baha'js
including a college professot
Less dramatic, but tragic nonetheless, Baha'i
children are being expelled from schools and
their parents fired from their jobs. Baha'i prop-
erty, livestock, bank accounts, farms and busi-
nesses are confiscated, their shrines have b e eii
destroyed, and they are arrested for imaginary
crimes.
And most recently there has been an even
more ominous development. ‘I'hc Prosecutor
General of Iran has issued an edict banning all
Baha'i religious activity as a “criminal act.”
Like the Nurern burg laws, this edict establishes
the so-called “legal” grounds for mass arrests
and genocide.
In response to this decree, the elected leaders
of the Baha'is in Iran dissolved all Baha'j
instructions in Iran, citing their obedience to
the civil law of the land.
Despite their declared adherence to this
edict, according to reports, some 700 Baha'is
are now languishing in prison, subjected to ha-
rassment and tortured by prison guards to re-
cant their faith. In fact, several Baha'is have
died while in prison, apparently as a result of
torture.
In response to this pogrom and in an at-
tempt to call attention to this tragic situation,
last November 1 introduced H. Con. Res. 226,
with the support of the Chairman of this Sub-
committee, Gus Yatron, the ranking minority
member of this subcommittee, Jim Leach, and
Tom Lantos. I am pleased to report that over
150 members of the House have joined us as co-
sponsors of this resolution.
In addition, the resolution was introduced
in the Senate by Senator Heinz, and has been
co-sponsored by more than half of the mem-
bers of the Senate.
The purpose of our resolution is threefold:
1) it holds the Government of Iran responsible
for upholding the rights of all of its citizens, in-
SI-IININC; A LIGHI IN DARKNESS
cluding the Baha'is, 2) condemns the Prosecu-
tor General's edict which banned the Baha'is,
and 3) calls upon the President of the United
States to work in the United Nations and other
forums with the leaders of other countries to
form a broad-based appeal to the Iranian gov-
ernment.
I would hope that the Subcommittee will
proceed to mark-up my resolution as quickly
as possible. Let mc commend the subcommit-
tee Chairman, Mr. Yatron, and your outstand-
ing staff for the interest and commitment to
the cause of human rights which we all share.
We in Congress must raise our voices in pro-
test loudly and clearly so that the cause of hu-
man freedom is echoed throughout the world.
We can only hope that one day soon the mur-
derous regime in Iran will finally hear our out-
rage and will cease their unforgivable persecu-
tion of the Baha'is.
7
F
Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians are allowed
token representation in the Majlis and may or-
ganize certain community institutions.
Despite this degree of official sanction for
continued existence in the Islamic Republic,
members of all three faiths arc subjected to dis-
crimination in several areas. Proper Muslim
credentials are a pre-requisite for many govern-
ment positions, thus denying opportunities to
both nominal Muslims and members of reli-
gious minorities. While skilled professionals
and technicians in areas such as the oil industry
have retained their jobs, their opportunities
for advancement arc limited. Public servkes,
which are frequently obtained through the in-
tervention of revolutionary institutions, are less
readily obtained by members of religious mi-
norities. Furthermore, disputes continue be-
tween minority community institutions and
the Khomeini regime as the government at-
tempts to interfere and to impose Muslim so-
cial practices such as the ban on alcoholic bev-
erages, complete segregation of the sexes, and
all-covering dress for women and girls.
In addition, the Baha'i, the Christians, and
the Jews are, for differing reasons, vjewed as
having ties and loyalties to the West and to Isra-
c i, and their loyalty to the regime is suspect.
Baha'i
Ti—JE REGIME'S v ' ust treatment is extended to
Iran's other non-islamic minority, the Baha'i in
what is perhaps the most egregious human rights
problem of all in iran and one of the worst in the
world, the Khomeini regime has virtuallY en-
minalized a particular religious faith, that üf the
Baha'i, which arose in iran during the nineteenth
century as an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
Viewing the Baha'i as heretics and asa poten-
tial fifth column for the U nited States or Israel,
the Khomeini regime has robbed the Baha'is of
their rights as citizens in a way sickeningly remi-
niscent of Nazi Germany's treatment of German
Jews before the Holocaust. Baha'i marriages ne —
er were ofhcially recognized in Iran, but the rev-
olutionary regime has branded B:iha i married
women as “prostitutes. Baha'i shrines and ceme-
teries have been desecrated and destroyed. Ba-
ha'is have been fired from jobs and denied pen-
sions and social services. Baha' i-owned businesses
10 WORLI.) ORDER. WINIER 1983—84
have been confiscated. Although there have been
a few instances of mob action against Baha'is,
most pet-secution has been government directed.
Prominent Baha'is have been arrested, charged
with such vague offenses as “crimes against
God.” “corruption on Earth,” and “Zionism.”
An estimated 154 Baha'is have been executed by
the regime or have died under torture while in
prison; others have simply disappeai-ed and are
presumed dead.
In August 1983, Iran's Prosecutor General
publicly declared that “activities of Baha'is are
banned in Iran.” In response to the Prosecutor
General's pionouncement and following a Ba-
ha'i tradition of submission to government au-
thority, the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is in Iran dissolved all Baha'i administra-
tive institutions. Simultaneously, these elected
representatives of Iran's Baha'i community ap-
pealed to the Iranian Government to restore all
rights denied to individual Baha'is on account
of their religion. The Baha'i leadership's appeal
was both courageous and poignant in that all
members of the two preceding Baha'i national
assemblies either have been executed by the re-
gime or have disappeai-ed without a trace.
Regrettably, following the official ban on all
Baha'i religious and institutional activities, the
Khomeini regime has intensified its persecu-
tion of the Baha'i. Today, more than 550 Ba-
ha'is, many of them women, are imprisoned in
Iran. Denied the fundamental human right of
religions freedom, Iran's 300,000 Baha'is are de-
fenseless before the cruel fanaticism of the
Khomeini regime.
Therefore, remembering earlier examples of
religious persecution which found the world si-
lent, it is incumbent upon us to speak out
against the Iranian government's persecution
of a vulnerable minority. As President Reagan
declared last year, “America and the world are
increasingly alarmed and dismayed at the per-
secution and severe repression of the Baha'is in
Iran.” Such public notice and public pressure
constitute one of the few tools at hand which
may serve to help protect the Baha'is.
[ Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams
also submitted testimony on Christians, Jews,
Zoroastrians, and Sunni Muslims in Iran, but
he confined himself in the open session to re-
marks on the Baha'is in Iran.—ED.]
Conclusion
IN VIEW of the Khomeini regime's human rights
record, which is one of the worst in the world,
we have given special consideration in both our
refugee and asylum programs to the vulnerabili-
ties of Baha'is, Christians, and Jews. In July 1983,
the decision was made to extend refugee process-
ing priorities 5 and 6 to Iranians. The decision
was based on humanitarian concerns for those
who have fled Iran because of a very real threat
of persecution and who are in urgent need of re-
settlement. (The six refugee processing priorities
are: alternative to resettlement in the U.S. and
refugees of compelling interest to the U.S., e.g.,
former or present political prisoners and dissi-
dents;
—former U.S. government employees;
—family reunification of refugees who arc
spouses, children, parents, grandparents, unmar-
ried siblings, or unmarried minor grandchildren
of persons in the U.S.;
—other ties to the U.S., e.g., refugees em-
ployed by U.S. firms or voluntary agencies;
—additional family reunification of refugees
who are married siblings, unmarried grandchil-
dren who have reached their maturity, or mar-
ried grandchildren of persons in the U.S., or
more distant relatives who are part of the family
group; and
—other refugees whose admission is in the na-
tional interest).
In addition, on the basis of asylum applica-
tions sent to the State Department for review, we
estimate that over 40 percent of asylum appli-
cants are members of religious minorities.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, let me once
again emphasize that while members of all the
non-Islamic religious minorities have encoun-
tered problems in Iran, the most serious human
rights situation in that tormented country is the
regime's persecution of members of the Baha'i
faith.
This administration has been very much
aware of the Khomeini regime's persecution of
the Baha'i. President Reagan has personally con-
denined this tragic persecution. We have docu-
A BLAIANI DISREGA RI) C)
A RLAlAN1' DISREGARI)
mented our abhorrence of this flagrant violation
of human rights and international standards of
decency in our annual human rights reports to
the Congress as well as in the official statements
of Department spokesmen. The voice of Amer-
ica regularly carries items about the persecution
of the Baha'i in its Farsi language broadcasts. In
addition, the United States has been working
with allied and other friendly countries in inter-
national fora to focus attention on this problem,
to support involvement by the United Nations
Secretary General in attempts to alleviate this
and other human rights abuses in Iran, and, to
the extent possible to bring international pres-
sure to bear on the Iranian authorities. In so do-
ing, we must be sensitive, however, to the Iranian
regime's tendency to make the baseless charge
that the Baha'is are a fifth column of American
agents in Iran, and that our interest in the Baha'i
is not solely based on humanitarian concerns.
We welcome these hearings as a further op-
portunity to bring the plight of the Baha'i and
other human rights violations in Iraii to the pub-
lic's attention.
11
A Roll Call of Martyrs
PREPARED STATEMENT OF JAMES F. NELSON
M name is James F. Nelson. .1 am a judge of the.
Municipal Court of Los Angeles, California, and
the chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha'is of the United States—the governing
body elected by the American Baha'i community.
With me is Dc Wilma Brady, vice-president of
Spelman College and vice-chairman of the Nation-
al Spiritual Assembly. With me also is Dr. Firuz
Kazcmzadeh, professor of history and chairman of
the Conmiittee for Middle Eastern Studies at Yale
University; he is on leave from the university, to
serve this year as secretary of our National Spiritu-
al Assembly.
YI ARS AGO we had the honor of testifying
_ [ before this Subcommittee about the persecu-
tion of the Baha'is in Iran. We presented a large
body oF documentary material that showed how a
fanatical retime, disregarding all norms of civilized
behavior, attacked a peaceful, law-abiding religious
corn nunity with the purpose of obliterating it
from iran. We provided evidence of trials,
tions, torture, confiscation of property, dismissal
from jobs and schools, destruction of holy places,
and the denial of all human rights to over three
hundred thousand long-suffering Baha'is, [ ran's
lan 4 cst minority. It is noteworthy that not one
statement we made then or thereafter has been
proved incorrect, not one claim exaggerated.
It is heartbreaking that in the two years since
this committee heard our initial testimony the situ-
ation in iran has not improved. In spite of world-
wide proteSts from statesmen, intellectuals, parlia-
ments. philanthropic societies, religious leaders,
and ordinary citizens of dozens of nations on sever-
al continents, the authorities of the Islamic Repub-
lic have relentlessly pursued their cruel aim of ex-
tirpating the Baha'i Faith from the land of its birth.
Their ham-barous aim is to be achieved either
through the forced conversion of the Baha'is to
Shiite Islam or through their extermination.
We testified in May 1982 that more than 100 Ba-
ha'is, most of them members of local Spiritual As-
semblies, had been put to death. Today the figure
stands at over 170. This number includes men,
women, and even teenage girls. Two years ago we
testified that 150 Baha'is were known to be lan-
guishing in prison. Today at least 703 Baha'is are
behind bat-s.
Killings and imprisonment are accompanied
with insults, beatings, and every form of degrading
behavior. There have been instances in which pro-
fessional police and prison officials expi-essed shock
and dismay at the treatment of Baha'i prisoners by
members of Islamic committees and the Revolu-
tiormary Guard.
On July 9, 1982, Mohammad Mansuri, Jadido-
llah Ashraf, Mohammad Abbasi, and Manuchchr
Farzaneh-Moayyad were executed in Qazvin. On
July 12, in Tehran, Manuchehr Vafai was mur-
dered in his home. Pinned to his body was a note
proclaiming that he had been killed because he re-
fused to recant his faith. Three days later, on July
15, Abbas-Ali Sadcqpur was executed in Shiraz.
On August 11 Ali Naimiyan was executed in Uru-
niiyyeh after having spent a year in prison without
being charged with any crime.
On September23 the Islamic Revolutionary
Court in Shiraz sentenced five .Baha'is to death.
The judge offered each of the condemned life
and freedom if he agreed to recant. Not one ac-
cepted the offer. Three, Habibollah Owji,
Ziaollah Ahrari, and Hedayat Siavushi, were
subsequently executed.
In October mass arrests of Baha'is occurred
in Shiraz. Many of the prisoners were beaten.
Some were not permitted to recite Baha'i pray-
ers -
On January 10, 1983, in a remote village in
the Sari district, province of Mazandaran, Mrs.
Goldanch Ahipur, about sixty years of age, was
A ROLL CALL OF MARTYRS
attacked by a mob and strangled. Her body was
publicly burned.
In February 1983, again in Shiraz, twenty-
two Baha'is were sentenced to death. The sen-
tences were sustained by Iran's Supreme Court,
though no formal charges had been preferred.
The names of the condemned were not made
public, increasing the agony of a large number
of Baha'is whose relatives were in prison and
could have been among the condemned. When
the presiding judge of the Revolutionary Court
was asked by a reporter for the Khabar.eJunub,
a local newspaper, to comment on the death
sentences, he stated: “It is absolutely certain
that in the Islamic Republic of Iran there is no
place for Baha'is or Bahaism. . . . Before it is
too late, the Baha'is should recant Bahaism,
which is condemned by reason and logic. Oth-
erwise, the day will come when the Islamic na-
tion will deal with them in accordance with its
religious obligations.. .” The judge added
menacingly that the files of five hundred Shiraz
Baha'is were being studied by his revolution-
ary court.
While the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights on March 10, 1983, adopted a
resolution expressing concern at the violations
of human rights in Iran, and while specific ap-
peals were being made on behalf of the con-
demned Shiraz Baha'is by various govern nients
and the European Parliament, Islamic authori-
ties, on March 12, hanged Yadollah Mahmud-
nezhad, Rahrnatollah Vafai, and Mrs. Tuba
Zaerpur.
In April 1983, there were more arrests. On
the 29th the entire membership of the Spiritual
Assembly of Zahedan was imprisoned without
being charged.
13
14 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
On May 1 two Baha'is, Soheil Safai and Jalal
Hakirnan, who had recently been transferred
to Tehran from a jail in Esfahan, were summa-
rily executed.
On May 12, in the city of Dezful, Mrs. Iran
Rahimpur, who, while in prison, had given
birth to a son, was put to death. The infant was
given away to a Muslim family and its subse-
quent fate is unknown.
JUNE 1983 was a month drenched in blood. In
spite of pleas by foreign governments, in spite
of a personal appeal by President Reagan, six
men were hanged in Shiraz on the 16th. They
were Dr. Bahram Afnan (forty-eight years old),
a prominent and highly respected cardiologist;
Bahram Yaldai (twenty-three years old), a stu-
dent; Jamshid Siavushi (thirty), a merchant;
Enayatollah Eshraghi (sixty), a retired officer
of the Iranian National Oil Company; Kurosh
Haqbin (twenty-seven), an electrician; and Ab-
dul Hoseyn Azadi (sixty), a retired employee
of the Ministry of Health. One of Mr. Esh-
raghi's sons is with us today. He will presently
tell the committee the harrowing tale of what
befell one Baha'i family.
Still hungry for Baha'i lives, the Islamic au-
thorities next hanged ten women. They were
Nosrat Yaldai (fifty-four years old), mother of
a student who died on the gallows only two
days earlier; Ezzat Eshraghi (fifty), wife of En-
ayatollah Eshraghi; Roya Eshraghi (twenty-
two), daughter of Enayatollah and Ezzat Esh-
raghi; Tahereh Siavushi (thirty-two), wife of
Jams hid who had been hanged on June 16;
Mona Mahmudnezhad (eighteen), whose fa-
therhad been hanged on March 12; Zarrin Mo-
qimi (early twenties); Shahin Dalvand (early
twenties); Akhtar Sabet (nineteen); Simm Sa-
ben (early twenties); and Mahshid Nirumand
(eighteen).
The hanging of ten women, among them
three teenage girls, was a particularly heinous
crime. The courage and steadfastness of the vic-
tims have already become legendary among
Iranian Baha'is.
An eighteen-year-old girl, Mona Mahmud-
nezhad, charged with the crime of teaching Ba-
ha'i children's classes, bravely debated Judge
Q azãi, the religious magistrate who eventually
sent her to the gallows. I would like to read a
brief excerpt from a letter written by a Baha'i
woman who shared Mona's incarceratibn and
survived to bear witness to the young girl's
heroism.
• . in her trial the religious magistrate, Mr.
Q azai, after insulting and humiliating her,
said, “Your father and mother have deceived
a.
Habibollab Owji
Dr Bahra,n Afnan Soheil Safai
and misled you.” In reply Mona said, “Your
honor, it is true that I learned about the Ba-
ha'i Faith from my parents, but I have done
my own reasoning. In the Baha'i Faith one
adheres to religion after investigation, not
by imitation. You have many of our books;
you can read and find out for yourself. My
father and mother did not insist on my ac-
cepting their belief; neither did they force
me to become a Baha'i. If the religious mag-
istrate thinks I should abandon my belief, I
will never do so, and prefer submitting to
the order of execution.” The religious mag-
istrate was astounded and said, “Young girl,
what do you know about religion?” Mona
exclaimed, “Your honor, I was brought here
from the classroom in school. I have been in
prison and going through trials for three
months. What better proof of my religious
certitude than my perseverance and stead-
fastness in the Faith? It is the Faith that gives
me confidence to go through this trial in
your presence The religious magis-
trate remained silent for a while, then said to
Mona, “What harm did you find in Islam
that you have turned to Bahaism?” Mona's
answer was, “The foundation of all religions
is one. From time to time, according to the
exigencies of time and place, God sends His
A ROLL CALL OF MARTYRS
15
Messenger to renew religion and guide the
people in the right path. The Baha'i reiigion
upholds the truth in Islam, hut if by Islam
you mean the prevailing animosity, murder,
and bloodshed in the country, a sample of
which I witnessed in prison, that is the rea-
son I chose to be a Baha'i.”
In Shiraz jails as elsewhere, the Revolution-
ary Guard freely applied torture to prisoners,
both male and female. Accounts written by
surviving eyewitnesses are full of grueso ne de-
tails of beatings. They tell of pri oners
whipped with metal cables; of prisoners having
boiling water poured on their heads, and hav-
ing their heads smashed against concrete walls;
of prisoners being kicked with heavy boots and
being beaten with fists and sticks of prisoners
being beaten on the soles and then forced to
run on lacerated feet.
Two more Baha'is perished in Shiraz before
bloody June was over. On the 28th Sohcil
Hushmand (twenty-eight) was hanged and on
the 30th Ahmad-Ali Sarvestani (sixty-seven)
died in prison.
Thereafter the rate of executions decreased
dramatically. There were no executions in July
1983. Though Mohammad Eshragi, a promi-
nent eighty-one-year-old Baha'i died in prisop
in Tehran on August 31, and his death can be
Mrs. Iran Rahimpur
Kurosh Haqbin
Bahranz Yaldai
16 /ti)lU.D ORDER: /VINIER 1983—84
directly attributed to his incarceration, it was
not an execution. The same holds true of Ab-
dul Majid Motahhar, who was imprisoned in
Esfahan in September and died shortly afteL
October, as far as we know, was free of deaths.
Bahman Dehqani, a highly respected Baha'i,
was killed by a mob in Mohammadiyeh near
Esfahan on November 19, 1983. December
again was free of murders and executions.
January 1984 witnessed the arrest in Ker-
man of Rahmatollah Hakiman, a former o —
cial of the Ministry of Agriculture. The most
distressing feature of his case was that he died
after undergoing severe torture.
There were no reported deaths in February.
However, in March at least three Baha'is died
in prison in mysterious circumstances. The
body of Molisen Razavi (fifty-five years old)
who died in Narmak near Tehran bore the
marks of hanging. Abdul Hoseyn Shaken-
Hasanzadeh died in prison in Tehran under
mysterious circumstances. His body was not
released to his family for burial. The same hap-
pened with Nosratollab Ziyai (sixty-one) in the
town of Baft.
In April we received the news of the
non in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran of
Kamran Lotfi (thirty-two). a university profes-
sor who had been incarcerated since May 5,
1983. Rahim Rahimiyan (fifty), a businessman,
arrested on the same day as Professor Lotfi,
was executed in Narmak, near Tchran, in
April. Yadollah Saberiyan (sixty), a printing
press manager, imprisoned on February 9,
1982, was put to death in Tehran.
Though the number of killings diminished,
probably at least in part because of worldwide
publicity,other forms of pressure intensified.
Recent r ports indicate that torture is being
used not only to force recantat ions and conver-
sions to Islam but also to extract false confes-
sions of various fictive crimes, confessions
which would “prove” the old accusations that
the Baha'is were Zionist or imperialist agents,
foreign spies, or a political subversive group.
Having failed in five years to produce a single
document or a single genuine admission indi-
cating Baha'i participation in any antigovern-
nient activity, the authorities seem desperately
anxious to force their Baha'i victims to incrimi-
nate themselves and their community.
The number of arrests and imprisonments
has incre sed greatly in the last two years. Be-
tween M y 1982 and May 1984 over 1,000 per-
sons werh arrested and jailed. Of these at least
703 were still held as of two weeks ago. This
constitutes an almost fivefold increase over the
number of Baha'is in custody in May 1982.
J flhlSbid Siavus/n
D,: Karnran Lotfi
A bdu/ Hoscyn Azadi
A ROLL CALL OF MARTYRS 17
PARALLEL with the actions of the authorities
there has been a great deal of semiofficial anti-
Baha'i activity. Typically, a local revolutionary
committee or an individual mullah will arouse
a mob of simple-minded fanatics and lead a po-
grom of the local Baha'is.
For sixteen days in August of 1982 fifty Ba-
ha'is in the village of Seysan were subjected to
violence and abuse. They were finally forced to
sign prepared documents of recantation. Im-
mediately thereafter they wrote letters affirm-
ing their belief in the Baha'i Faith and stating
that they had signed the documents under du-
ress. These letters they sent to the government
together with copies to the newspapers that
had publicized the alleged recantations. It
should be pointed out that the reaflirmationof
belief in the Baha'i Faith was an act of great
courage since it opened them to the possible ac-
cusation of being lapsed heretics worthy of in-
stant execution.
Mob scenes were repeated in December
1982 in Qomsar, near Kashan, where Baha'i
properties were set on fire and individual Ba-
ha'is were attacked in the streets.
On June 29, 1983, in the village of Ival, near
Sari in the province of Mazandaran, some 130
Baha'is, including women and children, were
driven into an enclosure in an open field and
told that they would be held there without
food or water until they recanted their reli-
gion. For two days and nights the Baha'is re-
sisted the demand. On the third day they were
permitted to return to their homes. However,
that same night they were attacked by a mob
and forced to seek shelter in the dense Mazan-
daran forest.
As it did in earlier years, the Islamic govern-
ment of Iran between May 1982 and May 1984
continued to deprive Baha'is of work, to deny
pensions to retired Baha'is, to expel Baha'i ciiil
dren from schools, to bar Baha'i youth from
universities, to withhold business licenses frhm
Baha'is, to confiscate private property belong-
ing to Baha'is, and to make every effort to im-
poverish the Baha'is, thus breaking their spirits
and making them amenable to conversion to
Islam. An appendix to this testimony includes
a number of official documents that prove the
truth of the above conditions. For example:
On April 6, 1983, one of Iran's leading newspa-
pers, Ettelaat (No. 16980), published an official
report of a purge of Iran's oil ministry. The
head and the high officials of the ministry met
with the president of the Supreme Court of the
Islamic Republic of Iran. In the course of the
meeting a list of persons discharged from ! the
ministry with the reasons for the discharge cvas
Shahin Dalvand Simm Saberi Mrs. Tahereh Siavushi
18 /VORLD ORDER: WiNTER 1983—84
given out to the press. Of the 778 persons on
the list 61 were named as collaborators with
the SAVAK, the political police of the Shah's
regime; 39 were purged for “efforts in consoli-
dating” that regime; 24 were dismissed as free
masons or members of organizations athliated
with freemasonry; 134 were purged for mem-
bership in organizations whose constitutions
denied God and had been banned; 8 were dis-
charged for deeds detrimental to the Islamic re
public, rumor mongering, spying, and armed
aggression; 7 were dismissed for bribery, fraud,
misappropriation of government funds, and
extortion; 2 were dismissed for calumny, perju-
ry, contempt of court, and forgery; 31 were dis-
missed for immorality; and 472—more than
half of the 778—were purged for membership
“in the misguided group of Baha'ism which, ac-
cording to the unanimous verdict of Muslims,
is a heretical group outside Islam.”
The above document leaves no doubt as to
the purely religious nature of the persecution
of the Baha'is and the overwhelming ill will the
clerical rulers of Iran bear them. Unfortunate-
ly, the purge of the oil ministry was not unique.
Other government departments have under-
gone similar Islamization. Such processes inevi-
tably remind one of the actions of other ideo-
logical dictatorships and their treatment of
undesirables whether they were “inferior”
races or class enemies.
THE HEA/'IEST of all blows fell upon the Baha'i
community on August 29, 1983, when the Rev-
olutionary Prosecutor General Hojjatu'l Islam
Seyyed Hoseyn Musavi Tabrizi in an interview
with a reporter of the newspaper Keyhan pro-
claimed that as of that day
all the collective and administrative activi-
ties of Bahaism in Iran are banned, even
though this has always been so. This is being
announced in behalf of the Islamic Republic
of Iran. The constitution of the country has
also not recognized them... . Therefore,
because of such sabotage activities and ille-
galities which prevail in the Baha'i adminis-
tration, such administration, according to
the opinion of the office of the Prosecutor
General of the Islamic Republic, is hostile
and subversive. Any form of activity carried
out in behalf of the administration, there-
fore, is forbidden.
The Prosecutor General quite inconsistently
stated that “if a Baha'i himself performs his re-
ligious acts in accordance with his own beliefs,
such a man will not be bothered by us, pro-
vided he;does not invite others to the Baha'i
Faith, does not teach, does not form assem-
blies, does not give news to others, and has
nothing to do with administration. Such peo-
ple,” the Prosecutor General continued, “are
not only spared execution, they are not even
imprisoned. If, however, they decide to work
within the administration, this is a criminal act
and is forbidden. . . . Such people are consid-
ered as cc nspirators.”
Thus he mullahs outlawed the entire orga-
nizational structure of a religion that has no
clergy and administers itself through local and
national elective bodies. The Spiritual Assem-
blies collectively perform the work of priest,
teacher, advisor, trustee of funds, and keepers
of records. They admit to membership, wit-
ness marriages, supervise the religious educa-
tion of children, settle disputes among individ-
uals, grant religious divorce, encourage good
deeds, and censure reprehensible behavior.
Spiritual Assemblies are central to the life of
the Baha'i community. They are viewed as di-
vinely blessed institutions and their members
as trustees who perform indispensable func-
tions on behalf of the entire Baha'i population.
There were in Iran at least 3,600 Baha'is who
served on local Spiritual Assemblies. Each of
these Assemblies had numerous committees
and subcommittees, multiplying the number
of individuals directly involved in organiza-
tional activity three or four times. Thus well
over 10,000 people were instantly turned into
criminal conspirators.
In reply to the statement of the Prosecutor
General the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Iran, men and women, seventeen of
whose predecessors had been either abducted
or put to death by the Islamic authorities, ad-
dressed a letter that was delivered to two thou-
sand government officials and public person-
ages in Iran.
A ROLL (;ALL OF MARTYRS
The letter accused the authorities of “bra-
zenly bringing false accusations against a band
of innocent people, without fear of the Day of
Judgment, without even believing the calum-
nies they utter against their victims, and having
exerted not the slightest effort to investi-
gate . . the validity of the charges they are
making.”
The Prosecutor, the letter said, has accused
the Baha'is of espionage but produced not even
one document in support of the accusation.
“What is the mission . . of this extraordinary
number of ‘spies': What sort of information
(do) they obtain and from what sources?
Whither do they relate it and for what pur-
pose? What kind of ‘spy' is an eighty-five-year
old man from Yazd who has never set foot out-
side his village? Why do these alleged ‘spies'
not hide themselves, conceal their religious be-
liefs and exert every effort to penetrate, by ev-
ery stratagem, the Government's information
centers and offices? . . . What secret intelli-
gence documents have been found in their pos-
session? What espionage equipment has come
to hand? What ‘spying' activities were engaged
in by primary school children who have been
expelled from their schools?”
Systematically, logically, with overwhelm-
ing evidence, the letter demonstrated the false-
hood of the accusations hurled against the Ba-
ha'is by the Prosecutor General and the
government authorities of the Islamic Repub-
lic. It reiterated with dignity and eloquence the
principles that animate the Baha'i community
and spoke of the “pure and innocent lives that
have been snuffed out; . . . the precious breasts
that became the targets of firing squads.” The
National Spiritual Assembly then announced
“the suspension of the Baha'i organizations
throughout Iran, in order to establish its good
intentions and in conformity with its basic te-
nets concerning complete obedience to the
instructions of the Government. Henceforth,
until the time when, God willing, the misun-
derstandings are eliminated . . . the National
Assembly and all local spiritual assemblies and
their committees are disbanded and no one
may any longer be designated a member of the
Baha'i Administration.”
IN CONCLUSION the National Assembly ex-
pressed the hope that the authorities would
“reciprocate by proving their good intentions”
by ending persecutions, arrests, torture, and
imprisonment of Baha'is for imaginary crimes;
guaranteeing their lives, property and honor;
according them freedom to choose their resi-
dence and occupation; restoring them their civ-
il rights; restoring them their sobs; releasing Ba-
ha'i prisoners; restoring to the Baha'is their
property; permitting Baha'i students abroad to
continue their education; permitting those Ba-
ha'is who have been prevented from continu-
ing their studies to resume their education; per-
mitting Baha'i students stranded abroad to
receive their allowance on the same basis as
other Iranian students; restoring Baha'i ceme-
teries and permitting Baha'is to bury their dead
in accordance with Baha'i burial ceremonies;
guaranteeing the freedom of Baha'is to per-
form their religious rites, solemnize Baha'i
marriages and divorces, and to carry out acts of
worship, “because although Baha'is are entire-
ly obedient and subordinate to the Govern-
ment in the administration of the affairs which
are in the jurisdiction of Baha'i organizations,
in matters of conscience and belief, and in ac-
cordance with their spiritual principles, they
prefer martyrdom to recantation or the aban-
doning of the divine ordinances prescribed by
their Faith.”
The islamic government has paid no atten-
tion. It has disregarded not only the legitimate
requests of Baha'i citizens of Iran but has, in
fact, intensified pressure against them- Hun-
dreds of persons, most of them former meni-
bers of the no longer existing Spiritual Assem-
blies, have been imprisoned since September 3,
1983, the date on which the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran announced the
dissolution of all Baha'i institutions in that
country.
It would serve no useful purpose to rehearse
once again the sad tale of continuing economic
pressure, social harassment, legal disablement,
and psychological assault relentlessly applied
to the Baha'is by the authorities of the Islamic
Republic- However, one element of the situa-
tion must be mentioned again and again—the
19
20 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
growing resort to torture, that ultimate act of
inhumanity that has become a regular feature
in what passes for judicial process in today's
Iran.
The voice of the Iranian Baha'i community
has been stilled. Through the thick walls of Is-
lamic Republic's dungeons the world hears
only the muffled groans of those whose bodies
are torn and mangled by the torturer's lash. We
American Baha'is who live in freedom have the'
duty of alerting the world.
The people and the government of the Unit-
ed States have an abiding commitment to decen-
cy, tolerance, and religious freedom. Through
their elected representatives they have already
expressed their sense of outrage at the persecu-
tion of the Baha'i in Iran. We hope that the
Congress will reaffirm its support for the op-
pressed Baha'is and invite other governments
and peoples to raise their voices in defense of
the most fundamental rights of an oppressed
minority.
Three of the/our martyrs of Qazvin, left to right:
Manuchehr Farzaneh-Moayyad, Moharnrnad
Mansuri, and Jadidollah Ashraf
A ROLL CALL OF MARTYRS
LIST OF BAHA'I S KILLED (K), DISAPPEARED AND ASSUMED KILLED (D),
AND DIED IN PRISON (P) SINCE 1978
LOCATION
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
ABBASIYAN, DR. YUSIF
BASHIRI, MR. AHMAD
HIDAYATI, MR. JAHANGIR
MAHMUDI, MR. HUSHANG
MUQARRIBI, MR. ATAULLAH
MUVAHHID, MR. SHAYKH
MUHAMMAD
NADIRI, MRS. BAHIYYIH TEHRAN
NAJI, DR. HUSAYN TEHRAN
NAYYIRI-ISFAHANI,
MR. HUSAYN ESFAHAN
QAIM-MAQAMI, MR.
MANUHIR
QUDIMI, MR. YUSIF
RAHMANI, MR. IBRAHIM
RAWHANI, DR.
HISHMATULLAH TEHRAN
RAWSHANI, MR. RUHI
SADIQZADIH, DR. KAMBIZ
TASLIMI, MR. ABDUL-HUSAYN
ISMAILI, MR. AHMAD
HAQIQAT, MR. DIYAULLAH
AKHAVAN-I-KATHIRI, MR.
NAW-RUZI, MR.
AZIZI MR. HAJI-MUHAMMAD
DASTI ISH, MR.
SHIR-MUHAMMAD
RUZBIHI, MR. HATAM
RUZBIHI, MR. JAN-ALl
FAHANDIZH, MR.
AZAMATULLAH SHIRAZ
FAHANDIZH, MR.
SIFATULLAH
FAHANDIZH, MRS.
AFNANI, MR. KHUSRAW
AFNANI, MR. PARVIZ
MANAVI, MR. IBRAHIM
SHAKURI, MR. HUSAYN
VUJDANI, MR. BAHAR
SATTARZADIH, MR. ALT
DAVUDI, DR. ALIMURAD
PANAHI, MR. HABIBULLAH
AAZAMI, MR.
GHULAM-HUSAYN
MUINI, MR. ALI-AKBAR
YAZDANI, MR. BADIULLAH
KHURSANDI, MR. ALI-AKBAR
BAYANI, MR. PARVIZ
MUKHTARI, MR.
MIR-ASADULLAH
ISMAILZADIH, MR. HASAN
SUBHANI, MR. YUSIF
ASTANI, MR. YADULLAH
SAMANDARI, DR. FARAMARZ
DADASH-AKBARI, MR. ALl
MAHBUBIYAN, MR.
YADULLAH TEHRAN
MUMINI, MR. DHABIHULLAH TEHRAN
AKHTAR-KHAVARI, MR.
NURULLAH YAZD
DATE
-78
08- 12-78
08-27-78
08-27-78
10-10-78
12- -78
12- -78
12- -78
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
P
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
12-14-78 K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
D
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
AHRAM
JAHROM
SHAHMIRZAD
SHAHMIRZAD
KHORMUJ
BUYR-AHMAD
BUYR-AHMAD
BUYR-AHMAD
SHIRAZ 12-14-78
SHIRAZ 12-14-78
MIAN DUAB 12-22-78
MIAN DUAB 12-22-78
HESAR, KHORASAN -79
USHNAVIYYEH 04-02-79
MAHABAD 09-27-79
BOWKAN 10-28-79
TEHRAN, DATE KIDNAPPED 11-11-79
ORUMIYYEH 02-04-80
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
PIRANSHAHR
ANDRUN, BIRJAND
SANADAJ
TEHRAN
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
RASHT
05-06-80
05-06-80
05-06-80
05-09-80
05-1 1-80
05-18-80
06- -80
06-27-80
07- 14-80
07- 14-80
07-16-80
07-30-80 K
08-15-80 K
NAME
21
09-08-80 K
22 /VORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
NAME
LOCATION
DHABIHIYAN, MR.
AZIZULLAH
FARIDANI, MR. FIRAYDUN
HAZANZADIH, MR. MAHMUD
KAZIMI-MANSHADI, MR.
ABDUL-VAHHAB
MUSTAQIM, MR. JALAL
MUTAHHARI, MR. ALl
FIRUZI, MR. RIDA
MASUMI, MR.
MUHAMMAD-HUSAYN
MASUMI, MRS. SHIKKAR-NISA
SANAI, MR. BIHRUZ
HAKIM, DR. MANUCHIHR
ANVARI, MR. MIHDI
DIHQANI, MR.
HIDAYATULLAH
YARSHATIR, MRS.
NURANIYYIH TEHRAN
KHUSHKHU, MR. SATTAR SHIRAZ
MIHDI-ZADIH, MR.
IHSANULLAH SHIRAZ
VAHDAT, MR. YADULLAH SHIRAZ
HABIBI, MR. SUHAYL
(MUHAMMAD-BAQIR)
HABIBI, MR. SUHRA
(MUHAMMAD) HAMADAN
KHANDIL, MR. HUSAYN HAMADAN
KHUZAYN, MR. TARAZULLAH HAMADAN
MUTLAO, MR. HUSAYN HAMADAN
NAIMI, DR. FIRUZ HAMADAN
VAFAI, DR. NASIR HAMADAN
ALAVIYAN, MR. BUZURG TEHRAN
FARNUSH, MR. HASHIM TEHRAN
MAVADDAT, MR. FARHANG TEHRAN
FARHANGI, DR. MASIH TEHRAN
FARID, MR. BADIULLAH TEHRAN
PUSTCHI, MR. YADULLAH TEHRAN
TIBYANJYAN, MR. VARQA
(TIBYANI) TEHRAN
BAKHTAVAR, MR.
KAMALUD-DIN MASHAD
KATIBPUR-SHAHIDI, MR.
NIMATULLAH MASHAD
ASADULLAH-ZADIH, MR.
HUSAYN
ASADYARI, MR. ABDUL-ALI
BAHIRI, MR. MIHDI
DAKHILI, DR. MASRUR
FIRUZI, DR. PARVIZ
KHADII, MR. MANUCHIHR
MITHAQI, MR. ALLAH-VIRDI
TAHQIQI, MR. HABIBULLAH
ZIHTAB, MR. ISMAIL
RASTIGAR-NAMDAR, MR.
HUSAYN
AZIZI, MR. HABIBULLAH
ATIFI, MR. BAHMAN
ATIFI, MR. IZZAT
RAWHANI, MR. ATAULLAH
RIDVANI, MR. AHMAD
THABIT-RASIKH, MR.
GUSHTASB
YAZD
YAZD
YAZD
YAZD
YAZD
YAZD
TABRIZ
NUK, BIRJAND
NUK, BIRJAND
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
HAMADAN
DATE
09-08-80 K
09-08-80 K
09-08-80 K
09-08-80 K
09-08-80 K
09-08-80 K
11-09-80 K
11-23-80 K
11-23-80 K
12-17-80 K
01-12-81 K
03-17-81 K
03-17-81 K
04- -81 K
04-30-81 K
04-30-81 K
04-30-81 K
06-14-81 K
06-14-81 K
06-14-81 K
06-14-81 K
06-14-81 K
06-14-81 K
06-14-81 K
06-23-81 K
06-23-81 K
06-23-81 K
06-24-81 K
06-24-81 K
06-24-81 K
06-24-81 K
07-26-8 1 K
07-26-81 K
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
TABRIZ
07-29-81
07-29-81
07-29-81
07-29-81
07-29-81
07-29-81
07-29-81
07-29-81
07-29-81
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
DARUN, ESFAHAN
DARUN, ESFAHAN
DARUN, ESFAHAN
DARUN, ESFAHAN
08-05-81
08.29-81
09-1 1-81
09-11-8 1
09-11-8 1
09-11-8 1
K
K
K
K
K
K
DARUN, ESFAHAN
09-11-81 K
LOCATION
A ROLL CALL OF MARTYRS
DATE
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
TEHRAN
10-23-81
12-2 7-8 1
12-27-8 1
12-27-81
12-2 7-8 1
12-27-81
12-27-81
12-27-8 1
12-27-81
0 1-04-82
0 1-04-82
0 1-04-82
0 1-04-82
0 1-04-82
0 1-04-82
0 1-04-82
02-26-82
02-28-82
04-02-82
04- 12-82
04-29-82
05-08-82
05-08-82
05-08-82
05- 10-82
05- 10-82
05-1 6-82
05- 16-82
07-09-82
07-09-82
07-09-82
07-09-82
07- 15-82
08-1 1-82
09-02-82
1 1-16-82
1 1-2 1-82
01-01-83
0 1-10-83
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
SIPIHR-ARFA, MR. YADULLAH TEHRAN
AMIN AMIN, MR. MIHDI TEHRAN
AZIZI, MR. JALAL TEHRAN
FURUHI, MR. IZZATULLAH TEHRAN
MAHMUDI, DR. ZHINUS TEHRAN
MAJDHUB, MR. MAHMUD TEHRAN
RAWHANI, MR.
QUDRATULLAH
RAWSHANI, DR. SIRUS
SAMIMI, MR. KAMRAN
AMTR-KIYA BAQA, MRS.
SHIDRUKH
ASADULLAH-ZADIH, MRS.
SHIVA TEHRAN
AZIZI, MR. ISKANDAR TEHRAN
FIRDAWSI, MR. FATHULLAH TEHRAN
MUHANDISI, MR. KI-IUSRAW TEHRAN
TALAI, MR. KURUSH TEHRAN
YAVARI, MR. ATAULLAH TEHRAN
KHAYRKHAH, MR. IBRAHIM BABOL SAR
VAHDAT-I.HAQ, MR. HUSAYN TEHRAN
MUHAMMADI, MR. ASKAR RAHIM KHAN, BOWKAN
KHAYYAMI, MR. IHSANULLAH ORUMIYYEH
GULSHANI, MR. AZIZULLAH MASHAD
FARUHAR, MR. MAHMUD KARAJ
FARUHAR, MRS. ISHRAOIYYIH KARA
HAQPAYKAR, MR. BADIULLAHKARA
MUSHTAIL, MISS JALALIYYIH ORUMIYYEH
TIZFAHM, MR. AGAHULLAH ORUMIYYEH
AMINI, MR. NASRULLAH KHANIABAD
BABAZADIH, MR. SADULLAH KHANIABAD
ABBASI, MR. MUHAMMAD QAZVIN
ASHRAF, MR. JADIDULLAH QAZVIN
FARZANIH-MUAYYAD, MR.
MANUCHIHR
MANSURI, MR. MUHAMMAD
SADIQIPUR, MR. ABBAS-ALI
NAIMIYAN, MR. AL!
VAFAI, MR. MANUCHIHR
AWJI, MR. HABIBULLAH
AHRARI, DR. DIYAULLAH
SIYAVUSHI, MR. HIDAYAT
ALIPUR, MRS. GULDANIH
MAHMUDNIZHAD, MISS
MUNA SHIRAZ
03-12-83
K
MAHMUDNIZHAD, MR.
YADULLAH SHIRAZ
VAFAI, MR. RAHMATULLAH SHIRAZ
ZAIRPUR, MRS. TUBA SHIRAZ
HAKIMAN, MR. JALAL TEHRAN
SAFAI, MR. SUHAYL ESFAHAN
RAHIMPUR (KHURMAI), MRS.
IRAN DEZFUL
03-12-83
03-12-83
03-12-83
05-01-83
05-01-83
05-12-83
K
K
K
K
K
K
AFNAN, DR. BAHRAM (SON OF
MIHDI AFNAN) SHIRAZ
AZADI, MR. ABDUL-HUSAYN SHIRAZ
HAQBIN, MR. KURUSH SHIRAZ
ISHRAQI, MR. INAYATULLAH SHIRAZ
SIYAVUSHI, MR. JAMSHID SHIRAZ
YALDAI, MR. BAHRAM SHIRAZ
DELVAND, MISS SHIRIN SHIRAZ
ISHRAQI, MISS RUYA SHIRAZ
ISHRAQI, MRS. IZZATJANAMI SHIRAZ
06-16-83
06-16-83
06-16-83
06-16-83
06-16-83
06-16-83
06-18-83
06-18-83
06-18-83
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
QAZVIN
QAZVIN
S1-IIRAZ
ORUMIYYEH
TEHRAN
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SARI, MAZENDARAN
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
NAME
23
24 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
NAME
MUQIMI, MRS. ZARRIN
NIRUMAND, MISS MAHSHID
SABIRI, MRS. SIMIN
SIYAVUSHI, MRS. TAHIRIH
THABIT, MRS. AKHTAR
YALDAI, MRS. NUSRAT
HUSHMAND, MR. SUHAYL
THABIT-SARVISTANI, MR.
AHMAD ALl
ISHRAQI, MR. MUHAMMAD
MUTAHHAR, MR.
ABDUL-MAJID
DIHQANI, MR. BAHMAN
DIYAI, MR. NUSRATULLAH
HAKIMAN, MR.
RAHMATULLAH
RADAVI, MR. MUHSIN
SHAKIRI-HASANZADIH, MR.
ABDUL-HUSAYN
LUFTI, MR. KAMRAN
RAHIMIYAN, MR. RAHIM
SABIRIYAN, MR. YADULLAH
LOCATION DATE
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
SHIRAZ
TE IIRAN
ESFAHAN
MOHAMMADIYYEH
BAFT
KERMAN
NARMAK, NEAR TEHRAN
TEHRAN
NARMAK
NARMAK
TEHRAN
SINCE 1978
149 BAHA'IS WERE KILLED
16 DISAPPEARED AND ARE PRESUMED KILLED
6 DIED IN PRISON
171
06-18-83 K
06-18-83 K
06-18-83 K
06-18-83 K
06-18-83 K
06-18-83 K
06-28-83 K
06-30-83 P
08-31-83 P
09- -83 P
11-19-83 K
12-31-83 P
01-11-84 K
03- -84 K
03- -84 P
04- -84 K
04- -84 K
04- -84 K
A ROLL CALL OF MARTYRS
EXTRACTS FROM AN ACCOUNT OF
THE IMPRISONMENT OF BAHA'!
WOMEN SOME OF WHOM WERE
HANGED IN SHIRAZ ON JUNE 18, 1983
(The writer, O/ya Ruhizadegan, a Baha ‘i from
Shiraz, was in prison with other women includ-
ing those who were martyred on June 18, 1983.
Because she was the mother of a three-year-old
child she was released and later succeeded in leav-
ing Iran)
TEN DAYS later Mrs. Fereshteh Nazeri (A nvarz,.)
who was in prison with us, was called for inves-
tigation and returned after two hours in a piti-
ful condition. She was so weak I had to hold
her arm, and I smelled alcohol. Quietly, be-
cause we were watched, I asked her what had
happened. She said, “They made me walk
down many steps toward the basement, where
I heard the voice of people in pain. The blind-
fold was taken off, and what I saw filled me
with terror. There were eight benches on
which eight persons were tied with chains face
down. They were being lashed with cable
whips and severely tortured. I was so terrified
that I became unconscious; and when I recov-
ered, I found myself lying on the hospital bed.
Again 1 was humiliated and was told, ‘Now
you can go; but, remember, we will see you
again!' From this account I realized what was
in store for us, and in the hands of what savages
we were
The following day I was called for investiga-
tion along with two other women. At the end
of the steps, where we could hear the groaning
of people being tortured, we were separated,
and each one, accompanied by a person, was
taken to a room for investigation. The person
who was with me asked many questions and re-
corded the answers in my file: “What is your
religion?” “I am a Baha'i.” “Do you love your
children?” “Yes, I do.” “According to the Ko-
ran you are condemned to be executed unless
you repent and come back to Islam! I will give
you time to think it over! I am sure they have
deceived you! You are misled!” “No! I have not
been misled or deceived. According to the
teachings of Baha'u'llah every person should
investigate the truth foi- himself. I have investi-
gated the Baha'i Faith myself and accepted it.
As a Baha'i, I believe in Islam and all the past re-
ligions
In general, the conduct of the investigators
was so rude and rough that it did not allow the
friends to think about what to say. In the room
for interrogation we could hear the cries of ag-
ony from the basement where women were be-
ing lashed.
One of the investigators said to me, “You
claim to be obedient to the laws of the country.
The government of the islamic Republic wants
you to leave the Baha'i religion and return to
Islam.” I answered, “In accordance with arti-
cles 19 to 41 of the constitution of the Islamic
Republic freedom of belief is recognized for all
the people in Iran; hence it is not reasonable for
the government to want inc to give up my be-
lief.” He paused for a moment and said, “Sup-
pose the government tried to force you to give
up your belief; then what would you do?” I re-
plied, “My religious belief is ar inner knowledge
I have found by independent investigation; I will
not give it up under any circu stances. Our be-
lief does no harm to the country as long as we
obey the laws of the government of the Repub-
lic.”
The investigator asked personal questions
about myself and my husband, and about out-
employment in the Iranian Oil Co. I said I was
discharged because I was a Baha'i, and my hus-
band's pension was cut off for the same reason.
He said, “We have looked up your record in
the N.I.O.C.; you have been a good employee.
Now, be reasonable and fair to yourself. just
say, ‘I am not a Baha'i,' and I will see that you
go back to your job, and the .payment of your
husband's pension will he resumed.” My reply
was, “Please don't ask me to tell a lie and he
ashamed the rest of my life.” When he realized
I was steadfast in my belief, he admired my
truthfulness and closed the interrogation.
Thus, after being in the Army prison for
thirty-six days for interrogation, I was trans-
ferred to Adelabad prison. .
in Adelabad we went through the second
stage of our interrogation. Our identities and
family details were recorded in a file, and when
25
2 WORLD ORDER: WINtER 1983—84
they asked about our religion, we said we were
Baha'is. The police officers who were fed up
with the regime of Mullahs, exclaimed, “Isn't it
funny! People's wives and daughters are im-
prisoned just because of their belief
The judge left the room and returned with
my three-and-a-half-year-old son, Payam. (It
was customary for the families of those on trial
to wait outside the court.) The minute Payams
saw me, he threw himself in my arms, yelling,
“Mama! Mama! Why have you stayed here?
Why don't you come home? I know they have
brought you from Adelabad prison! I will be a
good boy!” I need not say how deeply touched
I was with the way my poor child acted, and
the way he had followed the events in his
mother's life. The judge tried to pull him away
from me, but Payam cried, “Sir! I want my
Mama! Mama, you come with us!” The judge
was confused and turned away, saying, “Will
ou get up and give the child to his father?” He
had imagined that the love of a mother for her
child might influence inc to listen to him and
recant to get my freedom. Not a chance!
Finally, the judge turned to me and said,
“For the last time I warn you. Because you are
active in Baha'i administration you are con-
demned to he executed unless you declare that
you are not a member of the perverted sect.” I
replied, “I am definitely not a member of the
perverted sect; I believe in one God and have
faith in the sacred Baha'i religion!” “Are you
prepared to be executed for your faith?” he
said. “Yes, I am!” was my reply. He then called
my husband and said, “Your wife is free on
bail. Go and bring a real estate voucher and
take her home.”
Mona Mah,nudnczhacl, a sixteen-year-old
girl, one day was summoned to the Court. The
Religious Magistrate, after the usual insults and
humiliation, said to her, “Your parents have de-
ceived you; now you are condemned to be ex-
ecuted unless you repent and recant.” Mona re-
plied, “It is true I was born in a Baha'i family
and learned about the Baha'i Faith from my par-
ents, but it was my own investigation which
proved to me the truth of the Baha'i message. My
parents did not force me to be a Baha'i.
I embraced Mrs. Zaerpur, who after fifty-five
days in soliltary prison, was brought to the
general prison. She could hardly walk, so weak
and sickly she had become. We entered the cell,
and I asked Mrs. Zaerpur what had they done
to her! She described in detail the events of her
imprisonment and trial as follows:
She had her first trial four days after she was
imprisoned. For three consecutive days she
was summoned for interrogation and was
asked many questions; but the answers she
gave did not satisfy the investigator. Each day
they took h r down to the basement and lashed
her in order that she give the information they
wanted....
As the result of repeated lashings, Mrs. Zaer-
pur was painfully injured and had sore spots all
her body, although she tried not to show
it. On the first day she was lashed with fifty
strokes of he whip, on the second day one
hundred strokes, and on the third day seventy-
four strokes, with cable whip, some on the
soles of her feet and some on her back. The
hundred strokes of the second day made her
Mrs. Nosrat Yaldai
A ROLL CALL 0! MARIYRS
lose consciousness before they took her iack
o her cell in prison. The sore spots on her
body were so painful that she could not sleep
for many nights. Her toes were bleeding and
the toenails fell off as a result of injuries. In
spite of all the suffering Mrs. Zaerpur never
complained. She prayed all the time. She was
the embodiment of spiritual strength and resig-
nation to the Will of God, and a source of com-
fort to all of us. She had dedicated her life to the
service of the Cause of God and finally gave up
her life and was honored with the crown of
martyrdom in His path.
Mrs. Nosrat Yaldai was called for investiga-
tion two days after her arrest. She was asked
questions about her administrative duties and
positions. They wanted her to confess to being
a member of a local Spiritual Assembly and to
give the names of all the Assembly members
and other administrative bodies. Mrs. Yaldai,
unwilling to involve other friends, refrained
from giving the information they demanded.
The following day she was taken to the base-
ment and given fifty strolces on the soles of her
feet, and fifty strokes on her back. Then they
brought Mr. Mahmudnezhad, who advised her
to give all the information. He said to her,
“The situation is worse than you think. They
already have got all the information; we have
nothing to hide. We thought the Three Mem-
ber Meetings were out of the question! On the
day they brought Dr. Afnan, Mr. Hakimi, and
myself in this very basement and lashed the
three of us in front of each other, we consid-
ered it advisable to give all the facts. Now you
do the same.” She was taken back to the cell in
a terrible condition, and a quarter of an hour
later she was called again. The prison attendant
said, “This woman is unconscious; she cannot
walk.” But the invcstigato did not mind and
had her pulled into the interrogation room.
This time they dragged all the information out
of her about the administrative bodies in Shiraz.
One day I went in the bathroom with Mrs.
Yaldai. I noticed that, after seventy days, the
sore spots on her back and waist were swollen
and a deep wound in the shape of, and caused
by, the cable whip could be seen.
Translated from the Persian
EXTRACTS FROM AN ACCOUNT OF
THE LIFE AND ACTIVITIES OF ZAR-
RIN MOQIMI, ONE OF THE BAHA'I
WOMEN HANGED IN SHIRAZ ON
JUNE 18, 1983
• . When Zarrin was taken to the religious
magistrate to recant her Faith, and was told as
usual either to recant or to be prepared for ex-
ecution, she said in reply, “I have found the
way to reality, and 1 am not prepared to give it
away for any price. Therefore, I submit to the
Court's verdict.” On another occasion the
judge asked Zarrin, “To what extent are you
prepared to adhere to your belilef?” Zarrin an-
swered, “I hope to remain firm in my belief to
the last moment.” “But you must give up your
belief!” retorted the judge. Zarrin, annoyed by
the repetition of the same proposal, exclaimed,
“Your honor, you have been conducting my
trial for many days, and have asked the same
question, and I have given you a definite and
satisfactory answer. I don't think repeating the
same thing is necessary!” But the judge rudely
repeated the same proposal. Dear Z rrin start-
ed crying and with a loud voice said. “in what
language do you want me to tell you? Why
don't you leave me alone? My whole being is
Baha'u'llah! My love is Baha'u'llah! My heart is
dedicated to Baha'u'llah !“ The infuriated judge
shouted, “I will pull out your heart from your
chest!” Zarrin replied, “Then my heart will call
and cry out, ‘Baha'u'llah! Baha'u'llah!'” The
judge, moved by this display of sentiment, left
the room.
Zarrin ‘s Martyrdom
AFTER ZARRIN'S martyrdom, dear Mother de-
scribed the event for me over the phone: “Satur-
day, June 18, 1983, 1 went to visit Zarrin as usual,
taking fresh fruits with me. it was raining, and
the weather was quite warm. At the visiting time
Zarrin was brought behind the glass partition.
and we started to talk. Her countenance seemed
to have changed; she said to me, “Mother, please
pray for me and implore God to give me perse-
verance!” She did not say good-bye to me when
leaving, because she did not want to see me sad-
dened. Zarrin had always told me not to hope for
27
2S / ORL!) )RDER /VINI'ER 1983—84
her freedom, but it did not occur to me that this
was our last meeting. Thc friends (Baha'is) had
been urged to recant for the last time, and most
probably they would be executed. Visiting time
was over, and I returned home. The following
day, Sunday, June 19, early in the morning I
found out that ten women prisoners had been
hanged during the night. I ran out of the house to
inquire from the friends; in the street I met three
Friends. With tearful eyes they showed me a list;
then 1 realized Zarrin was also martyred. I ran to-
ward Adelabad prison, moaning and crying.
This was the place most of our time had been
spent the last eight months. I was allowed to go
into the cold room. What I went through that
day, and what I saw in that historic moment, I
cannot describe. I entered the cold room. 0, my
God! 1 saw ten angels lying motionless next to
each other. I knew all of them; I had been in the
same prison with them. Mother and daughter
were togethet; All had a pair of pants and a sum-
mer blouse on. Some of them had their chadur
(long robe) tied around their waist; others had it
thrown on the floor. What force kept me on my
feet and breathing I don't know! I looked at all
the ten angels, and found Zarrin among them re-
posed; I embraced her cold body, put my cheek
on her delicate and cold cheek, and kissed the
mark of rope on her lovely neck on behalf of all
of you (Father, who was in prison; myself; and
my brother, out of the country). Her face looked
natural and composed.”
Translated froni the Persian
EXTRACT FROM AN ACCOUNT CON-
CERNING THE INTERROGATION OF
MONA MAHMUDNEZHAD, ONE OF
THE TEN BAHA'I WOMEN HANGED IN
SHIRAZONJUNE 18, 1983
(The write ; Mrs. Oiya Ruhizadegan, was Mona
fellow prisoner but was released and later succeed-
ed in leaving the country.)
MONA was another young girl eighteen years
of age when martyred. She was a teacher of Ba-
ha'i children's classes and served on the Three
Members Board and was arrested with her fa-
ther, Yadollah Mahmudnezhad.
Twice the order for Mona's release was is-
sued, but at the third stage in her trial the reli-
gious magistrate, Mr. Qazai, after insulting and
humiliating her, said, “Your father and mother
have deceived and misled you.” In reply Mona
said, “Your honor, it is true that I learned about
the Baha'i Faith from my parents, but I have
done my own reasoning. In the Baha'i Faith
one adheres to religion after investigation, not
by imitation. Ypu have many of our books;
you can read and find out for yourself. My fa-
ther and mother did not insist on my accepting
their belief; neither did they force me to be-
come a Baha'i. If the religious magistrate thinks
I should abandon my belief, I will never do so,
and prefer submitting to the order of execu-
tion.” The religious magistrate was astounded
and said, “Young girl, what do you know about
religion?” Mona exclaimed, “Your honor, I was
brought here from the classroom in school; I
have been in prison and going through trials
for three months. What better proof of my reli-
gious certitude than my perseverance and
steadfastness in he Faith? It is this Faith that
4
Zarrin Moqiozi
A ROLI_ CAll. OF lARl'YRS
gives me confldcncc to go through this trial in
your presence....” The religious magistrate,
impresscd by Mona's sincerity, asked her to say
a prayer. Mona put away the file and, with the
usual respect and humbleness, recited a prayer
by ‘Abdu'I-Baha: “0 kind Lord, Thou art
kinder to me than I am to myself The reli-
gious magistrate remained silent for a while,
then said to Mona, “What harm did you find in
Islam that you have turned to Bahaism?”
Mona's answer was: “The foundation of all reli-
gions is one. From time to time, according to
the exigencies of time and place, God sends. His .
Messenger to renew religion and guide the peo-
ple in the right path. The Baha'i religion up-
holds the truth in Islam, but if by Islam you
mean the prevailing animosity, murder, and
bloodshed in the country, a sample of which I
have witnessed in prison, that is the reason I
have chosen to be a Baha'i.
Mona's answer was the subject of conversa-
tion among the friends for quite a while in pris-
on. How did Mona dare to talk to the religious
magistrate in this way?
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER WRIT-
TEN BY MRS. OLYA RUHIZADEGAN
ABOUT THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF
THE COURT'S VERDICT IN THE CASE
OF THE BAHA'I WOMEN HANGED IN
SHIRAZ ON JUNE 18, 1983
THE DAY the court's verdict of execution was
issued and conveyed to the friends in prison.
can you imagine how they reacted to it? Let me
give you an example: Mrs. Avaregan is a fifty-
five-year-old woman who was arrested the
same night with Zarrin (Moqimi). She is still in
prison. She was kept in solitary confinement
thirty-five days, and because of the foul air in
the prison cell she fainted twice; they had to ap-
ply intravenous infusions to cure her. Onthe
day she was summoned to the court for trial
she still had the i.v. on her arm. They pulled it
out and made her walk to go through all the
stages of trial. Finally, when the religious mag-
istrate said to her, “The verdict for you is ex-
ecution; you have only one chance—to recant
and be freed,” Mrs. Avaregan replied, “1 am a
Baha'i and firm in my belief; 1 am not ready to
recant at any price. I respect the court's verdict,
but you, the religious magistrate sitting on the
throne of justice of Imam Au. . . .“ The infuri-
ated magistrate said, “Yes, 1 am sitting on this
chair and want to send you to the lowest abyss
so that your sin may be wiped Out!” Mrs. Avar-
egan said, “For the time being you have cured
my ailment.” That night when Mrs. Avaregan
returned to prison, she was quite well, as though
she had never been ill. She laughed and cried
out, “The magistrate has told me I am to be ex-
ecuted; he thinks I am afraid of execution!
Translated from the Persian
EXTRACT FROM AN ACCOUNT OF
THE ARREST, IMPRISONMENT, AND
TORTURE OF MR. AL! AKBAR ABBA-
SIAN, AN EMPLOYEE OF SADERAT
(EXPORT) BANK. JUNE 1982.
ON JUNE21, 1982, Mr. .Ahbasian and five other
Baha'i employees of the bank ‘cre asked to
29
Mona Mah?nudnezhad
Translated from the Persian
30 /VOR 1) ORDER: /VINFIR 1983—84
port to the central office. They were ordered to
proceed to the Revolutionary Court accompa-
nied by members of the Islamic Society of the
Bank. They were told that since they were Ba-
ha'is the religious magistrate had to issue the
order for their discharge.
They were blindfolded before they reached
Evin prison, where the interrogator, a man
called Tului, met them with the usual insults
and the accusation of being Zionists. Abbasian
objected, saying, “I am not a Zionist.” He said,
“1 am a Baha'i.” Thereupon the interrogator
slapped him on the face and beat him with
hand and fist and repeatedly kicked him. The
others were also beaten. Then with two point-
ed rods, perhaps two pencils, the interrogator
poked the blindfold into Ahbasian's eyes and,
and after heating him again, ordered all of them
taken to General prison. On June 27, 1982, Mr.
Abhasian was summoned to the court; and the
interrogator, the same Tului, passed on to him
sheets of paper with questions printed on them
and threatened him with severe punishment if
he wrote falsehoods; at the same time he stood
over his head and beat him repeatedly on the
neck and shoulders, causing pain and nervous
discomfort.
After the questionnaire was answered and
the beating stopped, the interrogator demand-
ed tha Abassian recant the Baha'i Faith and
name the members of certain administrative
bodies in the Baha'i community whom they ac-
cused of sending spies out of the country.
When the interrogator met with resistance
from Abbasian, he, accompanied by several
guards, proceeded to hurl him down against
the hard surface of a bench, causing his fore-
head and jaw to be severely injured and to
bleed (the effect of the injury remained for sev-
eral months and was felt while eating). Then
with something like a wire Abassian's feet were
tied to the edge of the bench so tightly that it
broke the skin and left a hollow bruise, which
after seven months is still visible and not quite
healed. His hands were pulled forward and tied
to the wall or something else. He was now ly-
ing on his abdomen with hands and feet tied
up, and the soles of his feet turned upward. Tu-
lui ordered the guards to start lashing and to
continue until Abbasian recanted and gave the
names of committee members or died. The
lashing was done with a whip made of cable
wire about two centimeters in diameter. The
blows were aimed at the five toes of each foot
so that each toe received its share of the total
numbei of three hundred blows. Mr. Abbasian,
Gi vc of the ten women martyred in Shiraz on June 18, 1983
A ROLL CALL OF MARTIRS
whose face and mouth were covered with a
blanket so that his screams might not be heard,
and realizing the intensity of his torture,
turned in his heart to the Blessed Beauty (Ba-
ha'u'llah) and prayed.. . . When the lashing
was finished, Abbasian, with injured head and
feet covered with blood, was led into prison.
Here the friends, with the limited facilities at
their disposal, tried to bandage his wounds and
alleviate his pain. The following day Uune 28)
again he heard his name called on the loud-
speaker and was told to go to the interrogation
room. The same questions were posed, and
when he gave the same answers, he was re-
turned to prison.
On July 30, 1982, the Baha'i employees of
the bank, including Abbasian, were summoned
to the court for trial. Abbasian was accused on
the following counts:
1. being a member of the heretic sect of Ba-
haism
2. being a spy for Israel
3. making a trip to Israel
4. sending spies to different parts of the
world
5. getting money from the bank through
Hoveida
6. teaching the Baha'i religion in the bank
and on duty
After Abbasian refuted every one of the
above accusations, the file was declared incom-
plete by the judge, and the defendant was re-
turned to prison.
On August 2 he was summoned to the court
a second time. This time the judge was a differ-
ent person, and all the previous accusations
were repeated and again were refuted by Abba-
sian. Finally, the judge asked if be was ready to
recant the Baha'i Faith. Abbasian's reply was
an emphatic refusal, and he was returned to
prison.
In prison, with the help of other friends,
Abbasian attended to the treatment of his
wounds, but six of his toenails dropped off
after a while due to ecchymosis and made walk-
ing very painful and difficult for a long time.
The final verdict of the court in his case was
announced as follows:
1. six months in prison
2. permanent discharge from the hank
3. payment of his debt to the hank
On December 30, 1982, when the bank i e-
ceipt for payment of his debt by Abbasiad's
family was presented, he was released on bail:
Translated from the Persi in
31
The Eshraghis of Shiraz
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SAID ESHKAGHI
My name is Said Eshraghi. I am an Iranian Ba-
ha'i who has resided in the United States for
the last six years. I currently live in Nacog-
doches, Texas, where I work as director of op-
erations ol a small chain of restaurants. I appear
before this Subcommittee to tell the story of
the persecution of my family, three members
of which have been martyred for their beliefs.
Mv story is not unique. But it may throw some
light on what is happening to the Baha'is in
Iran.
-r 5:00 O'CLOCK in the morning on June 17,
1983, 1 had a strange phone call from Aus-
tralia. It was my brother. He said, “Good
morning. How are you?” I said I was fine and
asked him why he was calling so early. He said
he just wanted to see how I was doing and
asked if I had heard anything from home. I
said, “No.” He said, “Well, I have congratula-
tions.” I said, “What are you talking about?”
I—Ic said, “Our father was martyred.” I think I
was still asleep when he said that, and I said,
“What are you talking about?” He said, “Wake
up! Go put some water on your face, and wake
up. Our father has gone to God.”
For about live or ten minutes I didn't know
what to do. I had two finches in a cage. The
first thing 1 remember was feeling that I needed
to let the finches go. I opened the cage and let
them go. Then I called my sister in Iran. She
wasn't home. But another member of my fam-
ily in my parents' home told me, “Your Dad
was executed yesterday.” That was on June 16,
would like to congratulate you one more time,
brother.” I said, “What are you talking about,
brother?” He said, “Our Mom joined Dad.”
“Well,” I said, “at least now he is not alone.”
Then he said—and he was crying—”Well, I am
going to congratulate you one more time. Our
sister has gone with them, so they are not
alone. They are all together.”
Those events added a new dimension to my
life. Now I had the three dearest members of
my family executed for the Cause of God.
Let me tell you a little bit about my family— ,
what they are doing and who they are. I have a
brother named Vahid, who lives in Australia.! 4ç
have a sister named Nahid. She is in Nigeria. I
had two sisters in Iran, one named Roya and -
the other named Rosita. My father was an ofl - .
cer of the. National Oil Company in Iran. My 4
mother was a housewife.
I left Iran before the revolution, as did my
brother and my sister Nahid. But my two little ;
sisters were still in Iran. During and after the :
revolution I kept hearing news about the perse.
cution of the Baha'is in Iran. First it started in
Shiraz. I don't know how long ago it was. It
probai ly was in 1980 right after the revolu-
tion. A mob destroyed about two hundred
houses and businesses that belonged to the Ba
ha'is. They burned some of the houses and d:
molished everything. They took away what ev-
erybody had because they were Baha'is. TL.
news kept coming that my family and other
Baha'is were in danger. The National Spiritual.
Assembly of Iran was executed. Other Baha'is
all over Iran were also being executed. I never
thought that such things would happen one
day to me, that I would be someone who. ,
would get hurt from the revolutionary govern-
ment.
On November 29, 1982, my father Enaya.
1983.
During those few days I was in a state of
shock. We had a small memorial service for my
Dad at our house on June 18, 1983. The next
morning, June 19, 1983, 1 had another phone
call from my brother in Australia. He said, “I
THE ESHRAGHIS OF SHIRAZ
tollah Eshraghi; my mother, Ezzat; and my sis-
ter Roya were arrested. They were taken to
prison by the authority of the government in
Shiraz. They were arrested at 8:00 P.M. Govern-
ment officials came to the house and asked
them to go with the officials for questioning.
That night, besides my parents and my sister,
forty-five other Baha'is were arrested in Shiraz.
Probably thirty-five more Baha'is were arrest-
ed that night and the next night and were put in
jail. For a long time we didn't have any infor-
mation about what went on. What were the
charges? Why were eighty-five Baha'is in pris-
on? Nobody would tell.
And even when they started to put all the
Baha'is on trial, nobody knew what the trial
was all about except that my father and my
mother and my sister were in a trial. Nobody
else was allowed to be in the court or the court-
room.
That was the time I started calling back to
my home and talking to my sister Rosie about
the things that were happening. I know a few
things. A lady who was in prison with my
mother but was later released sent me a letter
and wrote some things in the letter.
During the trial my sister asked the judge if
she could talk to my Dad for a few minutes.
She hadn't seen or touched my Dad even for a
minute during the past six months. The judge
said, “Well, you may go and talk to your Dad.”
So my sister Roya, who was in a women's pris-
on, saw my Dad for the first time. They were
in a room, and she hugged my Dad and told
Said Eshraghi, BahI'/ witness at
Congressional hea ring
33
34 /VORLD ORDER WINtER 1983—84
him, “Dad, don't worry about me and Mom.
We are fine.” Anything that a father and daugh-
ter would say to each other, they said, “I love
you. I miss you so much.” Things like that.
The judge told my sister, “All you and your
Dad have to do is deny your faith and simply
become Muslims. Just tell them you are not Ba-
ha'i. I'll let you go. I'll let your Mom and your
Dad go. I would even let your Dad have his rc
tirement money.” Before he went to prison,
my Dad's retirement benefit was cut because he
was Baha'i. The judge even told my sister Roya
that he would let her continue her education at
the university. She had been thrown out of the
University of Shiraz because she was a Baha'i.
Of course, my family didn't want to deny their
belief. During the time that they were in pris-
on, they were constantly asked to deny their
faith, and of course they didn't.
I don't know much about the trial and what
happened in the courtroom. Nobody was al-
lowed to go to the court. We don't know what
they discussed, but as far as I know the charges
against my father were that he was a spy for Is-
rael because he had gone to Israel once as a Ba-
ha'i pilgrim, and the charges against my moth-
er were that she was my Dad's wife. My sister
was a teacher at the Sunday school for Baha'is.
The charges were that she taught the Baha'i
Faith. The o cials gave my family four
chances to recant their faith. They had a tape
recorder and a piece of paper and a pencil that
they would take to the prison. They would tell
my Dad first, “You must recant your faith, and
if you do, you will be released.” The same was
done to my Mom and my sister. None of them
wanted to recant their faith.
june 15, 1 think, was the last day my sister
Rosita, who was seventeen years old, went to
the prison to visit my Dad. With her was her
fiancee and our cousin. The purpose of the
meeting was for my sister to get my Dad's per-
mission to marry her fiancee. Of course, my
Dad agreed and told them to go ahead and get
engaged. My brother-in-law said to my father,
“Mr. Eshraghi, we are sorry that you are not
going to be at the ceremony.” My Dad smiled
and said, “Well, if I am not going to be there,
my spirit will be there for sure.” My cousin
talked to my Dad for a few minutes. My Dad
told her that he was waiting for the court to de-
cide his case. Dad told her that he would not re-
cant his faith. Apparently the judge was in the
prison, because my Dad told her, “He is a nice
man because he let you come in because prison-
ers are only allowed to have visits from the im-
mediate members of the family.” My cousin
was not considered an immediate member of
the family. The next day,June 16, 1983—I don't
know what time—my father and six other Ba-
ha'is were executed. On that same day my sis-
ter Rosita got engaged, and as my Dad was telling
her, his spirit for sure was at the engagement
ceremony.
On June 17, my sister got the news that six
Baha'is had been executed and that their bodies
were in the morgue. She went to the morgue.
The person in charge wouldn't let anyone go
in, but my sister begged for about thirty min-
utes, and he finally said, “Okay, well, why
don't you go look.” She went in and saw my
Dad. Later on we found out that when the
names of 1 my Dad and Dr. Afnan were called,
they rac d each other, each wishing to be the
first to be executed. That amazed everyone be-
cause it showed the authorities that the Baha'is
were dying, that they were sacrificing them-
selves for the Cause of God.
On June 18, the day after my sister went to
the morgue and saw the body of my father, she
was to go to the women's prison to see my
mother and my sister. She went there and told
Mom what happened to Dad. My sister dropped
a few teafs, and then she said, “Well, that's his
destiny.” My Mom simply said, “I wish I were in
his place. I wish I could sacrifice myself for
him.” Then my Mom told my sister Rosie that
she knew that something like that would come
up. She said, “I think it is going to be the same
thing for me and probably for Roya because we
won't recant our faith either. It will be the same
for all of us.”
Shortly after the visiting hours they took all
the ladie , including the young ladies—I think
Mona M hmudnezad was only seventeen years
old.
The next day my sister Rosie found out
about the executions, and so she went to the
morgue. She just wanted to know if my mother
and sister were among the people who had
been executed. The man at the morgue asked,
“What do you want today?” She said, “I think I
have some more people in there.” He said,
“Didn't you have enough? Your Dad was here
yesterday.” He probably felt sorry for my sis-
ter, and he let her go in, and she found the bod-
ies of the ten ladies all over the floor.
The 6 rst one she found was my sister's
body. She could not find my mother's body.
She looked for about five more minutes and fi-
nally found it. She saw an old lady whose face
had almost turned black. That was my Mom.
My sister cried on my Mom's body, and she
said, “Thank you, Mom. I am proud of you. I
am proud for you.” The man in charge of the
morgue came and said, “Who is this?” and my
sister said, “This is my Mom.” “Come here,”
she told him, “I want to show you my sister.
Here is my sister. Look, this is my sister, and
this is my Dad.” The man must have been
shocked to see somebody who had lost her
Mom and Dad and sister in two days. He told
her, “Go on home. Don't stay here. It is
enough.”
The next day my relatives and my sister
went to the morgue to pick up bodies, but they
did not release the bodies. They told them that
the government would bury the bodies. Iso-
body saw how they buried them, but on of
the guards apparently said that they buried he
bodies in the Baha'i cemetery in Shiraz and
that to bury all sixteen Baha'is didn't take them
more than twenty minutes. Apparently the '
* had a bulldozer dig a hole, and they just
dropped the bodies in the hole and covered
them with dirt.
Of course, whatever happened to the bodies
is not important. What is important is the peo-
ple in prison right now—those people who are
still suffering. They don't have jobs. Their kids
cannot get an education because the arc Ba-
ha'is. Those are the important people. That is
why I am here. I am trying to establish sonic
kind of public support for the Baha'is who live
under pressure right now in Iran. I hope you all
can help.
FHE ESFIR:/GJ-JIS of: SHIRAZ
35
Ezzat Eshraghi, Enayato/lah Eshraghi, and Rova Eshraghi
36 WORLI) ORDFR: /X IN!ER 1983—84
During the past two months I have heard
more news. First, the authorities confiscated
our house in Shiraz, and when my sister went
to them—she said, “I am seventeen and one-
half years old and single. You executed my fa-
ther, my mother, and my sister, and now you
are takint my home away from me. What
should I do? Should I die?” The government of-
ficials at first tried to cooperate and said, “We
are sorry to hear that. We sure didn't want to
take your house away.” But apparently aftera
few times, when my sister went to the courts
and the judge, the judge said, “Well, since you
are Baha'i, the only thing we can do for you is
to rent a room somewhere else. Not in your
home. Your home belongs to the government
now. It doesn't belong to you anymore. We can
rent a room for you until you get married.
Once you marry, you have to leave the room,
and you won't he able to live there anymore.”
My sister left, and the only thing they could
say was, “Well, somebody will take care of
‘ OU.'
Rosie is eighteen, a kid, and once a week she
goes to the prison to see other relatives. It is
hard on her. She has been going to the jail to see
her family ever since she was sixteen.
EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER, CONTAIN-
ING PASSAGES FROM A DIARY, DATED 16
SEPTEMBER 1983, FROM ROSITA ESH-
RAGHI TO HER BROTHER SAID ESH-
RAGHI AND HIS FAMILY ABOUT THE AR-
REST, IMPRISONMENT, AND EXECUTION
OF THEIR PARENTS AND THEIR SISTER IN
SHIRAZ IN JUNE 1983
ON MONDAY, 8 Azar 1361 (29 November
1982), about a year after the arrest and three-
day imprisonment of our family in the Guards
prison of Shiraz, which we discussed at length
on Rova's birthday, we returned home around
S P h i. from uncle's home because father kept
saying, “I'm worried; burglars have no doubt
broken into our home.”
It was 8:30 when the door bell rang. Three
armed men, revolutionary guards, entered;
searched everywhere and put some books, a
portrait of ‘Ahdu'l-Baha, and the family al-
bum, which they had found, in two sacks;
made a list of them; and had us sign the list.
Then using a list with many names on it they
called out the names of Enayatollah Eshraghi,
Ezzat JanamiiEshraghi, and Roya Eshraghi. I
was very unhappy that they did not call my
name and will never forget the spark of happi-
ness that appeared in Roya's eyes when her
name was called. Dad was in a hurry to go and
. saidto Mother, “Hurry up! The gentlemen are
waiting.” Mo her was worried, and kept rub-
bing her hands together, and made last-minute
recommendations. Roya ran upstairs happily
to get her clothes ready. I cannot describe or
forget that night.
The next morning we received the news
that about forty-five Baha'is had been arrested
that same night in more or less the same man-
ner by the revolutionary guards and taken to
the Guards prison, located in the southeastern
corner of Shiraz.
On 13 Azar (4 December) telegrams were
sent to the authorities appealing to them on be-
half of the prisoners. The telegrams remained
unanswered. We also took some fruit for the
prisoners, but the officials did not accept it, at-
tempting thus to demoralize us.
On 4 Day 1361 (25 December 1982) the
Guards prison opened its doors to the relatives
of the prisoners, and Rosita was able to visit
her beloved mother and sister. . . . She de-
scribed the occasion in these words, “After
about a month I succeeded in seeing Mother
and Roya... . They were both pale, and in
their eyes there was concern and fear for my
sake, but there was nothing to do. I tried to re-
assure them. But as a result of the interroga-
tions their fear was natural. At any rate it was a
bad day, becai se after the long period of wait-
ing I did not expect such scenes. From then on I
lived with the hope of seeing them every Satur-
day and Dad on Wednesdays.
“Thank you God that I was finally able to
see him. Would that I could be in his place.”
On 8 Day 1361 I was able to see him with his
growth of bead and his smiling face. He broke
down and shed a few tears when he saw auntie,
and I wept when I saw his face and his weak-
ness. .
The next week also Mother and Roya were
tHE ESHRAGHIS OF SHIRAZ
visited on Saturday and Father on Wednesday.
On 18 Day 1361 (8 January 1983) Mother and
Roya were transferred to Adelabad prison, and
Father was transferred there on 22 Day. From
the conversations during these visits it ap-
peared that the preliminary investigations
were completed because they had set a bail of
10,000,000 rials (approximately $100,000) for
Father, but he said, “I don't want you to do
such a thing. They have arrested us together,
and we must be freed together. . .
Wednesday, the 29th Day of 1361, was
rainy, and when we went to visit the prisoners,
we had our umbrellas open to protect us. But
the guard who was taking us to the visitors'
room did not let us keep our umbrellas open
because the drops of rain that fell from our um-
brellas, he said, would make others “unclean.”
So we were soaked when we reached the visi-
tors' room. Looking at each other we burst out
laughing.
Kba bar, the daily paper published in Shiraz,
printed the death sentences of twenty-two Ba-
ha'is on 23 Bahman 1361 (12 February 1983).
The next day families of the prisoners went to
see the Imam Jom'a and the Governor of Fars
Province to see if the news was authentic, but
the o cials all denied it. They were very angry
that such a story had been publicized within
the country and abroad.
Following the publication of this news the
families of the prisoners went to Tehran in
groups to meet the judicial authorities and ap-
peal on behalf of their loved ones. Rosita also
went to Tehran with a number of other friends
(for a few days) and in this short trip met the re-
presentative of Shiraz in the Parliament, the
members of the judicial council, and the Pros-
ecutor General, who all denied the news—
more or less.
Once again on 22 Isfand 1361 (12 March
1983) the hands of the oppressors in Shiraz
were drenched in the blood of the innocent and
meek in the path of God. Three dearly loved
friends adorned the gallows: Mr. Yadollah
Mahmudnczhad, an old friend of the Esh-
raghis; Mr. Vafai; and Mrs. Zaerpur. We all
wondered about the morale of the prisoners
and the way we should behave. This was the
first of our good-byes with them.
Taraneh, the eldest daughter of Mr. Mali-
mudnezhad, was with me when we went to /‘is-
it Dad. . . . When he saw her he was about to
weep, but he controlled himself and asked if
they had been buried. . . . It was during this
visit that Dad said: “Anyway I said good-bye
today because I may not be here the next.time
you come.” Then he told me to greet evefyone
on his behalf and to be content with what God
has wanted for us My throat was tigh , but
I followed his example and controlled mi 'self.
Dad asked about Said, Nahid, and Vahid.
When the visit was over, he raised his arms and
sent me a kiss and as usual strode out of the
room before everyone else.
Until the following Saturday the ladies did
not know who the two men were who had
been executed; each was afraid that her loved
one was killed. . . . Anyway, that Saturday was
the turn of Mrs. Eshraghi, Roya, and the other
ladies to say their farewells.
After my birthday on 7 Ordibehesht (27
April 1983) I went to see Dad, and my dear Dad
had not forgotten my birthday. I was happy
and surprised because at home he was against
celebrating birthdays. 1 said, “You did not for-
get!” and he said, “No. In three of my letters I
wished you a happy birthday, but I gues you
did not get them
During this time Mi Eshraghi was able to
see Mrs. Eshraghi and Roya only once; that
was when the prosecutor had gathered them all
in one place to “guide” them and give them a
last chance (to recant). At the end of the meet-
ing he allowed the prisoners to visit with their
immediate family....
Our last visit with Mr. Eshraghi was on 25
Khordad (15 June 1983) when we informed
him of our engagement, and he was so happy
that he had tears in his eyes. He told us, “Don't
be sad. I hope you will be happy. If we are not
with you, our spirits will be with you
The next day, 26 Khordad, 16 June, when we
were getting ready for the engagement party,
about 4 P.M., they called Mr. Eshraghi and five
others on the pretext of going to court, al-
though everyone knew that on Thursdays
there was no court, and took them to the Ab-
37
38 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
dollah Mesgar Base, known as the Polo Field,
for execution.
Saturday, 28 Khordad, around 9 AM. we re-
ceived the news from one of the Baha'i
friends. . . . We later went to the medical exam-
iner's office to see if they would release the
bodies to us for burial. They refused. We then
asked to see the bodies. They did not want to
do even that. Finally, through an old acquaint-i
ance and our insistence the immediate family
were given a few minutes to view the bodies.
The door of the morgue was opened. . . . The
bodies were placed in two rows.. . . I recognized
Dad's body from a distance. Because I had never
seen a dead body, and in the unfamiliar sur-
rounding I was finding my father, I was disor-
iented and did not know what was happening
to me. As I walked, my foot caught on one of
the bodies, and I fell. His body was cold, and
his skin was hard. When I reached Dad's body,
I sat down and kept saying, “Oh, Baha'u'llah!
Is this my father?” and I was weeping. When I
kissed Dad, he was stiff, the skin on his face
would not move at my touch. I caressed his
face and could not believe it. His face and body
were swollen so that the trace of the noose did
not show. He had stuck out his chest as though
he went determined. . . . He had a sweet smile
on his face. I was trembling when I left the
morgue....
Saturday, 28 Khordad (18 June), was also the
day for our visit to the women prisoners.
/Vhen they entered the visitors' room, they
were happy and laughing. I tried to hold my
tears back. Roya pointed to my ring and con-
gratulated me, and I cried. She asked what the
matter was before the phones (over which the
prisoners, who were separated by glass parti-
tions, talked) could be connected, and I made
her understand that Dad had been executed.
She was bewildered and asked me if I was seri-
ous, and I nodded. Tears came to her eyes, and
with an angelic smile she put her hand to her
head and said, “Praised be God.” I was just
watching in a daze. Mother noticed Roya and
asked her what had happened. She put her
hand on Mother's shoulders and told her.
Mother turned to me and said, “Don't worry.”
I could not believe this was my Mother. The
phones were connected, and she asked me
when it happened, and I said Thursday. She
said, “I knew it, and I have already shed my
tears. I dreamed that Dad and I were some-
where together. We will be going soon, today
or tomorrow. That is why we have come here.
You should not be sad. I wish you happiness.” I
just wept, for myself of course. My Mother did
not shed one drop of tear.. . . I then gestured to
Roya that I had seen Dad (his body) and told
her that he was smiling. We promised that we
would follow his example and be strong and
keep smiling. She said that [ earlier] they had al-
ready taken Mother to be executed and at that
time Roya had thought that Dad was going to
be executed with her. So she said she had de-
tached herself from them at that time.
When the time was up and we were leaving and
we said good-bye, everyone was saying, “Look
at them; well, this may be the last time we see
them.” I was weeping, and Roya told me with a
smile, “lDon't cry; you promised.”
IMMEDIATELY after the visit two of the women
were called to the prison office and released.
Later ten others were called, and everyone
thought they would also be released, but they
were wrong. All ten were put on a minibus and
taken directly to the Polo Field and hanged.
The bodies were delivered to the morgue at 10
P.M.
The driver who took these pure and guilt.
less souls to be massacred has recounted: “It did
not seem at all that these ladies were to be ex-
ecuted. I first thought that they were going to
be released because they were so happy and
laughing. But when I stopped for inspection at
the prison gate, I realized that I was to take
them for execution. They were laughing and
chanting prayers all the way.”
Sunday morning when we went to the
morgue to receive the men's bodies, we discov-
ered that ten women had been executed the
night before. . . . We only learned that Roya
was among them, and Rosita was worried that
if her Mother was spared it would be very hard
on her. . . . When we arrived home, it was
crowded with people.. . . Half an hour later
the phone rang, and we learned that Mother
THE ESHRAGH1S OF SHIRAZ
also was among them. . . . We went to the
morgue again, and upon our insistence they al-
lowed the relations to see the bodies. . . . It was
frightening and yet a proud occasion. The faces
had changed generally. I recognized Roya from
her clothes. . . . Her left hand was on her fore-
head as though she was asleep.. . . The blind-
fold was now on her forehead. Her face was a
little swollen and blue, and the trace of the
noose was quite clear. . . . Her body was cold
but still soft. I kissed her and kept saying,
“Thank you. Thank you, sister.” Then I got up
to look for Mother, but I could not 1 nd her.
The people I had seen for seven months in pris-
on I could not now recognize. I saw an old lady
with hair almost completely white. I asked my-
self, “Who is this? We had no one like this.”
Then I looked at her clothing. She had a nice
scarf around her neck. “My God! This is my
mommy, and this is the scarf I brought her!” I
sat down, kissed her, and put my hands on her
shoulders. I thanked her and took her hand....
When I was bent over her the official of the
morgue came and asked what relation of mine
she was. I said, “This is my Mom. Come and
see my sister.” I took him to see Roya. He
knew that yesterday I had (come to see my fa-
ther. He told me) to leave and we all left.
It was about noon when they took the six-
teen bodies by ambulance to the Baha'i ceme-
tery and threw the bodies, dressed the way
they were, into the graves that they had already
prepared and filled the graves. Later they dis-
turbed the area of the graves so no one can tell
where the graves are or which is whose grave.
But what difference does it make? They were
all love and light, and they have all gone in the
same direction.
39
40
America's Reactions
PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILMA M. BRADY
My name is Wilma M. Brady. I am vice-presi-
dent for Development at Spelman College in
Atlanta, vice-chairman of the National Spiritu-
al Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States,
and one member of the second generation of
four generations of an American Baha'i family.
I WAS BORN in southern Illinois and lived
my first years in that state on the land that
my forebears homesteaded in 1848 after fleeing
from slaver>'. In 1936 my family moved west to
Phoenix, Arizona, where my oldest sister, a
college student, heard of the Baha'i Faith. At-
tracted to its teachings on the elimination of all
prejudices, the equality of men and women,
universal education, and a plan for world
peace, my sister and my mother were the first
family members to become Baha'is. I, being the
next to the youngest child, started my religious
training in the Baha'i Faith at that time.
In the 1940s my family moved to Los Ange-
les where the family's home was maintained
until my parents' deaths in the early 1970s. It
was in Los Angeles that the rest of the family
members became Baha'is.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to describe the
American Baha'i community and then make
some comments on the reactions of that com-
munity to the persecutions of the Baha'is in
Iran.
Since the beginning of the American Baha'i
community some ninety years ago, Baha'is
who were members of prominent and wealthy
families have joined with Baha'is who were
skilled and unskilled workers, farmers, house-
wives, and business and professional people to
pursue the goal common to all Baha'is—the
unity of the human race.
Baha'is live in every state in the union. They
conie from a great variety of religious and eth-
nic backgrounds. Among the 100,000 Ameri-
can Baha'is are represented more than fifty In-
dian tribes. Over 30 percent of this community
is black. The four women and five men who
serve on the community's national governing
body, the National Spiritual Assembly, reflect
its rich diversity—one is Asian, one is a native
American, three are black, and four are white.
Initially, the news of the attacks on the Iran-
ian Baha'i community was perceived by many
American Baha'is, especially those not deeply
read in history or international affairs, those
who did not know the nature of the Iranian
revolutionary movement, with a degree of in-
credulous confusion. They were aware of the
peaceful and nonpolitical nature of the Iranian
Baha'i community since they, themselves, were
believers in the same principles of the unity of
mankind, human brotherhood without dis-
tinction of race or class, and respect for all reli-
gions and for all people.
Therefore, when, in the fall of 1978, the
American Baha'is heard the news of the des-
ecration of the Baha'i cemeteries, the looting
and burning of Baha'i homes, the demolition
of Baha'i holy places, and the beatings and
murders of their Iranian coreligionists, they
thought these attacks were incidents of mob
violence and misunderstandings in a country in
the throes of revolution. Moreover, not wish-
ing to embarrass the government of Iran, and
hoping that the initial attacks on the Baha'is
were the result of mob violence, the American
Baha'is (and Baha'is throughout the world) did
not wish to publicize these attacks. But very
soon after the Islamic revolutionary govern-
ment took charge of Iran and began to set in
place its official priorities, it became clear to
the American Baha'i community that there
was no misunderstanding—no confusion. The
I
AMERICA'S REACTIONS
attacks on the members of the Baha'i Faith, on
their homes and families, on their businesses,
on their institutions and holy places, were well
planned and systematic and represented deep-
seated prejudices and hatreds cultivated by the
Shiite clergy over many, many decades.
Mr. Chairman, permit me to say a word of
my own personal reaction to the persecution
of the Baha'is in Iran. I have never been to Iran.
Until 1978 my knowledge of that country was
similar to that of most American Baha'is. I
knew that Iran was the country where our
Faith originated. I was aware of earlier attacks
on the Iranian Baha'is, who were, and still are,
viewed as renegades in that Moslem culture—a
culture in which religion and government are
not viewed as separate and distinct parts of the
life of the community.
To be perfectly candid, I cannot understand.
I have been raised in a free country, and I react
violently against injustice. I have inherited the
legacy of my people, black Americans whose
history is one of discrimination, prejudice, and
the continuing struggle for civil rights. In my
own life I have witnessed segregated schools,
crosses burned on front lawns, and public ac-
commodations in which there hung signs say-
ing “For Whites Only.” Although I was quite
young, the painful memories are there. My
children are products of the turbulent sixties.
As a family we joined in the nonviolent strug-
gle to rid out American society of the stifling
prejudice and bigotry our forebears suffered.
Now, all of a sudden, my coreligionists,
41
42 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
members of my universal family, are being tak-
en back to medieval darkness in which all of
the most treasured beliefs about the freedom to
live have been cruelly stripped from their per-
Sons and their community—solely because of
their religious beliefs. I feel an old, deep, and
very personal pain.
It was the shocked and anguished American
Baha'is, not those suffering in Iran, who urged
their National Assembly to approach our
ernment and the press about this urgent matter.
Out of its own despair and deep sense of frus-
tration and in response to the American Baha'i
community, the National Assembly launched
a concerted effort to keep government officials
and agencies and the media informed as reports
of persecutions mounted.
We believed, and had enough evidence to
confirm us in our views, that the government
of Iran was not entirely deaf to the voices of
foreign governments or of international public
opinion.
The hearing held by this Subcommittee two
years ago did much to shape that opinion. Both
before and after the adoption of the Concur-
rent Resolution No. 73 by the two Houses of
the Congress, many representatives and sena-
tors made statements protesting the arrests, dis-
appearances, and killings of Baha'is in Iran.
The congressional Record shows clearly the
concern of its distinguished members for the
plight of Iran's Baha'is and for the absence of
elementary human rights in that strife-torn
land.
The Department of State has consistently
shown sympathy and understanding. Mr. El-
liott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for
Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, has
made statements before this Subcommittee and
to the press on the condition of the Iranian Ba-
ha'is. The Bureau he heads included informa-
tion on the persecution of the Baha'is in
“Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
for 1983” submitted to the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations.
We are grateful for the support our govern-
inent gave the Baha'i issue in the United Na-
tions Commission on Human Rights where
Ambassador Richard Schifter assumed a strong
position and, together with the representatives
of a number of other nations, forged a resolu-
tion to appoint a special representative of the
Commission to study the human rights situa-
tion in Iran and to present his conclusions to
the next session of the Human Rights Commis-
sion.
We are equally gratified by the decision of
the State Department to extend to Iranians
who fled their country to save their lives and
were stranded abroad additional processing
priorities that would enable them to enter the
United States. The thorny issue of refugees was
handled by the Assistant Secretary of State
James N. Purcell, Jr., and his staff with much
sympathy and good will. Ambassador H. Eu-
gene Douglas, Coordinator for Refugee Af-
fairs, has been invariably helpful and encourag-
ing.. His knowledge of the issues and his
determined efforts in behalf of refugees have
won our admiration.
To facilitate the movement of Baha'i refu-
gees the National Spiritual Assembly of the
United States and the National Spiritual As-
sembly of Canada cooperated in sending two
representatives to various cities in Europe and
the Middle East. They obtained for us valuable
information on the needs of the refugees, estab-
lished closer contact with the offices of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-
gees and with governments concerned, and
brought much needed hope and assurance to
people who have been cruelly uprooted and are
full of justified fear. It should be noted that
American embassies and consulates every-
where extended to our representatives many
courtesies and greatly helped in making their
mission a success.
The American Baha'i community has, dur-
ing the last four years, absorbed close to ten
thousand Iranian Baha'is. We have made and
continue to make every effort to help them
build for themselves a new home. Exile is al-
ways a bitter experience. We are trying to make
it less painful.
It is particularly significant that the presi-
dent of the United States on 22 May 1983 pub-
licly appealed to the government of Iran on be-
AMERICAS REACTIONS
half of twenty-two Baha'is who had been
condemned to death in Shiraz. Ayatollah Kho-
meini felt compelled to answer the president's
appeal through the media. President Reagan
made another statement concerning the Ba-
ha'is on 9 December 1983, the eve of Human
Rights Day.
The two presidential statements, the text of
the Congressional Resolution No. 73, inter-
views with American Baha'is, press editorials,
as well as news items and commentaries, have
been regularly broadcast over the Voice of
America in many languages, including Persian,
thereby emphasizing that the Islamic regime
cannot do its work of murder in silence, that
the world knows and recoils in horror from
the inhumanity perpetrated by the clerical rul-
ers of Iran.
Our country's media have not ignored the
tragic story. It is natural for us to feel that not
enough attention has been paid to a tragedy
that is unique in today's world—the killing of
individuals for no other reason than religious
convictions. Yet we acknowledge that the
press, radio, and television have played an im-
portant role in informing the public and enlist-
ing support for the Baha'is of Iran. The New
York Times, the Washsington Post, the Los Ange-
les Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-
Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, News-
week, U.S. News and World Report, the New
Republic, and literally hundreds of other news-
papers and magazines have published editori-
als, news items, and features about the persecu-
tion of the Baha'is in Iran, about its individual
victims, and, in many cases, about those who
found refuge in America.
Broadcast media have contributed their
share. All three major television networks have
interviewed Baha'is. The American Broadcast-
ing Company devoted a segment of its 20/20
show on 28 July 1983 to an examination of the
treatment of the Baha'is in Iran. The program
gave millions of viewers a graphic demonstra-
tion of the courage of the victims and of the in-
humanity of their oppressors. In addition, the
Public Broadcasting System has broadcast sev-
eral interviews with Baha'is as well as occasion-
al news items.
Urged by a concerned citizenry, twenty
state legislatures have adopted resolutions con-
demning Iran's Islamic regime for its inhuman-
ity toward Baha'is. Many city governments
also passed such resolutions, clearly demon-
strating the grass-roots sympathy for the Ba-
ha'is.
Private organizations and individuals have
also made their voices heard. Amnesty In erna-
tional has consistently followed developnients
and publicized acts of injustice and barba ity in
Iran. The American Bar Association has irged
its members to protest against the treatm nt of
Iran's Baha'i lawyers, many of whom. have
been disbarred or imprisoned for their beliefs.
The American Baha'i community has not
been alone in its efforts to tell the world this
cruel tale of persecution. The Baha'is of Canada,
Great Britain, Ireland, West Germany, Austra-
lia, the Netherlands, and other countries, have
brought the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran
to the attention of their governments and pub-
lics. Several parliaments have passed resolu-
tions in favor of Baha'is. The press, particular-
ly in Europe, has given the issue considerable
coverage.
The results of all this activity cannot be easi-
ly gauged. However, there can be no doubt that
the government of Iran has been put on notice.
It knows that the world knows of the murders;
the mock trials; the tortures; the discrimina-
tion inflicted upon men, women, and children
whose only crime is the faith they hold in com-
mon with us and with so many others through-
out the world—their belief in God, in the
biotherhood of mankind, in the essential unity
of religion, and in peace.
We, the American Baha'is, will make every
effort to keep before the public the story of the
suffering of our Iranian coreligionists. We have
already witnessed the response of our fellow
Americans and our government.
We appeal for continuing support so that
the voice of this nation may always sound in
defense of the persecuted and the oppressed.
43
FOLLOWING the testimony about the contin-
ued persecution of the Baha'is in Iran given on
May 2, 1984, before the Subcommittee on Hu-
man Rights and International Organizations of
the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S.
House of Representatives, a concurrent resolu-
tion expressing the sense of Congress regarding
the persecution of the members of the Baha'i
religion in Iran by the government of Iran
went before the House of Representatives. Be-
low is the text of the concurrent resolution and
of the debate on the resolution as it appears in
the House of Representatives Congressional Rec-
ordon May 22, 1984, pages H 4280—83—ED.
EXPRESSING SENSE OF CONGRESS RE-
GARDING PERSECUTION OF MEM-
BERS OF BAHA'I RELIGION IN IRAN
BY GOVERNMENT OF IRAN
Mr. YATRON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unani-
mous consent that the Committee on Foreign
Affairs be discharged from further consider-
ation of the concurrent resolution (H. Con.
Res. 226) expressing the sense of the Congress
regarding the persecution of members of the
Baha'i religion in Iran by the Government of
Iran, and ask for its immediate consideration in
the House.
The Clerk read the title of the concurrent
resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objec-
tion to the request of the gentleman from
Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
The Clerk read the concurrent resolution,
as follows:
H. CON. RES. 226
Whereas more than one hundred and fifty mem-
bers of the Baha'i faith have been brutally executed
by Iranian authorities since the 1979 Islamic revolu-
tion;
Whereas many Baha'is in Iran have disappeared
and others have been tortured, persecuted, and de-
prived of their fundamental rights to personal prop-
erty and employment;
Whereas an edict issued by Iran's Prosecutor Gen-
eral on August 29, 1983, has far-reaching implica-
tions that threaten the lives of three hundred thou-
sand Baha'is residing in Iran and places the future
practice of Baha'ism in jeopardy by dismantling the
administrative structure of the Baha'i religion; and
Whereas these actions for the first time establish
an expressed national policy which lays the legal
foundation for executions, arrests, the confiscation
of property, denial of jobs and pensions, expulsion
of Baha'i children from schools, and other pressures
which may be brought to bear by Iranian authorities
on the Baha'is: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Sen-
ate concurring). That the Congress—
(1) holds the Government of Iran responsible for
upholding the rights of all its nationals, including
the Baha'is;
(2) condemns the recent decision taken by the
Government of Iran t destroy the Baha'i faith by
labeling as “criminal acts” all Baha'i teaching and or-
ganized religious activities, including the attempts
by Baha'is to elect their own local and national lead-
ers, to meet in assemblies, to communicate among
themselves, and to work for volunteer committees;
and
(3) calls upon the President—
(A) to work with appropriate foreign govern-
ments and the allies of the United States in forming
an appeal to the Government of Iran concerning the
Baha'is;
(B) to cooperate fully with the United Nations in
its efforts on behalf of the Baha'is and to lead such ef-
forts whenever it is possible and appropriate to do
so; and
(C) to provide, and urge others to provide, for
humanitarian assistance for those Baha'is who flee
Iran.
Sec. 2. The Clerk of the House of Represent-
atives shall transmit a copy of this concurrent reso-
lution to the President
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentle-
I House Debate: Support for a Special People
45
46 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
man from Pennsylvania (Mr. YATRON) is rec-
ognized for 1 hour.
Mr. YATRON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 min-
utes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. LEACH),
pending which I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
(Mr. YATRON asked and was given permis-
sion torevise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. YATRON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to
commend the gentleman from Illinois for orig-
inally sponsoring and authoring House Con-
current Resolution 226, legislation regarding
the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran. This res-
olution condemns the Iranian Government's
decision to destroy the Baha'i faith, and calls
upon the President to work with foreign gov-
ernments and our allies in formulating an ap-
peal to the Government of Iran on behalf of
the Baha'is.
The Subcommittee on Human Rights and
International Organizations, which I chair, has
long recognized the severity of the situation
facing the Baha'i community in Iran. In May of
1982 under the leadership of Mr. BONKER, the
subcommittee conducted a hearing on the Ba-
ha'is in Iran. Just recently, on May 2, 1984 we
held a second hearing on the persecution of the
Baha'is in Iran. As a result of these hearings we
were able to help call attention to the grievous
problems of Iran's largest religious minority.
The Baha'i faith is not recognized in Iran,
and Baha'is are deprived of their basic human
rights. Members of this peace-loving communi-
ty are the principal targets of the current re-
gime. Over 170 prominent Baha'is have been
executed since Khomeini came into power.
The places of worship have been destroyed,
their possessions have been confiscated, and
their religion banned.
The Baha'is are not the only Iranians who
must suffer. Executions of political or religious
victims are an almost daily occurrence. Since
1979, according to Amnesty International, ap-
proximately 5,500 people have been summari-
ly executed by the Iranian Government. Those
citizens who have not lost their lives encounter
restrictions of their basic freedoms—freedom
of speech, political freedom, and freedom of re-
ligion. Countless numbers of Iranians sought
shelter from this tyranny in other countries.
Baha'is in Iran have always experienced tre-
mendous pressure and persecution but they are
being slaughtered by the Khomeini regime for
adherence to their faith. For this reason, I urge
my colleagues to support House Concurrent
Resolution 226.
Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, will the gentle-
man yield?
Mr. YATRON. I yield to the gentleman
from California.
Mr. STARK. I thank the gentleman for
yielding to me.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself
with the remarks of the gentleman and urge the
support of House Concurrent Resolution 226.
The Baha'is have indeed been persecuted, tor-
tured, and unjustly imprisoned in Iran for
many years. The American people cannot sit
back and witness this without raising a loud
voice of objection.
I hope this will be a step in the direction of
bringing justice to a peace-loving, gentle folk
who deserve our concern. I appreciate both the
gentlemen's concern and the gentleman from
Illinois for introducing this resolution.
Mr. YATRON. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank
the gentleman for the fine work that he has
done and the leadership he has shown in this
area.
Mr. LEACH of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I yield
myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. LEACH of Iowa asked and was given
permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. LEACH of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise in
support of House Concurrent Resolution 226,
expressing the sense of the Congress regarding
the persecution of members of the Baha'i reli-
gion by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I want to take this opportunity to commend
the gthtleman from Illinois (Mr. PORTER) for
his leadership on this issue, as well as the gentle-
man from Pennsylvania (Mr. YATRON) for press-
ing for expeditious floor action. In addition, it
should be stressed that the Department of State
“enthusiastically supports” the resolution.
Three weeks ago, on May 2, 1984, the Sub-
committee on Human Rights and Internation-
al Organizations held a hearing on the “Reli-
I-lOUSE DEBATE
gious Persecution of the Baha'is in Iran.” The
subcommittee heard eloquent testimony from
representatives of the American Baha'i com-
munity indicating that some 20 more Baha'is
have been executed since the resolution before
us was drafted, bringing the total to date to
over 170 victims. Included among those 170
victims were men, women, and teenage girls.
Thousands of others have been arrested, tor-
tured, and lost their jobs and property. Baha'i
holy places have been confiscated and demol-
ished. Members of the Baha'i religion are under
constant pressure to recant their faith and em-
brace Islam in order to escape the horrors of
persecution.
Two years ago, in May 1982, our subcorn-
mittee held a similar hearing on the persecu-
tion of the Baha'is. But as Judge James F. Nel-
son, chairman of the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States,
recently noted: “It is heartbreaking that in the
2 years since this committee heard our initial
testimony the situation in Iran has not im-
proved.” Judge Nelson went on to point out
that in spite of pleas from government officials
and parliaments as well as other prominent
persons and organizations, the number of
those executed had increased over that 2-year
period and that whereas 150 were imprisoned
in May 1982, today over 700 Baha'is are under
detention.
One cannot help but conclude that the aim
of the Iranian Government is the extirpation of
the Baha'i faith from Iran, either by forced con-
version of Baha'is to Shiite Islam or “extermi-
nation.” The analogies between Iran today and
Germany under Hitler are towering.
The acts of inhumanity and brutality that
have been heaped upon members of a peaceful
religion are incomprehensible to civilized hu-
manity. Among those recently executed are 10
women including 3 teenage girls. The Revolu-
tionary Guard tortures others in prison, whip-
ping them with metal cables, pouring boiling
water on their heads.
While there is some tentative glimmer of
hope that worldwide protests against this per-
secution may have diminished the Iranian au-
thorities' appetite for executions, the abuses
continue to occur and demand our unflagging
efforts to bring all pressure possible to bear on
that Government for its crimes. The law-abid-
ing international community must continue to
make clear to the Iranian Government—
through national actions and efforts by inter-
national organizations like the UN Human
Rights Commission—that it cannot escape full
responsibility for its actions to eliminate the
Baha'i faith.
Mr. Speaker, it is my hope that those Baha'is
who remain in Iran and who live in the dark-
ness of this terror will hear our words and
know of our actions today.
Accordingly, I urge the unanimous support
of my colleagues for this resolution as a symbol
that the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot perpe-
trate an evil of this nature in silence. Interna-
tional protests may prove futile, but ignoring
the plight of this gentle, committed people
would be morally negligent.
The Baha'is are a very special people with a
very special faith. They are special people be-
cause of the intellectual and personal depth of
the convictions they hold. Their faith is pecial
because it draws on so many religions ar d em-
phasizes, above everything else, toleranc .
This Congress by this resolution expresses
the profoundest possible respect for the Baha'is
and implicitly for all citizens of the world who
have been persecuted for holding minority reli-
gious views.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may con-
sume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. POR-
TER) whose resolution we are considering.
(Mr. PORTER asked and was given permis-
sion to revise and extend his remarks.)
• * Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I first want to
commend the chairman of the Subcommittee
on Human Rights, the gentleman from Penn-
sylvania, and the ranking minority member,
the gentleman from Iowa, for their leadership
on this issue, for their commitment to it, for
their bringing the resolution to the floor, and
for the excellent hearings that were held before
the subcommittee on May 2, and the earlier
hearings on religious persecution that were
held under the chairmanship of Mr. BONKER of
Washington.
47
48 /VORLD ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
I think it is particularly appropriate that we
consider this resolution today. It was 140 years
ago today that the Baha'i religion was founded
in Persia, incorporating as it did the essential te-
nets of all organized religions and emphasizing
the unity of mankind, world peace, world or-
der, the social equality of all people, pacificism,
and tolerance.
It is an ironic crime against all humanity
that these gentle and peaceful people have been
persecuted in their homeland through 140
years of history but especially since the rise to
power of the murderous Khomeini regime.
Today also marks 1 year since President
Reagan's historic appeal on behalf of the Ba-
ha'is, and I want to take a moment of the time
of the House to quote from the President's let-
ter of just a year ago.
“These individuals,” the President said, “are
not guilty of any political offense or crime,
they have not plotted the overthrow of the
gime, and they are nor responsible for the
deaths of anyone. They only wish to live in ac-
cordance with the dictates of their own con-
sciences. 1 strongly urge other world leaders to
join me in an appeal to the Ayatollah Kho-
meini and the rest of Iran's leadership not to
implement the sentences that have been pro-
nounced on these innocent people.”
Mr. Speaker, what has happened since that
time, during the year since the President ap-
pealed for restraints from the Ayatollah Kho-
mcmi? It has to be said that the situation in Iran
has worsened and worsened appreciably. Iran is
the only place on Earth today where people are
being persecuted, tortured, and executed solely
for their religious beliefs.
I ask the House to consider these recent re-
ports from Iran and try to put ourselves in the
position of the individual Baha'is toward
whom this persecution has been directed: Since
the beginning of the Islamic revolution in
1979, more than 300 residences of Baha'is have
been plundered or set on fire, and the people
have nowhere to turn for help. One hundred
and seventy Baha'is, most of them prominent
members of the Baha'i community, have been
killed by a variety of methods, but principally
through execution by firing squads and by
hangings.
One woman lost her husband who was shot
before a firing squad and then, as a widow, was
demanded to pay the cost of the bullets for his
execution. Three teenage girls were hanged
whose only crime was a refusal to recant their
religious beliefs.
In urban areas, properties belonging to hun-
dreds of families have been seized, and in rural
areas, orchards have been destroyed, farms and
arabic lands confiscated with no chance for re-
dress. The Ministry of Works and Social Af-
fairs of Iran formally instructed industrial and
commercial institutions not to pay the salaries
of Baha'is that were on their staffs. More than
10,000 Baha'is employed in government offices
or in the private sector have been summarily
- discharged, their rights to pensions and other
employment benefits simply revoked, and in
many cases demands were made of them to re-
turn the salaries they had earned. Students have
been dismissed from universities and other in-
stitutions of higher learning simply because
they affirmed a belief in the Baha'i religion. In
most cities and provinces, Baha'i children have
been denied an education, the opportunity to
attend school and to learn.
Some 700 Baha'is including men, women,
and children are being held in various prisons
today throughout Iran. For more than 9
months, visits to 40 Baha'i prisoners have been
strictly prohibited by the authorities; no one
knows w hat their fate is. In some prisons, Ba-
ha'i prisoners are undergoing relentless torture
in an effort on the part of authorities to force
them to admit to false charges of engaging in es-
pionage and acting against the Islamic Republic
of Iran.
For a period of months they have been sub-
ject to fl ggings of all parts of the body, par-
ticularly he legs and feet. Sometimes up to 400
strokes b y wire cables have been administered
to a singie prisoner, and then that prisoner is
forced. to crawl back on his hands and knees to
the dark ess of his cell.
Prisor ers are regularly whipped in the head
and face I with thick plastic tubes in some pris-
ons, and imilar procedures are used, to a lesser
degree, in others. A number of these victims of
torture have lost their sight and hearing; oth-
ers, their mental competence.
The bodies of four prisoners subjected to
such treatment were seen being buried recent-
ly. It has been reported recently that three of
the Baha'is broke under this torture and gave
confessions that they were part of a CIA or Zi-
onist plot against the regime. These confes-
sions were reportedly videotaped for use as
propaganda on Iranian TV. Lies, Mr. Speaker;
all lies.
The Baha'is are unsafe in their own homes,
which are entered at will, day or night, by rev-
olutionary guards who harass the inhabitants,
insulting theni and threatening them and berat-
ing them, and if the Baha'i individual they are
looking for is not present, they seize others as
hostages, including women, and even children.
Recently a Baha'i woman gave birth and she
was instantly slain by a fanatical Moslem mob,
her child taken to be raised in the “true faith.”
Whenever the head or sonic other impor-
tant member of the family has been killed, and
often when such a person has been imprisor ied,
those renlaining behind have been forced from
their homes and not permitted to take any be-
longings, even in the dead of winter, with
them. They have no redress for these griev-
ances.
Religious shrines have been destroyed. The
place of the founding of the Baha'i faith was
systematically torn down by the government.
We can only imagine a goverment tearing
down our church or temple and having to
stand by helplessly, with no means of protest.
Recently four more Iranian Baha'is were ex-
ecuted. All had been tortured prior to their ex-
ecutions, and another died in prison as a result
of his torture.
Last year the Prosecutor General of Iran is-
sued an edict banning all Baha'i religious activ-
ity as criminal acts. Like the Nuremherg l tws,
HOUSE DEBATE 49
Site of the House of the Ba'b, where the Baha”i Faith began on May 23, 1844. The house was dest roved by I la mic
authorities in September 1979; in 1981 the Site was made into a road and public square.
50 //‘ORLI) ORDER: WINTER 1983—84
this edict establishes the so-called legal grounds
for mass arrests and genocide, and that is what
is oceuring, Mr. Speaker—genocide. In re-
sponse to this decree, elected leaders of the Ba-
ha'i faith in Iran did dissolve all Baha'i institu-
tions there, citing obedience, as they always do,
to the civil law of the land. But, Mr. Speaker,
this has done nothing to prevent more torture,
more persecution, and more executions.
I think it is important to call attention
worldwide to the plight of the Baha'is. In this
generation, we have witnessed other attempts
at genocide—the Armenians, the Cambodians,
6 million Jews in World War II. The setting in
iran today resembles Nazi Germany during
Hitler's rise to power, Mr. Speaker, and the
world must speak out against it.
The prirpose of the resolution is threefold.
First, it holds the Government of Iran respon-
sible for upholding the rights of all its citizens,
including the Baha'is. Second, it condemns the
Prosecutor General's edict banning the Baha'is.
And third, it calls upon the President of the
United States to work in the United Nations
and other forums with leaders of other coun-
tries to form a broad-based appeal to the Iran-
ian Government.
Mr. Speaker, I know that it is impossible to
fight murder and torture and genocide with
resolutions, but we here in this free land some-
times forget that injustice toward anyone any-
where on this globe is in reality injustice to-
ward each of us. We arc all diminished by what
is being done today in Iran.
Mr. Speaker, we debated a long time wheth-
er public exposure of this situation by Mem-
bers of the Congress might jeopardize Baha'is
in Iran even furtheI However, after several dis-
cussions with members of the National Spiritu-
al Assembly of the Baha'is in the United States,
I now believe that calling attention to the
plight of the Iranian Baha'is might help im-
prove the atmosphere there and reduce the ex-
cesses.
The world must learn what is happening in
Iran and bring the pressure of civilized opinion
to bear on this barbaric situation. As Firuz Ka-
zemzadeh, the Secretary of the Baha'i Assem-
bly in America, a professor of Russian history
at Yale and a gentle and thoughtful man so re-
presentative of the adherents of this faith, said
recently: “It is more difficult to kill, more difli-
cult to torture, in broad daylight.”
Mr. Speaker, House Concurrent Resolution
2261has 188 cosponsors, including many mem-
bers of the Congressional Human Rights Cau-
cus. It deserves not only enactment, but more
importantly, that its concerns be brought to
theattention of people all over the world. This
resolution will not, in itself, change anything,
but the people of this planet, united in their op-
position to genocide in any form, can.
Mr. LEACH of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I would
like to commend the gentleman from Illinois
for a very profound statement.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may con-
sume to the gentleman from South Carolina
(Mr. CAMPBELL).
(Mr. CAMPBELL asked and was given per-
mission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. CAMPBELL. I thank the gentleman for
yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this
resolution, and also to commend the gentle-
man from Illinois.
Members of the House of Representatives
and indeed all of the United States view with
alarm and revulsion the continued persecu-
tions and repressions of the Baha'is by the Aya-
tollah Khomeini.
The Baha'i faith is represented by over 7,200
locations in the United States with a significant
nun ber in my own State of South Carolina.
Sin e the 1979 revolution in Iran at least 150
members of the Baha'i faith have been execut-
ed, more than 550 believers have been impris-
oned, and many more are missing. Thousands
of Baha'is have lost their homes, jobs, and pos-
sessions; no child of Baha'i parentage has been
allowed to attend school; and all places holy to
the faith, properties, and cemeteries-have been
confiscated or destroyed. Most recently, the
followers of Khomeini have banned all Baha'i
organizations and worship services.
To those of us from a country founded on
religious freedom, these actions are abhorrent.
Though we may not all believe the same, we do
all believe in the sanctity of life. Khomeini's
senseless and brutal treatment of the Baha'is is
HOUSE DEBATE
an affront to all peace-loving peoples, and I join
my colleagues in condemning the actions of
Khomeini and his thugs.
I hope that this resolution will focus light
on these atrocities so that these murders and
tortures may be lessened and the Baha'is may,
in fact, live in peace.
• Mr. FASCELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in sup-
port of House Concurrent Resolution 226, ex-
pressing the sense of the Congress regarding
the persecution of members of the Baha'i reli-
gion in Iran by the Government of Iran.
At the outset, I would like to especially
commend two Members for their energetic
leadership Ofl this issue—the Honorable JOHN
PORTER, cochairman of the Human Rights
Caucus and sponsor of the resolution, and the
Honorable Gus YATRON, chairman of the Sub-
committee on Human Rights and Internation-
al Organizations, whose subcommittee con-
ducted hearings and considered the resolution.
House Concurrent Resolution 226 has broad
support in the House with cosponsorship of
over 180 Members.
The persecution of the Baha'is in Iran is not
a new occurrence—it has persisted throughout
their 140 year history. Most unfortunately, the
abuses have intensified to an intolerable degree
since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Over 150, of
the 300,000 Baha'is in Iran have been executed
since that time. Estimates of the number of Ba-
ha'is incarcerated there range from 500 to over
700—many have been tortured, and some have
died in prison. Even women and children
among this pacifistic minority have been tor-
mented and executed.
In an egregious disregard for the Baha'is, not
only did the Government officially ban the Ba
ha'i religion in August 1983, but it has targeted
these peace-loving people for extreme abuse.
Baha'is have been fired from their jobs, denied
their pensions, and had their property and
businesses confiscated—even their religious
shrines and cemeteries have been desecrated
and destroyed. The basic tenets of the Baha'i
beliefs—pacifism, social equality, and toler-
ance—make them particularly vulnerable to
the merciless fanaticism directed against them.
Other religious minorities in Iran have also
been subjected to persecution—jews, Chris-
tians, and Zoroastrians. The attacks against the
Baha'is have been the most flagrant, however.
The resolution before us charges the Iranian
Government with responsibility for respecting
the rights of all its citizens, including the Ba-
ha'is; condemns that Government's decision to
label all Baha'i activities as “criminal acts”; and
calls on the President to work with other na-
tions to appeal to Iran on behalf of the Baha'is,
and to encourage cooperation with U.N. ef-
forts, and to provide humanitarian assistance
to Baha'is fleeing from Iran.
Mr. Speaker, as a humanitarian appeal to
Iran to encourage its sensitivity toward the Ba-
ha'is, I urge the adoption of House Concurrent
Resolution 226..
Mr. LEACH of iowa. Mr. Speaker, 1 have no
further requests for time, and I yield back the
balance of my time.
Mr. YATRON. Mr. Speaker, I have no fur-
ther requests for time, and I yield back the bal-
ance of my time.
The concurrent resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the ta-
51
‘ble.
Senate Debate: Sending a Clear Signal
THE concurrent resolution expressing the
sense of the U.S. Congress about the continued
persecution of the Baha'is in Iran by the gov-
ernment in Iran, having been passed by the
Subcommittee on Human Rights and Interna-
tional Organizations of the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the U.S. House of Represent-
atives and by the House itself on May 22, 1984,
went before the U.S. Senate in June. The fol-
lowing is the text of the debate in the Senate as
it appears in the Senate Congressional Record
on June 15, 1984, pages S 7367—71—ED.
PERSECUTION OF BAHA'IS IN
IRAN
Mr. BAKER. Mr. President, I send a concur-
rent resolution to the desk and ask for its im-
mediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The concur-
rent resolution will be stated.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 226) ex-
pressing the sense of the Congress regarding the per-
secution of members of the Bahai religion in Iran by
the Government of Iran.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without ob-
jection, the Senate will proceed to its consider-
ation.
Mr. PERCY. Mr. President, today the Senate
votes on House Concurrent Resolution 226,
condemning the persecution of the Baha'is in
Iran. Last week the Foreign Relations Commit-
tee unaniniously passed this resolution. Given
the plight of the Baha'i community, I believe it
is time for the full Senate again to go on record
as objecting strenuously to the treatment of
this peaceful religious minority. The House
passed an identical resolution on May 22, and,
together, our message will be strong.
Since the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini in
1979, the Baha'i community in Iran has been
subjected to cruel and escalating persecution.
Since the Khomeini government took power,
175 Baha'is have been executed for the crime of
their faith, and many others continue to suffer
systematic oppression and torture. According
to Baha'i leaders in the United States, the perse-
cution appears to be entering a new and sinister
phase.
I know many Baha'i people because the Ba-
ha'i headquarters in the United States is located
just two blocks from my house in Illinois. The
Baha'i community in the United States fully
supports this resolution. They believe that it is
crucially important at this time to focus inter-
national attention on the severe situation for
their coreligionists in Iran. By passing this reso-
lution, the Senate will make public its absolute
condemnation of Iran's persecution of the Ba-
ha'is.
Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. President, during this
year's commemoration of Maryland's 350th
anniversary, I have often been reminded that
the first settlers of our State came to this coun-
try to establish a haven of religious toleration.
Unfortunately, intolerance continues today in
many places of the world.
The persecution of the Baha'is in Iran is a
tragic case that calls for our support for House
Concurrent Resolution 226, which condemns
the Iranian Government's treatment of the Ba-
ha'is.
Since the Khomeini regime took power in
1979, the Government of Iran has embarked
upon a conscious policy of persecuting those of
the Baha'i faith in the country of its birth.
More than 175 Baha'is have been executed
by the Khomeini regime. Many of those ex-
ecuted were elected leaders of Baha'i assem-
blies, the governing bodies of this religious
faith, which has no clergy but elects its leaders
to direct the affairs of the community. Women
and teenage girls have been hanged for their re-
ligious faith. Indeed, the proof that the persecu-
tion is based solely on religious differences is
seen in the fact that almost all of those executed
were offered their freedom, and restoration of
jobs and possessions, if only they would re-
nounce their faith and embrace Islam.
The administration has issued two public
appeals on behalf of the Iranian Baha'i commu-
nity, and continues to work in the United Na-
tions Human Rights Commission to secure
collective appeals against the actions of the
Khomeini regime.
The results of these efforts have been mod-
est. But it is my sincere hope that in passing this
resolution today we will send a strong signal to
the civilized world that we cannot tolerate
mindless persecution of a community of inno-
cent men and women.
Mrs. KASSEBAUM. Mr. President, the au-
thors of this resolution should be commended
for the leadership that they have exercised on
this most important humanitarian issue. No-
where is the repugnance of the radical regime
in Iran more apparent than in its vicious and in-
defensible persecution, if not genocide, against
the Baha'i people in that country. This is reli-
gious persecution in its most virulent form.
Neither racial nor cultural differences distin-
guish Baha'i Iranians from their Shi'ite Mos-
1cm countrymen. It is purely on the basis of re-
ligious intolerance that Baha'is in Iran are
persecuted, tortured and killed.
From time to time, history has witnessed
the kind of intolerance and genocide that the
present Iranian regime is visiting upon its own
Baha'i population. However, when brutality
of this type has been exposed to the world's
eye, history also shows us that no regime that
engages in such abuses can last for long. This is
why the authors of Senate Concurrent Resolu-
tion 86 deserve our praise. They are bringing
ongoing abuses to our consciousness. They are
providing the first necessary step to bring pres-
sures to bear on the perpetrators of the prac-
tices we condemn.
In conclusion, Mr. President, let me state
that I do not believe that this issue is a matter of
exclusively Christian or Jewish concern against
Moslems. In point of fact, this issue is of con-
cern to all people of all religious faiths. Persecu-
tion against any one group affects us all, for it is
all too easy for any of us to become the next
victim if we only stand by while the rights of
others are abused.
Mr. HEINZ. Mr. President, I ani deeply
gratified by the actions of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee in bringing this resolu-
tion, House Concurrent Resolution 226, to the
floor, and I urge all of my colleagues to join in
condemning the Iranian Government for the
continued persecution of the people of the Ba-
ha'i faith. This resolution is identical to Senate
Concurrent Resolution 86 introduced by Sena-
tor PERCY and myself last November.
As the war between Iran and Iraq intensifies
our attention is necessarily focused on that
strategic yet volatile corner of the world. We
must not, however, let that conflulct divert our
attention from an international tragedy which
has befallen a small, peaceful religious minority
in Iran—the Baha'is.
The rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini in the
1979 Islamic revolution initiated escalating ha-
tred and hardship for the peaceful Baha'i com-
munity in Iran. Over 170 Baha'is—men, wom-
en, and even teenage girls—have been executed
by the Khomeini regime, ostensibly on crimi-
nal charges. But in truth these innocent people
SENiVIE 1)EBAiE 53
54 /VQRLI) ORI)ER: WINTER 1983—84
were publicly hanged because of their dedica-
tion to the Baha'i faith.
Members of the Baha'i community have
been denied their basic human rights. Their re-
ligion is not recognized by the Khomeini
girne, and every attempt is made to convert Ba-
ha'is to Islam through the threat of o cially-
sanctioned persecution. For refusing to embrace
the religion of the ruling government, thousand s,
have been arrested and tortured, losing their
property and jobs. Holy sites have been confis-
cated and desecrated.
On May 2, 1984, the House Subcommittee
on Human Rights and International Organ iza-
dons held a hearing on the “Religious Persecu-
tion of the Baha'is in Iran.” The record of that
hearing demonstrates the horror which is be-
ing inflicted upon the Baha'is of Iran. Since
Senator PERCY and I introduced Senate Con-
current Resolution 86 on November 14, 1983,
over 20 more individuals have been executed.
Countless others have faced torture in order to
elicit false confessions that they were members
of the CIA or agents of Zionism who were at-
tempting to overthrow the regime. In addition,
the record reveals that some 700 Baha'is, in-
cluding children, are being held in Iranian pris-
ons. Because access to these victims is strictly
limited by the regime, their fate is uncertain
and precarious.
Ms President, Senate Concurrent Resolu-
don 86 calls attention to the tragic and unjust
persecution of this religious minority. The res-
olution condemns the Khomeini regime's ac-
dons against the Baha'is and reaffirms our soli-
darity with the Baha'i people. The resolution
also calls on the President to take an active role
in persuading the iranian Government to halt
the destruction of this peaceful community.
I am pleased the 67 Members of the Senate
are cosponso s of Senate Concurrent Resolu-
tion 86 and that it is supported by the State
Department on behalf of the Reagan admin-
istration. In a recent letter to the chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
CHARLES PERCY. the State Department ac-
knowledges that resolutions in multilateral bo-
dies and in international media serve as a brake
on the Iranian regime and prevent even more
egregious actions that might be taken out of
the glare of world publicity.
Let me urge each of my Senate colleagues to
add his or her support to this important resolu-
tion, House Concurrence Resolution 226. To-
gether, this body can send a clear signal directly
to the Iranian regime that we have noted and
that we condemn these outrageous violations
of internationally accepted standards of basic
human rights.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to
insert into the RECORD a recent Newsweek ar-
ticle, “Death Inside Khomeini's Jails,” which is
an eyewitness account of torture and execution
in Iran.
There being no objection, the article was or-
dered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
DEATH INSIDE KHOMEINI'S JAILS
Safely away from Ayatollah Khomeini's jails, a survi-
s'or sat in a London oII ce last week describing thc tor-
ments she had endured. She was a woman in her early 40s, a
mother of three, .She was also a Baha'i, a member of a reli-
gious faith that Iran's Islamic leaders consider a heresy.
Since the over-throw of the shah, they have relentlessly
persecuted the country's 300,000 Baha'is—arrest ing their,,
confiscating their property and, sometimes, when they re-
fuse to recant their religion, executing them. lu usc the
woman's name would jeopardize the lives of relatives still
in [ ran. But the story she told Newsweek's london bureau
chief Tony Clift n seemed as credible as it was bleak. Ex-
cerpts:
I worked fo the National Iranian Oil Co. in Shiraz.
About two year ago I was taken before two mullahs who
questioned mc fcjr four hours. They tried to convince me I
should recant an i convert to Islam. They told me that. ill
did not recant I iould he dealt with according to “Islamic
law.” I said I could not. About 10 days later I was sum-
moned again. ‘rhey asked who my family and friends were
and for the names of other Baha'is. One said, “Don't think
you're just going to lose your job—from now on you'll be
followed everywhere.”
And then I was sacked, for being “a follower of the mis-
leading sect of Baha'ism.” Baha'is were not allowed to leave
the country. But I didn't waist to leave—I hadn't done any-
thing wrong. At the end of 1982, four Revolutionary
Guards came to our house and took me. My thrce-year.old
boy ran after Inc crying, “I want my nsunsmy!” A guard
just threw him aside.
They dr ve me to the Scpah military prison in south-
ern Shiraz. When we came to the courtyard they blind-
folded me. I was led into a room and a voice said, “What's
the charge?” anti someone replied, “Balia'i.” There seemed
to be other men in the room and they cursed mc: “Your fa-
ther was a dog.” “Your ancestors were animals.” “You're a
racial degenerate.” This went on for two hours. Afterward,
SEN ATE DEBATE
I was taken to another room where a woman stripped me
and searched me. Then I was taken to a cell.
The cell was about 10 feet square. It was in semi-
darkness, lit only by two dirty windows in the ceil-
ing. There were about 40 women of all ages in it,
most of them Baha'is. But some were political pris-
oners. A small number were there for civil crimes.
We were squeezed together standing up, and when
we tried to sleep at night we had to lie on our sides,
because if we lay on our backs or stomachs we took
up too much room. I was there almost two months.
During that time, women were taken out and tor-
tured and then brought back. There was never a
time when someone was not groaning or screaming
or lying unconscious next to you.
I will always remember Nusrat Yaldoi, a Baha'i
woman I knew. They tried to force her to recant,
and the guards whipped her with wire cables. Be-
cause she was a woman they had covered her back
with a cotton chador, because it would have been
immodest for them to see her bare back. The wires
had torn her back to shreds, so that you could see
the bone, but they had also torn the chador to shreds
a d the piecesof rag had been whipped into the raw
flesh on her back. They whipped her until she was
unconscious and threw her in the cell. Then another
group of guards came in and said they needed Yaldoi
for her trial. We all said she couldn't be tried because
she was unconscious. They just dragged her by the
arms, with her feet trailing on the floor. Later she
told us that when they were beating her they said
they would stop if she would go on radio and televi-
sion to publicly deny her faith and to say that the Ba-
ha'is spied for Israel. She was in the cell for 55 days
without medical attention. Finally she was taken
away and hanged with nine other women who had
also refused to recant.
I was never tortured myself, but I was questioned
endlessly, sometimes for 12 to 14 hours at a time.
They tried to get me to reveal the whereabouts of
other Baha'is and where Baha'i funds were hidden.
Sometimes I would be blindfolded and stood against
a wall, and suddenly the guards would cock their ri-
fles as though they were about to shoot me. Once,
they blindfolded me and took me downstairs to a.
room that must have been a torture chamber. I could
hear someone being whipped, and could hear
screams and groans. Someone said to me, “This will
happen to you if you don't tell us what we want to
know.” Then one day I was taken into a courtroom.
The guards had my three-year-old son. I hadn't seen
him since they arrested me. They let him sit on my
knee. One of the men said, “Here's your son. You
can keep him with you, and have your home and
pension back. All you have to do is recant. If you
don't—we'll take you out and hang you.” I still re-
fused.
Torture: It was common practice to put pressure
on you through ycur family. One day the prison
guards came for another Baha'i woman, a young
hospital nurse from Shiraz named Tahirin Siavashi.
They told her that her husband, Jamshid, had re-
canted. When they brought him to see her, two
guards had to support him becatise he couldn't walk:
he had been whipped and his toenails pulled out.
Jamshid told her that he had been condemned to
death, but that he had not recanted and that she
must not do so either. Two days later they hanged
him.
Last year they hanged Tahirin Siyavashi too. The
youngest of the nine Baha'i women hanged Was
Muna Mahmadnijhad. She was 17. Her father had
been tied face down on a bed and flogged for refus-
ing to disclose the names of other Baha'is. He told
her to cooperate with the authorities so that they
would not beat her too. But of course she was so
young she didn't know anything. So they hanged
him, and they hanged her as well. She was only a
high-school student and had never done any harm to
anyone.
Then they released the survivor. She thinks she
was freed because she was a high Baha'i! othcial in
Shiraz. “I think they believed that if theylet me go,
they could keep a watch on me and wait for me to
lead them to our people who were in hiding.” In-
stead, she made her way safely out of iran. She still
carries a photograph of Tahirin Siyavashi. “The last
thing she said to me was, ‘Go and tell everyone what
they're doing to us.' And so I'm telling you, now.”
Mr. PELL. Mr. President, the resolution be-
fore us, House Concurrent Resolution 226,
concerns the plight of the Baha'is in Iran. With-
out a doubt, the treatment of the Baha'is is the
most serious of many appalling human rights
abuses in Iran today, and one of the most egre-
gious human rights violations anywhere. I
commend my colleague from Pennsylvania,
Senator HEINZ, for offering this timely resolu-
tion and for his efforts to secure its passage.
The Khomeini regime has, in effect, made
adherence to the Baha'i faith a ciinie. In Au-
.ist 1983, Iran's Revolutionary Prosecutor
General effectively banned all Baha'i religious
activity. In Iran, it is now a crime for the Ba-
ha'is to participate in a social welfare rganiza-
tion, to operate a business corporation, or to
teach the faith, even by parents to children at
borne. Baha'i shrines and cemeteries have been
desecrated and Baha'i women, whose mar-
riages are not recognized by the regime, have
been branded prostitutes.
Since Khomeini took power niore than 170
Baha'is have been executed. The victims have
55
56 WORlD ORDER: /VINTER 1983—84
included men, women, and even children.
Over 700 Baha'is are imprisoned in Iran today.
Torture of the Baha'is—including the whip-
ping of prisoners with metal cables, the pour-
ing of boiling water on prisoners, and severe
beatings—is commonplace.
We should harbor no illusions about the
probable fate of Iran's Baha'is. I would like to
quote a brief extract from an interview given
by Hojjatol-Islam Qazi, a religious judge and'
president of the Revolutionary Court of
Shiraz.
The Iranian nation has arisen in accordance with
Koranic teachings and by the will of God has deter-
mined to establish the Government of God on
earth. Therefore, it cannot tolerate the perverted Ba-
ha'is who are instruments of Satan and followers of
the devil and of the super powers and their agents,
such as the Universal House of Justice of Israel. It is
absolutely certain that in the Islamic Republic of
Iran there is no place whatsoever for Baha'is and Ba-
ha'ism.
Of the seriousness of the regime's intention
to eliminate the Baha'is from Iran, there can be
no doubt. Hojjatol-Islam Qazi's comments
came as the Shiraz Court sentenced 20 Baha'is
to death.
The treatment of the Baha'is in Iran is all to
reminiscent of the treatment of the German
Jews in the early stages of Hitler's Reich. If a
full-scale genocide is to be avoided, the world
community must keep international attention
focused on Iran's treatment of the Baha'is. Res-
olutions, such as the one we are about to pass,
at-c a useful tool in insuring that the vilest crime
of all—genocide—does not occur in the dark.
Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, last year an
Iranian Prosecutor General published an edict
which defines as “criminal acts” the teaching
and religious activities of the Baha'i faith, in ef-
fect outlawing the formal practice of the Baha'i
religion and placing in jeopardy the employ-
ment, education, property and even the lives of
the Baha'is themselves. This edict does not rep-
resent a departure from the established policies
of the Khomeini government in Iran; it merely
carries those policies forward, to establish a
new framework for the oppression and perse-
cution of persons of the Baha'i faith.
The policies of oppression and persecution
are well documented. In the House of Repre-
sentatives, the Subcommittee on Human
Rights and International Organizations of the
Foreign Affairs Committee held hearings in
May 1982, and again in May of this year to doc-
ument the tragic situation of the Baha'is. The
Senate Foreign Relations Committee is sched-
uled to receive further testimony in hearings
on June 26.
We have learned from the bitter experience
of this century that the persecution of a vulner-
able people must not be ignored. The approxi-
mately 300,000 Baha'is now living in Iran are
indeed vulnerable, and House Concurrent Res-
olution 226 speaks out in their defense by con-
demning the Iranian policies of persecution
and calling for international cooperation on
behalf of the Baha'is. As Elie Wiesel has so elo-
quently reminded us, the opposite of love is
not hate but indifference. Our respect for hu-
man rights and human dignity, indeed our own
self-respect as a free nation will not permit us
to remain indifferent.
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise in strong
support of House Concurrent Resolution 226,
regarding persecution of members of the Ba-
ha'i faith by the Government in Iran. Along
with a majority of my colleagues, I am a co-
sponsor of this resolution, and I hope that the
Senate will pass it in timely fashion.
The Baha'i faith was founded 140 years ago
in Iran. While I am not myself any great expert
on the finer points of religious doctrine, I think
an outside observer would agree that the most
striking feature of the Baha'i religion is the em-
pha is placed on tolerance. Live and let live,
The road the Baha'is have faced has been a hard
one, but they have stuck to that basic principle.
That is why what is being done to them now is
particularly ironic—and especially painful.
There are now some 300,000 Baha'is in Iran.
Their very existence as an organized religion,
the passage of their faith to their children, is il-
legaL Since 1979, 170 prominent Baha'is have
been executed in Iran for their beliefs. Last Au-
gust, Iran's Prosecutor General declared that all
Baha'i teaching and organized religious activi-
ties were criminal activities. Revolutionary
guards, the brown shirts of the Khomeini re-
gime, have the authority to enter any Baha'i
SENME DEBATE
home at will. More than 300 Baha'i homes
have been destroyed.
Recently, Iran's Minister of Works and So-
cial Affairs officially instructed commercial
and industrial institutions not to pay the sala-
ries of the Baha'is on their staff. More than
10,000 Baha'is have simply been dismissed,
without warning, without justification; their
incomes erased, their hopes wiped out. Baha'i
students have been expelled from colleges and
secondary schools because of their religion.
And, in most places in Iran, it is impossible for
a child of Baha'i parents to obtain even an ele-
mentary school education.
These statistics are accurate, but they are
not the whole story. We have reliable accounts
of the horrible truth. We have heard of the Ba-
ha'i woman whose husband was executed by
firing squad—which then demanded payment
to cover the cost of the bullets. We know about
the Baha'i woman who gave birth and was
killed by a fanatic mob, who took her child
from the murdered mother to be raised accord-
ing to Khomeini's brand of Islam—and we won-
der at the fate of that child, what the future will
hold. We know about the Baha'i prisoners who
have died in custody, tortured to death because
they refused to confess to fantastic crimes they
did not commit. And we know what such con-
fessions would be used for—justification for
more persecution of the Baha'is, and the other
luckless victims of Iran's Islamic Republic.
Mr. President, there is a word for this kind
of wholesale atrocity. The word is “genocide.”
The August 1983 edict against the Baha'is re-
minds me of nothing so much as the Nurem-
berg laws of a half-century ago. We cannot al-
low this to go on without protest. We know
that, at this time, there is little we can do to aid
the Baha'is in Iran, but as Dr. Firuz Kazemza-
deh, a distinguished constituent of mine, a Yale
professor and the secretary of the Baha'is As-
sembly in America, has said, “It is more diffi-
cult to kill, more difficult to torture, in broad
daylight.”
That is why passage of House Concurrent
Resolution 226 is so important. My good
friend and colleague, Senator HEINZ and Con-
gressmen YATRON, PORTER, STARK, and
LEACH as well, deserve credit for pressing this
matter in Congress. We must shine the light on
the persecution of the Baha'is. This resolution
does three things: First, it states that Iran will
be held responsible for the crimes against the
Baha'is; second, it condemns the efforts of the
Iranian Government to destroy the Baha'is by
making their religious practices illegal; and
third, it urges the President to work /;‘ith the
appropriate governments, and with the United
Nations, to provide aid and comfort to the Ba-
ha'is, both those within Iran and those who
have managed to escape. These are sound goals,
and I urge my colleagues to support them by
prompt passage of House Concurrent Resolu-
tion 226.
Mr. GLENN. Mr. Pr esident, as a cosponsor
of Senate Concurrent Resolution 86, the Sen-
ate companion to House Concurrent Resolu-
tion 226, I join my colleagues in condemning
Iran's persecution of the Baha'i religious mi-
nority. While the peaceful Baha'i community
has been persecuted in Iran for well over a cen-
tury, the current Iranian Government has
fiercely rekindled its oppression of the Baha'is.
Since the establishment of a fundamentalist,
Shi'ite theocracy in Iran in 1979, well over a
hundred Baha'is have been executed, several
hundred have been imprisoned, and the safety
and civil rights of the more than 300,000 Ba-
ha'is living in Iran have been seriously threat-
ened. An ominous development is the 1r nian
Government's banning of Baha'i administra-
tive institutions which paves the way for future
arrests of thousands of individuals who serve
on Baha'i spiritual assemblies. The Iranian
Government has created conditions which
threaten the very survival of the Baha'is faith in
Iran.
Only a few months ago, the Congress com-
mitted itself to the establishment of a memorial
here in the Nation's capital to serve as a re-
minder of the millions who perished in the Ho-
locaust during World War II. The goal of this
memorial was not only to remind us of this tei-
rible era of persecution, but to serve as a warn-
ing to he vigilant against the persecution that
continues in our own time. As citizens of the
world's oldest democracy, we are committed to
57
58 WORLD ORDER /VINTER 1983—84
the universal rights of the individual and spe-
cifically to the freedom to worship without
fear of oppression. We are deeply committed to
the belief that the Baha'is should have this same
freedom.
While this resolution may do little to ease
the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran, it would
be unconscionable for the Congress to be silent
in the face of this great injustice. We call upon
the administration to work with our allies an
all other members of the international commu-
nity on behalf of the persecuted Baha'is of Iran.
Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I
want to take this opportunity to address an im-
portant human rights issue. The persecution of
the iranian Baha'is by the Khomeini regime is
perhaps one of the worst human rights viola-
tions in the world today. I feel compelled to
speak out against this persecution.
Not a week passes without an act of sheer
barbarism and religious oppression occurring
in Iran, and the Baha'is are a key target. Al-
ready, more than 60 people—storekeepers, arti-
sans, teachers, government employees, doc-
tors, a university professor—have been
lynched by mobs, or executed by revolution-
ar)' firing squads. At least 190 people have been
brutally murdered by the Iranian Government
since the Government takeover in 1979. Hun-
dreds of Baha'is have been dismissed from jobs;
thousands more thave lost their homes and
possessions. More than 700 Baha'is have been
imprisoned, charged by the Iranian Govern-
ment with trumped up charges such as coopera-
tion with Zionism, spying for imperialist pow-
ers, corrupting the Earth, and warring with
God.
This persecution is based upon theological
differences between the Shi'ite Islams in con-
trol of Iran, and the Baha'is, an Islamic off-
shoot. The Baha'is, because of these differ-
ences, arc considered heretical. Their religion is
not even formally recognized in the Iranian
constitution, as other non-Islamic religions are.
As this attitude conflicts with those estab-
lished in our Constitution and is foreign to the
American concept of human rights, steps have
been taken by the U.S. Government to alert
the rest of the world to the Baha'is' search for a
solution. The U.N. Human Rights Commis-
sion has passed four major resolutions concern-
ing the persecution, and the United States has
supported each one. The Voice of America has
included mention of the persecution in its Per-
sian language broadcasts. The Secretary of
State and the President have issued statements
calling attention to the persecution and re-
questing international support. The process
has begun.
It is obvious that further action must be tak-
en to combat this persecution. The 300,000 Ba-
ha'is in Iran are aware of this. The State De-
partment and the President are aware of this.
Congress has begun to act. On May 22 the
House passed a resolution condemning this
persecution and calling on the President to
work with ppropriate foreign governments in
forming an appeal to the Khomeini regime.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has
passed this measure, and I understand the Sen-
ate will take it up within the next week. Final-
ly, the Foreign Relations Committee will be
holding a hearing on June 26 which will ad-
dress the plight of the Baha'is.
These efforts must continue. The Baha'is
cannot be forgotten. Thank you, Mr. Presi-
dent.
BAHA'! PERSECUTION MUST STOP
Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, I rise in sup-
port of thi resolution condemning the perse-
cution of the Baha'is in Iran. I have been a co-
sponsor of this meausre in the Senate and a
consistent critic of the Khomeini regime's
treatment of the Baha'is. I urge my colleagues
to join me today in support of this important
measure.
The Baha'i religion has members in 152 in-
dependent nations. It was founded in the 19th
century as an offshoot of Shi' ite Islam. This
faith is not considered to be a branch of Islam
today.
Baha'is i epresent the largest religious minor-
ity in Iran. Their 350,000 members make up
slightly less than 1 percent of the Iranian popu-
- lation. Because of the relatively progressive
ways of the Baha'is, they have come under se-
vere persecution by Iranian authorities. They
are often branded heretics and are condemned
SENATE DEBATE
for having ties with Israel and the West.
Since 1979, over 170 Baha'is have been
executed because of their religious beliefs. Thou-
sands more have been jailed, with approximately
700 in custody at this time. All organized Baha'i
activities are labeled criminal acts and Baha'is
who refuse to reject their religion for the ways
of Islam are subject to execution.
In addition, thousands of Baha'is have been
dismissed from their jobs because of their faith.
Their children have been expelled from
schools. Places of worship have been confiscat-
ed and homes destroyed.
Mi President, the Baha'is of Iran have been
systematically denied virtually all freedom and
opportunity. By anyone's measure, their hu-
man rights continue to be trampled upon. In
particular, their freedom of religion is effective-
ly nonexistent. The Iranian Government must
be convinced that these atrocities are unaccep-
table and cannot be tolerated. To this end, the
U.S. Government—and, indeed, all govern-
ments of the world—should direct themselves.
This action of the U.S. Congress should inspire
other nations, many of whom have closer ties
with Iranian authorities than does the United
States, to increase pressure on Iranians with
whom they do business to stop official and pri-
vate atrocities against the Baha'is.
Mr. BOSCHWITZ. Mr. President, I am
pleased to add my own sentiments to those of
the members who have spoken before me to-
day in support of Senate Concurrent Resolu-
tion 86, expressing the sense of the Congress re-
garding the persecution of members of the
Baha'i religion in Iran by the Government of
Iran. It's easy to become jaded these days to the
many examples we read and hear about of tor-
ture, persecution, and killings, but the situa-
tion faced by the Baha'i community is of a
scope that makes some response a moral neces-
sity.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the Baha'i
community has come under increasing pres-
sure from the theocratic regime which rules
that unfortunate country. The Baha'is have
had to face an escalating series of personal hard-
ships, hardships which are the result not of in-
dividual prejudice but of a systematic govern-
mental policy which has as its goal the
elimination of this world religion, which the
fundamentalists in Teheran consider a heretical
sect.
Evidence of the governmental nature of the
persecution which the Baha'is currently face is
plentiful. Baha'i shrines and cemeteries have
been violated, their property rights have been
ignored or revoked, they are being systemati-
cally excluded from social services, and prac-
tice of their religion has been outlawed by the
Prosecutor General.
More frighteningly, these measures have re-
cently been supplemented by widespread kill-
ings. Hundreds have been executed, while
countless others have been the victims of extra-
judicial killing. Indeed, the situation has
reached the point where, as the distinguished
ranking member of the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee, Senator PELL, has observed,
the word “persecution” has arguably been sup-
planted by the word “genocide.”
I recognize that, in the face of the mon-
strous horror which we confront here, our
weapons seem pitifully inadequate. And yet I
would urge the Senators not to under stirnate
the value of resolutions of this sort. As Prof.
Firuz Kazemzadeh [ Gah-zern-zah-dayl has ar-
gued in urging action on this bill, “It is more
difficult to kill, more difficult to torture in
broad daylight.”
Men love the darkness, Mr. President, be-
cause it hides their deeds. This amendment
sheds light on the dark deeds of a despotic re-
gime. I don't suggest that our responsibility
ends there, but it certainly begins there. I ask,
then, for the adoption of this beginning, a first
step toward the return of some degree of light
to the Baha'is in Iran.
The concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res.
226) was considered and agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
Mr. BAKER. Mr. President, 1 move to re-
consider the vote by which the concurrent res-
olution was agreed to.
Mr. BYRD. I move to lay that motion on
the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed
to.
59
H. Con. Res. 226
Aereed to June 15, 1984
Binmj,-ci ghth on grez of the. dIlInitcd tat z of merIca
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the twenty-third day of January,
one thousand nine hundred and eighty-four
oncurrtnt lRnolution
Whereas more than one hundred and fifty members of the Baha'i
faith have been brutally executed by Iranian authorities since the
1979 Islamic revo'ution;
Whereas many Baha'is in Iran have disappeared and others have
been tortured, persecuted, and deprived of their fundamental
rights to personal property and employment;
Whereas an edict issued by Iran's Prosecutor General on August 29,
1983, has far-reaching implications that threaten the lives of three
hundred thousand Baha'is residing in Iran and places the future
practice of Baha'ism in jeopardy by dismantling the administra-
tive stru ture of the Baha'i religion; and
Whereas these actions for the first time establish an expressed
national policy which lays the legal foundation for executions,
arrests, the confiscation of property, denial of jobs and pensions,
expulsion of Baha'i children from schools, and other pressures
which may be brought to bear by Iranian authorities on the
Baha'is: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring,
That the Congress—
(1) holds the Government of Irad responsible for upholding
the rights of all its nationals, including the Baha'is;
(2) condemns the recent decision taken by the Government of
Iran to destroy the Baha'i faith by labeling as “criminal acts”
all Baha'i teaching and organized religious activities, including
the attempts by Baha'is to elect their own local and national
leaders, to meet in assemblies, to communicate among them-
selves, and to work for volunteer committees; and
(3) calls upon the President—
(A) to work with appropriate foreign governments and
the allies of the United States in forming an appeal to the
Government of Iran concerning the Baha'is;
(B) to cooperate fully with the United Nations in its
efforts on behalf of the Baha'ia and to lead such efforts
whenever it is possible and appropriate to do so; and
(C) to provide, and urge others to provide, for huxñani-
tarian assistance for those Baha'is who flee Iran.
Sac. 2. The Clerk of the House of Representatives shall transmit a
copy of this concurrent resolution to the President.
Attest:
Attest:
‘.a. c . I
Secretary of t e Senate.
IOOPTI
