physical attacks on individual Baha'is; the intimidation of employers who hired Baha'i workers; the harassment of Baha'i children in schools; the publication and dissemination of scurrilous anti-Baha'i literature, and the promotion of outright anti-Baha'i pogroms.

In 1955 the Iranian government fully cooperated with the Islamic extremist societies. The army occupied the national Baha'i headquarters in Tehran, the chief of the imperial staff himself dealing the first blow, with a pickaxe, to the dome over the large meeting hall. World public opinion loudly condemned the persecution of the Baha'i community, forcing the Iranian government to relent and to abandon the campaign.

In the next decade, the Shiite clergy again lost much of the influence it

had regained in the 1950s. A substantial segment of the clerical establishment assumed a firmly negative attitude toward land reform, the extension of the franchise to women, and toward the ever-accelerating process of modernization. This negativism turned to the mullahs' advantage in the 1970s.

Rapid urbanization with the concomitant dislocation of the agricultural sector, the rise of modern industry, the arrival of traffic problems and air pollution, the visible increase in foreign influence, drastic changes in the lifestyle of urbanized Iranians, widespread corruption in government and business, the conflict between the traditional bazaar bourgeoisie and the modern entrepreneurial class, the oppressive policies of a government that seemed insensitive to the non-material needs of the population, the rise of a large class of educated technocrats-these were only some of the factors

that suddenly made the negativism and fundamentalism of the mullahs seem attractive to much of the population.

Elements among the reactionary clergy, particularly those that clustered around the specifically anti-Baha'i organizations, such as the Tabliqat-e Eslami and the Anjoman-e-Hojjatiyyeh, played a double game. Founded with the blessings of the government and working in close cooperation with the SAVAK--the political secret police--these organizations used their resources and membership against both the government and the Baha'is, creating the impression that the Baha'is dominated the Pahlavi regime.

Clerical propaganda constantly repeated that Mohammad Reza Shah was surrounded by Baha'is and was, perhaps, one himself; that his long-term prime minister Amir Abbas Hoveida, and a number of other cabinet ministers, as well as several high officials of the SAVAK, were Baha'is. These carefully planted and widely

circulated rumors gradually became part of the received ideas shared by much of the urban population. The facts, of course, were rather different. The Shah was a professed Shiite with mystic tendencies that he openly discussed in person and in his autobiograhy. He did not hide his aversion for the Baha'i Faith but did not see it as a threat. For him the Baha'i community was a source of reliable, technical personnel and a convenient scapegoat. He did use the services of a Baha'i doctor and occasionally appointed Baha'is to government cffices that demanded a high degree of specialized competence. However, no Baha'i served in the cabinet, because acceptance of a cabinet post by a Baha'i would have led to the expulsion of such an individual from the Baha'i community.

Prime Minister Hoveida was never a Baha'i.

but was expelled from the Baha'i community.

His father had been one years ago
Hoveida always insisted he was a

Muslim and frequently stressed his negative view of the Baha'i Faith.

The

same was true of the SAVAK official Parviz Sabeti, whose parents had been Baha'is but drifted out of the Baha'i community. Parviz Sabeti has never been

a member.

It should be pointed out, however, that the misdeeds of an individual cannot be held against an entire religion. Were one to accept the contrary principle, a criminal born in a protestant family would make all protestants parties to the crime. Is it necessary to point out that Ivan the Terrible was a practicing member of the Orthodox Church, Tamerlane a Muslim, and Hitler a Catholic?

When the Iranian revolution broke out in 1978, the most radically conservative fundamentalist elements within the Shiite clergy were determined to purge Iran of everything they disliked: modernism, emancipation of women, the rights of minorities, academic freedom, non-conformist thought, opera and the theatre, most forms of music; but their strongest yearning was for the destruction of the Baha'is. Having achieved power, the old enemies of the Baha'i Faith could not but use that power to crush a religion and a community for whose eradication they have striven for 138 years.

Mr. BONKER. We will continue now with Mr. Mitchell, who is secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States.

Mr. DYMALLY. Just a note of personal interest. I had the occasion to visit your shrine in Haifa after the Six Day War, which would be 1967.

Mr. BONKER. I understand that Mr. Mitchell was to be the last speaker.

Mr. KAZEMZADEH. Yes; if it please the Chair, Mrs. Nourani would go next.

STATEMENT OF RAMNA MAHMOUDI NOURANI, EYEWITNESS TO PERSECUTION

Mrs. NOURANI. My name is Ramna Mahmoudi Nourani. I am an Iranian Baha'i who came to the United States 11 years ago to study. I was doing my Ph. D. in mathematics at UCLA before my studies were disrupted due to family circumstances in Iran.

I would like to make the plight of the Baha'is of Iran known on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Baha'i men, women, and children whose legal rights are being denied and who are living under the threat of extinction, those who have lost their jobs, their properties, their means of livelihood, their all, and who may also lose the custody of their children and those who have been imprisoned, tortured, or executed.

The story of the persecution of the Baha'is of Iran is an intensely personal one for me. I have lost both of my parents with the blessings of the Islamic Government and the clergy of Iran. The story is even more tragic because what is taking place there is in the name of religion.

There were days I remember, back in the school days, when I was humiliated in the classroom for being a Baha'i. This was during the reign of the Shah, and my parents could face perhaps a few months or a few years of imprisonment because their Baha'i marriages were not recognized by the Government. Days I remember when Baha'i meetings were disrupted by young men from the Islamic society called the Organization for the Propagation of Islam. But those were the extent of the persecution that we could expect. These days, one pays even more dearly for being a Baha'i. You can give your life for it.

I would like to tell you the story of my parents. My father, Houshang Mahmoudi, 53 years old, was a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran. He, along with all his colleagues, were abducted on August 21, 1980 and simply disappeared. We have not heard anything from my father or from any of his colleagues. All the appeals made by the Baha'i community of Iran to the Government on behalf of them went unheeded. I have no doubt that they have all been killed, and perhaps they faced the most cruel death.

My mother, Ginous Mahmoudi, was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran and served as its chairman. She, along with her colleagues on the assembly, were arrested on December 13, 1981. They were taken to a prison and for a week before they were executed they were kept in the hallways of an in

terrogation room. Any time the Moslem guards passed by them, they would spit on them, hit them, and curse them. Then they were executed on December 27, 1981, without any charges, no trials took place, their desecrated bodies were found accidentally in the infidel section of a Moslem cemetery. No family members were notified, and before the bodies could be claimed they had to pay for the bullets that were used to kill them. The president of Iran's Supreme Court at that time denied all knowledge of their execution but later admitted that they were executed because they were "foreign" spies.

On January 4, 1982, about a week after my mother's execution, my cousin, Mrs. Shiva Mahmoudi, 35 years old and the mother of two young children, a member of the local assembly of Tehran, was executed along with six other members of the local assembly. They were given a chance to recant their faith. They were given two pieces of paper to sign. If they signed one they would be converted to Islam, and the other would send them to their execution. All of them stood steadfast in their faith and faced their death on January 4, 1982.

In August of 1981, a cousin of my husband, Mr. Habib Tahqhiqi, a member of the local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Tabriz, was executed along with eight other members of the assembly there. The first line of his will of which I have a copy reads as follows:

In an hour, I, along with eight other Baha'i friends, will be executed. My only guilt is that I am a Baha'i. I believe in all the prophets of God including Muhammad.

On May 8, 1982, two of our neighbors, some of the best friends of my parents, were executed after 10 months of imprisonment, and both were tortured first. All of these people were outstanding servants of their country, among the most educated. They served their country with honesty and sincerity, because it was not only the land where they were born but also the land where their faith was born.

My father was the most respected, loved television personality for over 15 years in Iran. He pioneered children's programs on television. He was well respected and was a father figure to generations of Iranian children.

My mother was the head of the Department of Meteorology of Iran. She was a supervisor and director of research and training for atmospheric studies for a long time, and also the president of the Iranian School of Meteorology. She had built the department of meteorology with her honest and ceaseless efforts during 25 years, and this is how they repaid her.

After the revolution she was fired from her job and taken off the payroll. She was even asked to pay back all the salaries that she had collected for the past 25 years of her service because they said that it was illegal for her to be employed as a Baha'i to begin with. My father's office was also looted by revolutionary guards and everything in it either confiscated or taken away. At this point, our house had become a refuge and a shelter for a number of Baha'i families fleeing from persecution from other provinces of Iran. Those Baha'is came and stayed in our house before they could be