Mr. GEJDENSON. I have no questions, either, but I want to applaud the gentleman from California for his comments. Those who sit outside of government often wonder where the voices are in America when things like this go on. We will always look back after the full horror is brought to the public's attention and say, where were our leaders when tens of thousands of people were getting killed? I think it is important that we do everything we can to speak out against the atrocities. We ought to at least let the American people and the world know that it is a policy we object to strenuously. We must do everything we can to stop it.

Mr. BONKER. Mr. Dymally?

Mr. DYMALLY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I want to extend my congratulations to my friend, Congressman Stark, and Congressman Derwinski, and to this subcommittee, for focusing attention on this very important subject.

Not only are the people in Iran suffering religious persecutions, but so are other religions-Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, in some parts of Africa; they are also suffering religious persecution, and we need to look at this whole question from a global perspective. I am pleased that you gentlemen have brought this issue to the subcommittee's attention and to the Congress.

Mr. STARK. I want to thank the gentleman and hope that he could join with the other gentleman from Illinois who was here with me in the persecution of the Oakland Raiders, and see if we can get them some attention as well. [Laughter.]

Mr. BONKER. Thank you, Mr. Stark.

The subcommittee staff will be working with you to see if we can toughen up the resolution and get this session of Congress to pass it.

Mr. STARK. We appreciate it very much.

Mr. BONKER. We will now have a panel of the following witnesses: Judge James Nelson, Professor Kazemzadeh, Mr. Mitchell, and Ms. Ramna Mahmoudi Nourani.

I have had the opportunity to meet several of you before, and we certainly are privileged to have you before the subcommittee. We feel that you will be providing the substance of the testimony that will give the Congress a better view of the situation of the Baha'is in Iran. We will start with Judge James Nelson who is the chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and presiding judge of the municipal court of Los Angeles. You were to attend that luncheon concerning the Baha'is a few weeks ago and were unable to do so.

Mr. NELSON. Unhappily, Mr. Chairman. Now that we know who we are by rearranging the signs, Mr. Chairman, we thank you for this opportunity.

STATEMENT OF JUDGE JAMES NELSON, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA'IS OF THE UNITED STATES, AND PRESIDING JUDGE OF THE MUNICIPAL COURT OF LOS ANGELES

Mr. NELSON. My name is James F. Nelson. I am a judge of the Municipal Court of Los Angeles and the Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States-the gov

erning board of trustees elected by the 100,000 members of the American Baha'i community. With me is Firuz Kazemzadeh, on my right, professor of history, chairman of the Committee on MiddleEastern Studies at Yale University, and vice chairman of our National Assembly.

Also with me, on his right, is Glenford E. Mitchell, who will speak to the question of the growth and development of the American Baha'i community, and the effect of the persecutions on the American Baha'i community, and make certain suggestions as to avenues for relief.

On my left, Mrs. Ramna Mahmoudi Nourani, distinguished mathematician, who will give testimony concerning her life as a Baha'i child in Iran and the recent loss of both of her parents, and the horror that now afflicts the Baha'is in that country.

Again, my colleagues and I appreciate the opportunity to testify today before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations concerning the horrible acts of discrimination against the members of the Baha'i faith in Iran.

We brought with us some charts, and the ones that are before you now demonstrate the geographical spread of the incidences of persecution in Iran, which you can tell is to the totality of the country.

The other chart is the names of those who have been executed since the beginning of the recent persecutions.1

I understand my formal prepared statement is before the subcommittee, is a matter of record, and if that be the case, I will abbreviate these remarks insofar as I can, and do so without loss of emphasis.

Mr. BONKER. The chairman will accept all of the statements in full for the official record, and I hope the witnesses will summarize.

Mr. NELSON. We also have some photographic evidence which we will choose to put before the subcommittee at the appropriate time. For the last 31⁄2 years the Baha'i community of Iran has suffered relentless persecution. The horrors that are being inflicted upon it stagger the imagination. They constitute without any doubt a gross violation of all fundamental human rights.

In Miandoab, a mob, after destroying the local Baha'i center, fell upon a man and his son, dragged their bodies through the street, and chopped them up into small pieces that were finally consigned to flames.

In Nuk, a farming village near Birjand, 15 masked men attacked a couple in their home at night, poured kerosene on the husband and set him on fire before forcing him to run for a few yards; finally they heaped wood upon him, burning him to death, and finished the cremation. His wife, subjected to similar treatment, died a few days later.

In Shiraz, 300 Baha'i homes were burned.

In Tehran, the dead bodies of executed Baha'is were written upon in large script. We have a photograph to show these ghoulish marks on the body, which included the epithet "enemy of Islam."

1 See app. 7.

Mr. BONKER. Are there writings on the body? Is there a translation for that?

Mr. NELSON. "Enemy of Islam" is written.

Mr. BONKER. Just for the record, I would like to know what the writings are.

Mr. MITCHELL. Evin Prison; Buzburg Alaviyan 2936th execution. Mr. BONKER. No, no, I am sorry. There is writing on the bodies. Mr. MITCHELL. That is what the writing says, and the date of the execution. This says, "Buzburg Alaviyan 'Enemy of Islam'". Mr. BONKER. I see.

Mr. MITCHELL. Others are similarly described.

Mr. BONKER. These executions were performed not necessarily by Government authorities or religious leaders? Have you been able to identify in most instances who is responsible for carrying out the executions?

Mr. NELSON. Yes, indeed; the clerical and governmental authorities, in most instances, have been directly responsible.

Mr. BONKER. Are they spontaneous acts?

Mr. NELSON. You can find from these remarks that they are not spontaneous acts, in the main. Some things are mass, which turned out to be governmentally inspired and even governmentally done. With respect to the other photograph, in Yazd, following the execution of seven Baha'is including an 85-year-old man, the authorities presented their widows with bills to cover the cost of the bullets used to execute them.

Mr. BONKER. These were the authorities?

Mr. NELSON. Yes.

In Musa-Abad Village, two teenage girl students were abducted from school by their religion teachers. The parents have been unable to determine their fate. The teachers claimed that the girls had converted to Islam and refused to meet their Baha'i parents, a most unlikely story.

This shows even the school authorities are involved.

In Kashan, a teenage girl was abducted and forced to marry a Muslim despite her being under age.

In Shiraz, a high-ranking authority decreed that a Baha'i widow had no right to the pension due from her husband's insurance and could not retain custody of her children.

In legal matters, in Tehran, the High Court of Justice upheld a verdict of the Shiraz Revolutionary court that cited membership in Baha'i assemblies as a crime punishable by death. Since this verdict more than 60 Baha'i leaders have been executed.

The Iranian Baha'is have no recourse for redress of grievances. The constitution of the Islamic Republic does not recognize the Baha'i faith, although similar religious minorities are recognized. Thus, the patient and repeated appeals of the Baha'is to the authorities fall on deaf ears.

The Baha'i faith originated in 1844. Ever since then, its history has been marked with bloody periods of persecution. However, the new attacks began with the Islamic revolution in the autumn of 1978. Between September 25 and December 14 of that year, the community recorded 112 instances of assault upon its members. There were lootings, burnings, beatings, murders, the desecration of cemeteries, the disruption of meetings-all intended to force

Baha'is to deny their faith. The attacks spread rapidly to every province in Iran.

Mr. HYDE. Was there no persecution under the Shah?

Mr. NELSON. Indeed there was, and the professor will cover the history of the persecution leading up to this particular time.

Mr. HYDE. This is not something that is indigenous with the Ayatollah's regime, but part of the fabric of Iran?

Mr. NELSON. Yes, although it has had its recrudescence throughout the period of the years, this is particularly malicious and dangerous because of the threats of genocide under the present regime. Mr. HYDE. There always has been the persecution, but it has been exacerbated under the Ayatollah.

Mr. NELSON. Greatly so; yes. This was the point to which I am coming.

In the spring of 1979, when the Islamic Revolutionary Government of Ayatollah Khomeini was already firmly established, the campaign against the Baha'is assumed an official form and increased in magnitude, 2,000 men, women, and children were driven from their homes and sought refuge in the deserts and mountains. The House of the Bab, the holiest shrine in Iran for Baha'is and a place of pilgrimage for the Baha'is of the world, was seized on the pretext that it was being held by the authorities as a protection against mob attack, their pretext being that they were going to protect it from the hostile mob that had surrounded it.

The building was ultimately razed, supposedly by that hostile group, although you can see they took it apart very carefully and took things that would be useful to them elsewhere.

At any rate, it was ultimately razed, the site obliterated by a hastily constructed road.

Nawnahalan Co., which served as a savings and loan association primarily for the benefit of Baha'i children, was confiscated.

Omana Co., which held in trust Baha'i community properties, including holy places and historic sites that had been in the possession of Baha'is for more than a century, was similarly confiscated. As national and local properties were seized, so, too, were the sacred literature and records of the community.

The Ministry of Education issued a circular that those Baha'is who did not deny their faith should immediately be discharged from their jobs as teachers.

Baha'is were arrested without charge in various localities.

Soon it became apparent that the campaign directed against the Baha'i community was systematic and centrally directed. The Human Rights Commission of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Switzerland issued a report in Zurich on September 12, 1979, in which it described the methods and ends of the persecution as administrative strangulation, financial strangulation, social and personal strangulation.

Other reports from all over the world, including the published dispatches of the correspondence for Reuters, the Associated Press, Le Monde, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, signified the deepening crisis for the Baha'is of Iran. These reports combined to portend the imminence of genocide.

The final blow was to be the elimination of the leadership of the community. The primitive logic was clear: A body without a head

could not survive. Beginning in 1980, shortly after the taking of American hostages, a rash of disappearances, arrests, and executions of members of Baha'i local and national governing bodies shocked the community. The abduction of all nine members of the National Assembly on August 21 confirmed the rumor of a plot to wipe out the Baha'i leadership.

The National Assembly members were meeting in a private home when revolutionary guards forcibly took them away, along with two other officers of the faith with whom they were conferring. No trace of them has been found and they must be presumed dead.

Eight members of the subsequent National Assembly were similarly abducted and then secretly executed in Tehran last December. Mrs. Nourani will give very strong and personal testimony bout each of these incidents.

Six of the nine members of the Tehran Assembly met the same fate in January 1982. Scores of other local Assembly members have been executed in different parts of the country, some after torture. Scores more languish in jail, their fate unknown.

How do Iranian authorities justify the persecution of the Baha'is? The Baha'i faith is not recognized in the constitution of the Islamic Republic. Therefore, Baha'is are not entitled to protection under the law and have no opportunity to defend themselves against false accusations. Baha'i marriages are not sanctioned by law. Therefore, the children are not recognized as legitimate. Since Baha'i marriages are not recognized, Baha'i women are proclaimed prostitutes.

The Shiite clergy and the government persistently accuse the Baha'i faith of being a political conspiracy that serves the interests of foreign powers, including the United States. The fact is that Baha'is strictly avoid disloyal and subversive activities.

The clergy and the Government claim that the Baha'is were favored by the regime of the Shah and ran his secret police, the SAVAK, when, in fact, the Baha'is were persecuted under Pahlavi rule and were frequently the SAVAK's victims.

The clergy and the Government accuse the Baha'is of serving the interests of Zionism and Israel. As proof, they point to the fact that the Baha'i world center is located in Haifa, Israel, and that Baha'is send money to that country. Indeed, the Baha'i world center is in Israel. This occurred because 114 years ago the Government of the Ottoman Empire forcibly brought the founder of the Baha'i faith and his disciples to Akka, which was then in the province of Syria. Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i faith, died in Akka, and ever since then, the twin cities of Akka and Haifa have been the spiritual center of the Baha'i faith long pre-dating the State of Israel.

Mr. GEJDENSON. The Moslems have holy places in Israel as well. Mr. NELSON. The Christians have holy places, and the Moslems have holy places, and the Jews.

Mr. GEJDENSON. It is a popular place.

Mr. NELSON. The allegations that the Baha'is transfer funds to Israel are made out of sheer mischief. Baha'i pilgrims from all parts of the world regularly travel to Israel to visit the Shrine of Baha'u'llah, and other sites closely associated with their religion.