•HRES 109 IH 
to eliminate the criminalization of efforts to provide high-
er education to Baha’i youth denied access to Iranian 
universities,’’ and ‘‘to accord all Baha’is, including those 
imprisoned because of their beliefs, the due process of 
law and the rights that they are constitutionally guaran-
teed’’; 
Whereas, on February 28, 2013, the United Nations Special 
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Is-
lamic Republic of Iran issued a report (A/HRC/22/56), 
which stated, ‘‘110 Bahai’s are currently detained in Iran 
for exercising their faith, including two women, Mrs. 
Zohreh Nikayin and Mrs. Taraneh Torabi, who are re-
portedly nursing infants in prison’’; 
Whereas, in March and May of 2008, intelligence officials of 
the Government of Iran in Mashhad and Tehran arrested 
and 
imprisoned 
Mrs. 
Fariba 
Kamalabadi, 
Mr. 
Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid 
Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, 
and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm, the seven members of the ad hoc 
leadership group for the Baha’i community in Iran; 
Whereas, in August 2010, the Revolutionary Court in Tehran 
sentenced the seven Baha’i leaders to 20-year prison 
terms on charges of ‘‘spying for Israel, insulting religious 
sanctities, propaganda against the regime and spreading 
corruption on earth’’; 
Whereas the lawyer for these seven leaders, Mrs. Shirin 
Ebadi, the Nobel Laureate, was denied meaningful or 
timely access to the prisoners and their files, and her suc-
cessors as defense counsel were provided extremely lim-
ited access; 
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•HRES 109 IH 
Whereas these seven Baha’i leaders were targeted solely on 
the basis of their religion; 
Whereas, beginning in May 2011, Government of Iran offi-
cials in four cities conducted sweeping raids on the homes 
of dozens of individuals associated with the Baha’i Insti-
tute for Higher Education (BIHE) and arrested and de-
tained several educators associated with BIHE; 
Whereas, in October 2011, the Revolutionary Court in 
Tehran sentenced seven of these BIHE instructors and 
administrators, Mr. Vahid Mahmoudi, Mr. Kamran 
Mortezaie, Mr. Mahmoud Badavam, Ms. Nooshin 
Khadem, Mr. Farhad Sedghi, Mr. Riaz Sobhani, and Mr. 
Ramin Zibaie, to prison terms for the crime of ‘‘member-
ship of the deviant sect of Baha’ism, with the goal of tak-
ing action against the security of the country, in order 
to further the aims of the deviant sect and those of orga-
nizations outside the country’’; 
Whereas six of these educators remain imprisoned, with Mr. 
Mortezaie serving a 5-year prison term and Mr. 
Badavam, Ms. Khadem, Mr. Sedghi, Mr. Sobhani, and 
Mr. Zibaie serving 4-year prison terms; 
Whereas, since October 2011, four other BIHE educators, 
Ms. Faran Hessami, Mr. Kamran Rahimian, Mr. Kayvan 
Rahimian, and Mr. Shahin Negari have been sentenced 
to 4-year prison terms, which they are now serving; 
Whereas the efforts of the Government of Iran to collect in-
formation on individual Baha’is have recently intensified 
as evidenced by a letter, dated November 5, 2011, from 
the Director of the Department of Education in the coun-
ty of Shahriar in the province of Tehran, instructing the 
directors of schools in his jurisdiction to ‘‘subtly and in 
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•HRES 109 IH 
a confidential manner’’ collect information on Baha’i stu-
dents; 
Whereas the Baha’i community continues to undergo intense 
economic and social pressure, including an ongoing cam-
paign in the town of Semnan, where the Government of 
Iran has harassed and detained Baha’is, closed 17 Baha’i 
owned businesses in the last three years, and imprisoned 
several members of the community, including three moth-
ers along with their infants; 
Whereas ordinary Iranian citizens who belong to the Baha’i 
faith are disproportionately targeted, interrogated, and 
detained under the pretext of national security; 
Whereas the Government of Iran is party to the International 
Covenants on Human Rights and is in violation of its ob-
ligations under the Covenants; and 
Whereas the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, 
and Divestment Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–195) au-
thorizes the President and the Secretary of State to im-
pose sanctions on individuals ‘‘responsible for or 
complicit in, or responsible for ordering, controlling, or 
otherwise directing, the commission of serious human 
rights abuses against citizens of Iran or their family 
members on or after June 12, 2009’’: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns the Government of Iran for its 
state-sponsored persecution of its Baha’i minority 
and its continued violation of the International Cov-
enants on Human Rights; 
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•HRES 109 IH 
(2) calls on the Government of Iran to imme-
diately release the seven imprisoned leaders, the ten 
imprisoned educators, and all other prisoners held 
solely on account of their religion; 
(3) calls on the President and Secretary of 
State, in cooperation with responsible nations, to im-
mediately condemn the Government of Iran’s contin-
ued violation of human rights and demand the im-
mediate release of prisoners held solely on account 
of their religion; and 
(4) urges the President and Secretary of State 
to utilize all available authorities, including the Com-
prehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Di-
vestment Act of 2010, to impose sanctions on offi-
cials of the Government of Iran and other individ-
uals directly responsible for serious human rights 
abuses, including abuses against the Baha’i commu-
nity of Iran. 
Æ 
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