•HRES 925 IH 
holding the rights of all Iranian nationals, including 
members of the Baha’i faith; 
Whereas, since 1979, Iranian authorities have killed or exe-
cuted more than 200 Baha’i leaders, and more than 
10,000 Baha’is have been dismissed from government 
and university jobs; 
Whereas, June 18, 2025, marks the 42d anniversary of the 
execution of 10 Baha’i women by the Iranian Govern-
ment, each witnessing the hanging of those before her in 
a final failed attempt to induce abandonment of their 
faith after over 6 months of imprisonment and violent 
abuse, with the youngest only 17 years old; 
Whereas, on December 19, 2024, the United Nations General 
Assembly adopted a resolution (A/RES/79/183) criti-
cizing Iran for human rights abuses and calling on Iran 
to carry out wide-ranging reforms, including ending— 
(1) ‘‘in law and in practice, all forms of discrimina-
tion on the basis of thought, conscience, religion or belief, 
including restrictions contained in article 499 bis and ar-
ticle 500 bis of the Islamic Penal Code’’; 
(2) ‘‘escalated discrimination and violence, as well as 
economic restrictions, such as the closure, destruction or 
confiscation of businesses, land and properties, the can-
cellation of licenses and the denial of employment in cer-
tain public and private sectors, including government or 
military positions and elected office, the denial of and re-
strictions on access to education, including for members 
of the Baha’i and other religious minorities, and other 
human rights violations against persons belonging to rec-
ognized and unrecognized religious minorities’’; 
(3) ‘‘ongoing severe limitations and increasing re-
strictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, 
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•HRES 925 IH 
religion or belief restrictions on the establishment of 
places of worship, [and] undue restrictions on burials 
carried out in accordance with religious tenets’’; and 
(4) ‘‘attacks against places of worship and burial 
and other human rights violations, including but not lim-
ited to the increased harassment, intimidation, persecu-
tion, arbitrary arrest and detention of, and incitement to 
hatred that leads to violence against, persons belonging 
to recognized and unrecognized religious minorities, in-
cluding . . . in particular, Baha’is’’; 
Whereas, in the 2024 Annual Report of the United States 
Commission on International Religious Freedom issued in 
May 2024, it is reported that— 
(1) ‘‘The government has targeted Baha’i women in 
particular, including 10 arrested in Isfahan in October. 
Approximately two-thirds of Iranian Baha’i prisoners are 
women, 
including 
Mahvash 
Sabet 
and 
Fariba 
Kamalabadi, members of Iran’s former Baha’i leadership 
(Yaran-e-Iran). Both are serving a decade in prison after 
having previously served an identical sentence in the 
early 2010s’’; and 
(2) ‘‘Authorities also targeted Baha’i cemeteries in 
Arak, Alborz, and Golestan. Local municipalities seized 
and confiscated Baha’i land, restricted Baha’i access to 
burial grounds, and declared intentions to sell Baha’i- 
owned property exclusively to Muslims’’; 
Whereas, in response to a surge in persecution of Baha’i 
women by the Iranian Government between 2022 and 
2024, on July 31, 2024, 18 United Nations Special 
Rapporteurs and United Nations Working Group experts 
released a joint letter of allegations concerning the in-
crease ‘‘in the systematic targeting of Baha’i women, in-
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•HRES 925 IH 
cluding through arrests, summoning for interrogation, 
enforced disappearance, raids on their homes and confis-
cation of their personal belongings’’ and reported that— 
(1) ‘‘Since early March 2024 alone, 72 of 93 Baha’is 
summoned to court or prison, more than three-quarters, 
have been women’’; and 
(2) Baha’i women ‘‘face intersectional persecution: 
as women and as members of the Baha’i religious minor-
ity. The escalation comes as Baha’i women continue to 
be confronted with ongoing incidents of persecution faced 
by all Baha’is, including denial of higher education and 
economic and cultural restrictions, which spans their en-
tire lives, impacting them intellectually, socially and eco-
nomically as they are banned from university and public 
employment only for their faith’’; 
Whereas the Iran section of the Department of State’s Re-
port on International Religious Freedom issued in May 
2023 provides, in part— 
(1) that the ‘‘Human Rights Activists News Agency 
(HRANA) said the majority of human rights violations 
against religious minorities involved Baha’is (85 per-
cent)’’; 
(2) that ‘‘The NGO Human Rights Without Fron-
tiers (HRWF) reported more than 1,000 Baha’is were ei-
ther imprisoned, in custody, under arrest, or waiting for 
a hearing or to be summoned by a court’’; and 
(3) that ‘‘A Ministry of Science, Research, and 
Technology order requires universities to exclude Baha’is 
from access to higher education, or to expel them if their 
religious affiliation becomes known’’; 
Whereas, on April 1, 2024, Human Rights Watch issued a 
report titled, ‘‘The Boot on My Neck: Iranian Authori-
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•HRES 925 IH 
ties’ Crime of Persecution Against Baha’is in Iran’’, 
which detailed— 
(1) that ‘‘for the past four decades, the authorities’ 
serial violations of Baha’is’ rights have continued, di-
rected by the state’s most senior officials and the Islamic 
Republic’s ideology, which holds extreme animus against 
adherents of the Baha’i faith. While the intensity of vio-
lations against Baha’is has varied over time, the authori-
ties’ persecution of people who are members of this faith 
community has remained constant, impacting virtually 
every aspect of Baha’is’ private and public lives’’; 
(2) that ‘‘the Islamic Republic’s repression of Ba-
ha’is, particularly after 1979, is enshrined in Iranian law 
and is official government policy’’; and 
(3) that ‘‘Human Rights Watch believes that the cu-
mulative impact of authorities’ decades-long systematic 
repression is an intentional and severe deprivation of Ba-
ha’is’ fundamental rights and amounts to the crime 
against humanity of persecution’’; 
Whereas, on July 17, 2024, Mr. Javaid Rehman, the Special 
Rapporteur on situation of human rights in the Islamic 
Republic of Iran issued a special report titled, ‘‘Atrocity 
Crimes and grave violations of human rights committed 
by the Islamic Republic of Iran (1981–1982 and 1988)’’, 
which concluded, ‘‘Having considered the various submis-
sions and the available documentation and having exam-
ined the treatment meted out to the Baha´’i community 
in the early years of the Revolution, the Special 
Rapporteur reports that Iranian authorities—with de-
structive, arguably genocidal intent—engaged in killing 
or colluded in the killings of members of the Baha´’i com-
munity; Baha´’is were physically and mentally tortured 
simply because of their faith and members of the commu-
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•HRES 925 IH 
nity suffered from ‘serious bodily or mental harm’. They 
also faced confiscation of their properties, expulsion from 
employment and denial of education rights’’; 
Whereas Iran is a member of the United Nations and a sig-
natory to both the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Polit-
ical Rights, among other international human rights trea-
ties, without reservation; 
Whereas section 105 of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, 
Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 
8514) authorizes the President to impose sanctions on in-
dividuals who are ‘‘responsible for or complicit in, or re-
sponsible 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’’; and 
Whereas the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights 
Act of 2012 (Public Law 112–158) amends and expands 
the authorities established under the Comprehensive Iran 
Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 
(Public Law 111–195) to sanction Iranian human rights 
abusers: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns the Government of Iran’s state- 
sponsored persecution of the Baha’i minority in Iran 
and the continued violation of the Universal Dec-
laration of Human Rights and the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; 
(2) calls on the Government of Iran— 
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•HRES 925 IH 
(A) to immediately release the imprisoned 
or detained Baha’is and all other prisoners held 
solely on account of their religion; 
(B) to end its state-sponsored campaign of 
hate propaganda against the Baha’is; and 
(C) to reverse state-imposed policies deny-
ing Baha’is and members of other religious mi-
norities equal opportunities to higher education, 
earning a livelihood, due process under law, and 
the free exercise of religious practices; 
(3) calls on the President and the 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 the Secretary of 
State to utilize available authorities to impose sanc-
tions on officials of the Government of Iran and 
other individuals directly responsible for serious 
human rights abuses, including abuses against the 
Baha’i community of Iran. 
Æ 
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