Mr. Davood H.M.:

On behalf of the Iranian people, I am thankful to have this opportunity to share a little bit about human rights in Iran. All laws in Iran are based on Sharia law. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has more power than the President of Iran or anyone in the country. Minority religions are severely restricted. They cannot do anything. Their members often face harassment and torture and are threatened by the government all the time, especially Christians from a Muslim background, as I do. There are more than 500,000 such people in Iran. The same applies to the Bahá'i community, which numbers more than 350,000 people in Iran.

The historic Armenian and Assyrian ethnic minority churches are allowed to meet, share the Gospel or talk about their beliefs but unfortunately they are not allowed to speak in the Farsi language, which is the language of the country. They have to speak Armenian or Assyrian. If they do not do that, the church will be closed and the pastor will go to prison, if he is lucky. Christian converts from Islam face persecution for meeting together to read the Bible, worship or share the word, the love and the hope together and with others. They are often arrested in raids on their homes by government agents who regularly try to find them. The call such people “infidels" and tell them they are acting against the Government of Iran. This is what happens to accused people who believe in different or other religions in Iran.

This is good news. Despite so much torture, harassment, imprisonment and many other things, the church in Iran is growing. This is the only hope people have. They continue to meet in their houses, despite the risks they face. The Iranian Government constantly denies that persecution of Christians in Iran is happening. It calls all Iranians "Muslim" and claims that because people are born in the country, they cannot be Christian, Bahá'i or anything other than a Muslim. A minimum human right is that people can choose what they believe, what hope they have and how they want to live. I thank the committee for this opportunity.