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June 22, 2011 | by Don Argue and Ted Van Der Meid

The following article appeared in The Hill on June 22, 2011. For a link to the original article, go to http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/167905-a-voice-for-irans-freedom

The week of June 20 marks the second anniversary of the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old Iranian who was slain during demonstrations in Tehran against her country"s fraudulent June 12, 2009 presidential election.

Captured on video, Neda"s death sparked global revulsion against one of the world"s worst human rights abusers - the government of Iran. It also symbolized a democratic movement"s brave resistance to tyranny. Across the region, this resistance stirred hearts and minds, helping sow the seeds for the Arab Spring.

The aftermath of the election and Neda"s murder also spurred the United States and the world community to take action against the abusers -- action that must continue if freedom is to prevail in Iran and the Middle East.

Since seizing power in 1979, Iran"s radical Islamist theocracy has been a particularly egregious abuser of the fundamental freedom of religion or belief, detaining, torturing, and executing people based on religious identity.

Religious minorities are systematically targeted. The Baha"is have been labeled as "heretics” and have suffered severe repression. Since 1979, Iranian authorities have killed more than 200 Baha"i leaders, while dismissing more than 10,000 from government and university jobs.

Officially recognized minorities, including Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews, face repression. Religious services are subject to arbitrary raids, with members threatened, and leaders and worshippers imprisoned. State-run television broadcasts anti-Semitic messages, while the government has hosted conferences and cartoon contests denying the Holocaust.

Iran"s government also oppresses minority Sunni and Sufi Muslims, sometimes harassing and imprisoning their leaders. The regime has imposed harsh prison sentences as well on reformers from the Shi"a majority.

The government"s extremist interpretations of Islam also have led to women being assigned inferior legal status and to the imprisonment of female advocates seeking to repeal laws that repress and discriminate against them.

Since the June 2009 election and Neda"s death, conditions have worsened, with authorities executing peaceful protesters and reformers for "waging war against God.”

This surge in abuses has driven the U.S. and the world community to respond.

In July 2010, President Obama signed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA) which requires the President to impose travel bans and asset freezes on severe human rights abusers, including religious freedom violators. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve, had called for this action.

In September 2010, the President issued an executive order sanctioning eight Iranians for committing serious human rights abuses after June 2009. Three more Iranian officials and three governmental entities have since been sanctioned.

In May 2011, Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), along with co-sponsor Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), introduced the bipartisan Iran Threat Reduction Act, which seeks to strengthen economic sanctions, both for nuclear deterrence and to prevent further human rights violations.

The international community has also taken action. In March 2011, the UN Human Rights Council agreed to create a new Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Iran to investigate and report on Iran"s human rights abuses, another longtime USCIRF recommendation. In April 2011, the EU sanctioned 32 officials responsible for human rights abuses.

After years of rhetoric without action, these new acts are welcome, but more must follow. Abusers must be sanctioned, and those they"ve abused must be set free. To that end, U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) recently launched the Iranian Dissident Awareness Program, a bipartisan, bicameral effort to spotlight and support imprisoned dissidents, including religious minorities, student activists, women"s rights advocates, and human rights defenders.

Likewise, USCIRF has highlighted prisoners including seven Baha"i leaders, two of them women - Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet; Christian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani; Shi"a Muslim cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeni Boroujerdi; and Sufi Muslim leader Morteza Mahjoubi; as well as women"s rights activists like Nasrin Sotoudeh and renowned blogger Hossein Derakhshan.

The United States and the international community should intensify their demand that Iran"s government release all victims of its human rights abuses immediately.

The name, "Neda” means "voice” in Persian. As we mark the second anniversary of Neda Agha-Soltan"s death, we must not only be a voice for the voiceless but a harbinger of freedom - including freedom of religion -- for her country and its people.

Dr. Don Argue is Vice Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Ted Van Der Meid is a Commissioner of USCIRF.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On the two-year anniversary of the disputed June 9, 2009 elections in Iran, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the addition of three Iranian government entities and one Iranian government official to a sanctions list for serious human rights abuses in Iran.

The original executive order President Barack Obama signed on September 29, 2010 named eight Iranian officials. Yesterday's designation brings the total to eleven, eight of whom USCIRF identified as severe religious freedom abusers in May 2010.

"The Iranian government brutally quashed large demonstrations protesting the outcome of the June 2009 elections, and USCIRF welcomes the imposition of sanctions for human rights abuses on Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, head of Iran's national police force. USCIRF identified Moghadam in May 2010 as being responsible for egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief in Iran and recommended such an action,” said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair.

As commander of the national police force, or Law Enforcement Forces (LEF), Moghadam has ordered attacks and crackdowns on a wide range of Iranian citizens, including protestors, students, reformists, dissidents, and minorities. Many dissidents and prisoners of conscience are serving long-term sentences in Iranian prisons on unsubstantiated charges resulting from the large-scale crackdown by Iranian authorities since the June 2009 elections.

"USCIRF urges the United States and international community to intensify further its demand that the Iranian government immediately release all prisoners of conscience,” said Leo.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Il) recently launched the Iranian Dissident Awareness Program (IDAP), a bipartisan, bicameral effort to raise awareness of and support for Iranian dissidents currently in prison in Iran, including religious minorities, women's rights activists, human rights defenders, among others. "This new program is an important resource to shine a light on Iran's appalling human rights and religious freedom record,” said Leo.

Details about IDAP can be found through its website:

http://www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=iranian_dissident_awareness_program

The President's September 2010 executive order complies with the mandate in PL. 111-195, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act that was signed into law on July 1, 2010. This law, which had broad and bipartisan support in Congress, highlights Iran's serious, systematic, and ongoing violations of human rights, including suppression of religious freedom. The law mandates that the President impose sanctions on individuals responsible for or complicit in human rights and religious freedom abuses. USCIRF worked with Congressional offices on the need to develop such sanctions.

Since 1999, USCIRF has recommended, and the State Department has designated, Iran as a "Country of Particular Concern,” or CPC, due to its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Tom Carter, Communications Director at [email protected] or (202) 523-3257.