Speech by the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization Meetings of the sixth Session on the Issues of Minorities of the UN Human Rights Council Thank you Madam President, I want to talk here about the religious minorities in the Ahwaz province in South West Iran. We have two communities in the region which suffer from discrimination and oppression; they are the Mandeans and Sunni muslims. The oppression of Mandaeans in the province of Ahwaz is ongoing and despite the fact that their numbers in the province reach, according to non-governmental statistics, nearly 70 thousand people, the Iranian constitution does not recognize them and their rights. According to Article XIII of the Iranian constitution the officially recognized religions in Iran, in addition to Shia Islam (the state religion), are Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity, with the exception of the Sabeans. The non-recognition of the Sabean Mandeans as a belief is not due to religious and sectarian reasons, rather there are other reasons that makes the government not acknowledge this religion and they are purely political reasons because they are part of the Ahwazi Arab community. In addition to their suffering from national oppression like other sons of the province of Al-Ahwaz, they suffer from religious oppression as well as at the hands of the Islamic Republic, which deprives them of their rights, promotes hatred and slander against them, prompting many of them to emigrate, leave the country and search for a safe haven and a decent life and avoid facing further deprivation, oppression and insults. The sons of this peaceful community in fact suffer from complex national, religious, and social oppression, and this, accordingly, deprives them of most of their rights as citizens in regards to rights, business dealings and managing the affairs of their lives. Sabeans are being persecuted in Ahwaz at a time in which some Iranian officials call for moderation and dialogue among civilizations, and rapprochement between faiths, [yet] the scent of racial and sectarian discrimination against various national and religious entities in Iran remains in various forms and shapes.