The following information was provided during a 6 October 1998 telephone interview with the editor of the Journal of Kurdish Studies in New York who is also the author of several articles on the Kurds and of a book of Kurdish cultural heritage entitled Kurds: A Concise Handbook (1992).

The editor stated that the Ahl-e Haq, also called Yarsan or Yaresan, are closely related to the Yezidis and represents one of the oldest religious movements in the Middle East. The Ahl-e Haq live in Iran while the Yezidis are in Iraq. The Ahl-e Haq's last leader died in 1974 and his son is currently claiming the title. In order to become the spiritual leader of the community, the leader must be "a prophet" and be able to prove his abilities to the community, an exercise that the son of the last leader has apparently not been able to fulfil to the satisfaction of the community.

The Ahl-e Haq practise "taqqiyah", or dissimulation. The practice, used by many religious minorities in the Middle East, consist of "dissimulating" one's true faith by stating that they are part of the majority's faith. For example, members of Ahl-e Haq would say they are Shi'a in Iran, while saying they are Sunni in Iraq. The members of Ahl-e Haq still use "taqqiyyah" in Iran today and it explains why it is so difficult to actually know who they are and where they live. In Iran they are not recognized as a religious group.

They have weekly and yearly religious celebrations. In Iran every Friday they gather in a meeting place to pray and chant. Women are treated equally and attend religious ceremonies with men. Once a year they celebrate the vernal equinox, or the first day of Spring. They also celebrate a religious martyr named Baba Wadyadgar in the Iranian town of Gahwareh in Iranian Kurdistan.

The Ahl-e Haq are the oldest communistic group in the world since they oppose the notion of private property and share all their resources together. The editor did not have information on their treatment by the Islamic authorities of Iran and the Kurdish population for the period 1995-1998. The editor had not received any information regarding ill-treatment during that period.

According to Martin Van Bruinessen, author of the book Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan (1992):

In southern and southeastern Kurdistan one finds pockets of another heterodox sect, the Ahl-e Haqq (People of the Truth), or, as they are called in Iraq, Kakai. The present Ahl-e Haqq communities in Kurdistan, around Sahne east of Kermanshah, around Kerend west of Kermanshah, and in the districts south of Kirkuk, seem to be the remnants of a much larger community all over the area that is now southern Kurdistan and Lorestan....Here too, the association is very incomplete: not all Gurani speakers are Ahl-e Haqq, and many Ahl-e Haqq are Azeri Turks or Persians. The Alevis and the Ahl-e Haqq share a belief in reincarnation and in successive incarnations of the divinity in human form, and many of their rites are similar (23).

According to World Directory of Minorities (1997), a publication produced by Minority Rights Group,

There are probably about a million Ahl-i Haqq in Iran, mainly located in Luristan and Gurani-speaking areas of southern Kurdistan. A few smaller groups exist further north, near Urumiya and Maku. Ahl-i Haqq religion started as a variant of Sufism in fifteenth century Kurdistan. It has an exaggerated veneration for Ali, lies on the periphery of Shi'ism, and seems to be syncretic agglomeration of pagan, Christian and Muslim traditions. Its adherents are frequently called Ali Illahi (deifiers of Ali). They believe in a system of seven incarnations, and were almost certainly influenced by early Nusayri ideas in the lower Tigris valley. The community is split into several ethnic, tribal and religious groupings and has no unified organization or canonical scriptures.

Coherent political leadership only emerged during this century specially among southern Kurdish tribes-people when the Haydari sayyids (those who claim descent from the sect's founder) displaced chiefs as community leaders during Reza Shah's drive against tribal chiefdoms. The 1979 revolution was a moment of potentially great peril, had the new regime decided to extirpate the Ahl-i Haqq. Sayyid Nasr al Din Haydari handled the situation with skill. As soon as war with Iraq broke out, he raised Ahl-i Haqq volunteer forces to defend the frontier. The large community around Sahna, east of Kirmanshah, has less cohesion.

A reformist wing developed from the 1960s and spread among urban educated Iranians, but increasing opposition from 'traditionalist' led to schism in 1992. The mainly rural and tribal traditionalists wish to retain their Ahl-i Haqq identity. The mainly urban reformists, known as Maktabi, seek to redefine their faith in line with Ithna' ashari orthodoxy, and are gaining converts both inside Iran and among exiled communities (337).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Bruinessen, Martin Van. 1992. Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan (1992). London: Zed Books Ltd.

Editor of the Journal of Kurdish Studies and author of Kurds: A Concise Handbook (1992), New York, New York. 6 October 1998. Telephone interview.

World Directory of Minorities. 1997. "Iran". London : Minority Rights Group Publication.