February 19 Marks 46th Anniversary of Extrajudicial Killing of Rev. Parviz (Aristotle) Siahsina

February 19 marks the 46th anniversary of the extrajudicial killing of Rev. Parviz (Aristotle) Siahsina, a Christian clergyman who was murdered outside the judicial process.

Rev. Parviz Siahsina, known as Aristotle, was born into a renowned and cultured family in Shiraz. After completing secondary school, he moved to Isfahan where he worked as a laborer at the “Vatan” textile factory. At the age of 36, after becoming acquainted with Hassan Dehghani-Tafti, bishop of the Evangelical Church, he converted to Christianity and enrolled in theological studies.

Rev. Siahsina later traveled to India and continued his theological studies at a university in Punjab, after which he became assistant to Bishop Dehghani-Tafti. According to his colleagues, Rev. Siahsina was a devoted Christian who had great enthusiasm for introducing the Bible to others. He traveled to villages to preach Christianity and brought medical teams to assist villagers, even creating employment opportunities for the unemployed.

Rev. Aristotle Siahsina returned to Shiraz at age 45 and served as a clergyman at the Evangelical Church of St. Simon. In Shiraz, he met and later married a British nurse who worked at the Marceline Hospital and had two sons.

According to interviews with his neighbors and church members, he had a warm voice and accompanied his sermons with ancient Persian hymns and traditional musical melodies. Muslims, Jews, and followers of other faiths respected him. However, according to one of Rev. Siahsina’s acquaintances, both before and after the 1979 Revolution, Muslims active in the Islamic Propaganda Organization would visit the church to promote Islam, mocking and harassing those who attended church.

According to available information, in the early days following the Islamic Republic Revolution, two members of the Islamic Propaganda Organization in Shiraz presented themselves as interested in Christianity and contacted Rev. Siahsina to learn about Christian teachings. Bishop Dehghani wrote in his memoirs about this: “On the day Rev. Siahsina was killed, two acquaintances who had been consulting with him for some time entered his office at the Evangelical Church of Shiraz, which was somewhat separated from the rest of the complex. After some time, Aristotle’s son, who was having lunch with his family at the church, became concerned about his father’s delay in returning home and went to his office but found his father’s lifeless body there. Aristotle Siahsina’s carotid artery had been cut with a knife, and a bullet and a note were left beside his body.”

One of Rev. Siahsina’s neighbors at that time also said: “When this happened, the police did not allow anyone to approach the murder scene. But there were rumors that his head had been severed. This method of killing created great fear and terror among the local residents. In fact, that was the purpose of this type of killing.”

Rev. Aristotle Siahsina was the first church leader to be extrajudicially killed just eight days after the 1979 Revolution, on February 19. On the tombstone that his family was denied permission to erect for many years, the date of Rev. Siahsina’s death is recorded as March 1, 1979.

Kamran Siahsina, son of Rev. Aristotle, told Kayhan newspaper about his father’s murder: “Two men named Behrouz Kelai and Hassan Nasihat had contact with my father until shortly before his killing.” The connection of these individuals to the Islamic Propaganda Organization was unclear, and after the news of Rev. Siahsina’s killing was published in official newspapers, revolutionary authorities attributed the murder to agents of the CIA. In this regard, a local ayatollah also attributed Rev. Siahsina’s killing to “counter-revolutionaries” in a conversation with Bishop Dehghani-Tafti.

The investigation into the murder of this clergyman, who was a devoted Christian, was conducted by the prosecutor of Branch 2 of the Shiraz Court, but his killers were never identified. According to Rev. Tafti’s statement, the two men seen with Rev. Siahsina on the day of his murder were interrogated by police but not arrested.

Shortly after Rev. Siahsina’s death, church-affiliated hospitals in Isfahan and Shiraz were also confiscated. Their staff were dismissed and the hospital’s name was changed to “Revolution Hospital.” Foreign staff were ordered to leave Iran, and subsequently all property of Shiraz’s church was confiscated by the Revolutionary Court. Rev. Siahsina’s family was forced to leave the country after this extrajudicial killing and emigrated to Europe.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of perpetrating politically motivated violence in Iran and even worldwide. From religious minorities to political figures, civil activists, and even students and those seeking freedom of thought, belief, and religion. Since the 1979 Revolution to the present, regime agents have carried out kidnappings, disappearances, killings, and executions of many individuals whose activities were not in line with the regime’s interests, both within and outside the country.

The number of victims of extrajudicial killings such as Rev. Aristotle Siahsina within the country is unclear, but this type of killing began precisely in February 1979 and has continued throughout the Islamic Republic’s rule both inside and outside Iran.

The “Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation” has identified over 540 killings attributed to the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the country. It is an independent and non-political foundation that seeks to promote justice and establish democracy through education and strengthening democratic culture and promoting human rights principles. It is currently preparing a database and documentation of human rights issues and their violations that can be used by researchers of contemporary Iranian history.