Jorunn Buckley is the leading expert in the United States, and probably the world, on a persecuted religious minority in the Near East called that Mandaeans - a very ancient Gnostic religion related to John the Baptist, according to their own literary sources. She has been studying Mandaeism since the 1960s and became politically involved in human rights for the people of this religion. Unlike other Near Eastern Gnostics from the Late Antiquity period, the Mandaeans are still alive, though endangered. In emigration throughout the world–due to severe persecution in their homelands Iraq and Iran–Mandaeans are often unfamiliar to international authorities. These include, for instance, U. S. Immigration Court judges, government agencies in many countries, parliaments, embassies, consulates, and–until recently–even some human rights groups.
