The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights » Court cases

Indian News Channel Focuses on Persecution of Baha’is in Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:07:22 +0000

The Indian news channel NewsX recently aired an extensive report about the Baha’is of Iran. The program discusses the trial of the Baha’i 7 (Yaran), the systematic incitement against Baha’is in children’s books , the denial of education of Baha’is, the scapegoating of Baha’is after the post-election turmoil and the history of persecution of Baha’is in Iran. The program also includes an interview with Shirin Ebadi about the Yaran trial and the situation of Baha’is in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.

Part 1:

Part 2: (Note that it overlaps partially with part 1)

Part 3:

Part 4:

Powerful Narrated Video of a Letter from a Baha’i Prisoner in Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:26:58 +0000

A couple of young Baha’is from Los Angeles recently created this video which includes a reading of Haleh Rouhi’s letter from prison. Rouhi was arrested in May 2006 in Shiraz along with other 53 Baha’is and charged with offenses relating to state security. These young people, along with Iranian Muslims, were engaged in a teaching project benefiting underprivileged children in Shiraz. In August 2007 three of the group, Raha Sabet, Haleh Rouhi and Sasan Taqva, were sentenced to four years in prison for “organizing illegal groups” and “propaganda on behalf of groups that are opposed to the Islamic regime”.

In her letter from prison, dated 21 May 2009, Rouhi shared the story of her arrest and imprisonment. The video-slideshow below includes a reading of the English translation of that letter.

Round-up of updates from Iran: Persecution of Baha’is continues unabated

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:46:05 +0000

Reports from human rights organizations and the Baha’i International Community show that over the last month, violations of the rights of Baha’is in Iran unfortunately persisted.

Several homes of Baha’is were searched across Iran. On September 27, the house of Sohail Rouhani was searched in Yazd by security forces. They confiscated his computer, cell phone and CDs. On October 17, security forces searched the home of Shahram Azadi in Khorramshahr. They took his identification papers and his mobile phone. In Mahshahr, the house of a Baha’i couple Shokrollah and Sadigheh Hajiani was searched on October 19. Both were detained, and Mrs. Hajiani was later released. On October 21, security forces searched Pejzman Nikooneja’s house in Babol, confiscated some personal belongings and detained him for two hours.

Several Baha’i citizens were summoned to interrogations by security forces. Four Baha’is in Kashan, Shahrzad Mahjoor, Ruhieh Fanaian, Soheil Husaynipour and Feraydoon Fallah were interrogated by the Revolutionary Court on September 23 and later released. On September 26, another Baha’i resident of Kashan, Rosita Zabihian, was questioned by the Revolutionary Court. She was summoned to the interrogation by the Revolutionary Guards Information Office earlier that month. The same office summoned six Baha’is from the nearby village of Mazgan for interrogation. The six, Nourollah Samiee, Shahram Ehsani, Mr. Heshmatollah Ehsani, Mr. Nourollah Shahidi, Mr. Rahmatollah Shahidi and Mr. Siavash Dabestani, were question in Kashan on September 30.

While many Baha’i students were simply denied the right to start their higher education this year, despite passing the entrance exam, three Baha’i students in Semnan completed one week in the university before they were expelled.

A number of Baha’is have been arrested over the last month and a half. On October 12, Behnam Rouhanifard was arrested in Yazd and taken to an undisclosed location. Four days later, his brother, Sohail Rouhanifard was arrested too. On October 19, Peyman Kashfi, a Baha’i from Tehran was summoned to the Revolutionary Court, and never returned from there. When his family inquired about his whereabouts, they were told that he’s detained in section 209 of Evin Prison (the section reserved for political prisoners). He is not allowed to see visitors and accept packages from his family. On October 31, Yasuj Intelligence Office searched the house of Ali Bakhsh Bazrafkan, confiscated some of his belongings and then brought him to his son’s house, searched that house too and confiscated all religious writings. Ali was later arrested. On November 2, two Baha’is in Mashad were arrested and taken to an unknown location. Security forces arrested the two, Sonia Ahmadi and Mr. Ghanavatian after they’ve entered a religious session of the Baha’is in town that evening and filmed it.

On October 30, Ruhollah Rezaei a Baha’i citizen in Shiraz was kidnapped by unknown men and tortured. He was threatened, hung by a rope to make his believe that he’s about to be hanged, undressed and burned with cigarettes all over his body. Mr. Rezaei was previously jailed for five years in 1981 when he was only 18.

On October 19, nine Baha’is from Mashhad, Davar Nabilzadeh, Kaviz Noozdahi, Rosita Vaseghi, Sima Rajabian, Nahid Ghadiri, Nasrin Ghadiri, Sima Eshraghi, Jalayer Vahdat and Hooman Bakhtavar, were summoned to the Security Office for interrogation. On October 25, the second hearing in their case took place. The nine face different charges, including propaganda against the regime, activities against national security, teaching the Baha’i Faith and insulting religious sanctities.
In Early Novemver, A Baha’i woman from Semnan, Manijeh Monzavian, was sentenced to three and half years in prison for acting against national security by promoting the Baha’i Faith and membership in Baha’i anti-regime organizations. As expected, the trial of the seven Baha’i leaders (the Yaran), which was set to start on October 18, was postponed for the fourth time. According to IRNA, Alireza Avaie, head of Tehran’s justice department, said that he “believes they will be tried in the near future.”

Following the destruction of the Baha’i cemetery of Vilashahr and Najafabad for the 18th time, Azizu’llah Subhi Najafabad, a Baha’i from Najafabad was buried on September 27 in Isfahan without notification to his family. As we’ve previously mentioned, his family was not allowed to bury him in the Baha’i cemetery following its destruction, and his body was held in the hospital since his death on September 15.

Various acts of vandalism against Baha’i property were perpetrated as well. In late September the windows of a car belonging to Mahboub Bandi, a Baha’i from Rafsanjan, were smashed by unidentified men. Only a few days later, on October 2, the car of Farzad Mohebati was set on fire in the same town. Also, On September 27, unidentified motorcyclists smashed the windows of Nezamuddin Fanaian’s car in Semnan. The similar attack was carried out in the city on October 7 against Adel Fanaian’s car. On November 2, a large water tank was stolen from a Baha’i cemetery in Sangar, near Semnan, probably using a crane. As we know from previous incidents, vandalism against Baha’i property is not investigated by authorities, thus affirming to the perpetrators a feeling of impunity.

As a background to this ongoing persecution is the state-supported incitement against Baha’is and their Faith. On October 8, a seminar in the city of Mashad for the “review and critique of sects” called the Baha’i Faith a “pseudo-sect”. Also, On October 10, Ghoranali Dorri Najafabadi, the representative of the Supreme Leader and the leader of the Friday prayer in the city of Arak, spoke to a group of women. In his speech he described Baha’i religious activities as “suspicious, seditious and criminal”. Until a few months ago, Mr. Najafabadi served as Solicitor General and was responsible for the decision to disband the informal local Baha’i councils (the formal ones were banned in 1979).

Uzbekistani State Media Accuses Baha’is of Being Iranian Agents

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:29:03 +0000

This July, a Baha’i citizen of Kazakhstan was arrested by authorities in Uzbekistan for spreading the teachings of the Faith. He was sentenced to 15 days in prison followed by an expulsion from the country without a right to return. A recent news article published in gorizont.uz, which is sponsored by National security service of Uzbekistan, claimed that since the Baha’i Faith originated in Persia, the missionary Baha’i is an agent of Iran.

It is interesting how the Iranian regime accuses Baha’is of being agents of Israel and other Western powers, and that Uzbekistani state media now claims that Baha’is are in fact Iranian agents. The following is a translation prepared by BahaiRights from the original article in Russian:

Sect Member Sows Trouble
By Abduvali Turayev
September 16, 2009

A recent decision by the Khamzin regional court in the Uzbekistani capital Tashkent led to the expulsion without the right to return from Uzbekistan of a 36 year-old citizen of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh, Timur Chekparbaev, was found guilty of active propagation of the ideas of the Baha’i religious community.

The missionary had a temporary right to stay [propiska] in the Khamzin region of Tashkent. Looking at if from the side, it seems strange how a foreigner was able to put together a significant religion community in a short time. This community included young people not just from Tashkent, but also from the Djizak and the Bukharian governorates of Uzbekistan.
I would like to offer a short explanation to the readers about this new religion. The teachings of the Baha’is took shape in 1844 in Persia, as a totally separate religion, wholly based on the teachings of its founder, Baha’u'llah. It does not represent a cult within a religion, a reformist movement or a sect within some other religion. It can not be called a mere philosophical system.

Back in 1904 the Russian writer Sergey Ignatyevich Umanetz mentioned the Baha’i as a separate religion. And in 1925, an Islamic court in Egypt ruled that the Baha’i Faith is a separate religion, and not a sect within Islam. However, other opinions on this matter exist. For example, according to the known expert on sects Walter Martin “Baha’ism is an Iranian transplant in the United States, a syncretic religion that aims at uniting all believers in a worldwide brotherhood. The Faith adheres to the truths of the major world religions and considers Baha’u'llah to be the Messiah of our time. The Faith attaches less importance to other issues, and gives people the freedom of belief regarding those issues.”

It is clear that Mr. Chekparbaev arrived in Uzbekistan in the aim of creating a similar Iranian transplant in the country, drawing on the support of generous donations from sponsors. By the way, the headquarters of the Baha’is operate in the open in Israel. Certain elements from that country find it very useful to use the Baha’i community to shatter the unity of the Muslim ranks, since the Jews see Islam as the main opponent of Judaism. It is also interesting that in the dawn of Baha’ism, Russia offered asylum to one of the leaders of this persecuted religion. And in Ashkhabad [Turkmenistan], one of the Baha’i communities was built.

This young man [Chekparbaev] carried out missionary and proselytizing activity without having the proper religious education and the appropriate license to carry on an activity of such sort, and in violation of the Uzbekistani law, and the rules governing stays in the country.

Maybe in Kazakhstan they turn a blind eye on such things, but in Uzbekistan, the mission of the preacher of Baha’i religious ideas proved short. On the 24th of July of this year, Mr. Chekparbaev was arrested and sent to the court for holding yet another “meeting” in house 36 on Bayikurganska Street in the Khamzin region of Tashkent. The regional court gave him a rather lenient sentence: 15 days in prison followed by an expulsion from the country without a right to return.

In principle, Chekparbaev couldn’t officially carry missionary activity since Baha’i isn’t recognized as an official, separate religion by the world community. Therefore, this ideological sabotage had very clear goals that are connected to increasing the geo-political influence of Iran, and sowing confusion in the minds of millions of Uzbekistani citizens. Is seems that such a lenient treatment of all sorts of missionaries won’t stop the incoming waves of dark personalities, which wish to test their luck based on the questionable field of false prophets. The Uzbekistani authorities will kick out one person, but the people behind this will send someone instead. But the moral damage inflicted on the fragile souls on young people (by the way, Mr. Chekparbaev’s so-called flock included minors!), will not be reversed so easily. Who knows, maybe this is Kazakhstan’s attempts at transferring the work of all sorts of false prophets from their country to their neighbor, Uzbekistan.

Discrimination against Baha’is in Egypt Persists

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:45:45 +0000

The American Public Radio International (PRI) recently reported about the Baha’i community in Egypt, following the implementation of the court ruling that allowed Baha’is to leave the religious affiliation field in their IDs blank.
PRI interviewed several members of the community, including Dr. Raouf Hindi, the Baha’i whose battle in court to allow his daughters to have ID cards resulted in the landmark ruling in January of 2008. He described the situation prior to the court ruling, when Baha’is had to function without official documents or list their religion as one of the three allowed (Islam, Christianity and Judaism), and fear possible jail time for lying in their documents.

The report also includes an interview with Dr. Basma Moussa, a Baha’i who described the many difficulties facing the community in Egypt. Dr. Moussa said that even after the court ruling and subsequent decree from the government, there have been numerous difficulties and delays in getting new IDs and birth certificates. Dr. Moussa reported that even those who have obtained these documents, are unable to be registered as married, since the government still refuses to recognize Baha’i marriages.

Another person interviewed was Amm Ahmed whose house, along with the houses of four other Baha’i families, was burned down in Sharoniyah, Sohag province this March. Amm Ahmed, his wife and six children were forced to flee their hometown and are now living on the outskirts of Cairo. Amm Ahmad, who was born Baha’i, worked as a Qari’ (reciter of the Qur’an) until he declared his Faith publicly. He was then fired from his job, and he and his wife were jailed for nine months based on unknown charges.

As this report shows, despite the relative improvement in the legal status of Baha’is in Egypt, many problems remain. The Baha’i Faith is not recognized by the Mubarak regime as a legitimate religion and its adherents are still harassed and discriminated against.

For fear that he would convert from Islam to the Baha’i faith

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:20:20 +0000

The following is a translation of an article that recently appeared in Al Youm:

The first judicial ruling to give the custody of a child to his mother’s family after she embraced the Baha’i faith.

By Siham Al Basha

Today, Department 12 at Al-Zananiri Court issued the first ruling to give the custody of a little child to his “mother’s aunt” because his parents embraced the Baha’i faith. Fayza Abdul Fattah Muhammad and her brother Muhammad Abdul Fattah Muhammad, the father of the mother’s child Maha Abdul Fattah Muhammad, raised a court case number 164 for the year 2007 to take the child into their custody for fear that he would embrace the Baha’i faith.

On the seventh day, Muhammad Abdul Fattah stated that when his daughter married Usama Sabri Muhammad, he did not know that her husband came from a Baha’i family. His personal identification card and all the identity cards of his family were marked with the Islamic faith. For that reason, the father agreed to the marriage of his daughter. He stated: “two years after my daughter’s marriage, I was surprised to discover that she had embraced the Bahai’i faith and that she had known that her husband was a Bahai’i prior to their marriage. Abdul Fattah clarified that he had been waiting for the court ruling to be issued so that he could follow his daughter who now lives in Australia.

One of the comments on this article, reads:

The worst court ruling in the history of the Egyptian judiciary!

Written by: an Egyptian thinker

Has racism and ignorance brought us to the extent of depriving a father and a mother of their son just because they are non-Muslims?

Will this judgment of depriving a child of his family through the power of the law achieve victory for Islam? Or will the Muslim pay the price because it tarnishes the reputation of Islam by labeling them as racists who do not respect the rights of others?

Do you know that if the father raises this case to court in Australia, the judge would sentence him to jail on the charge of religious discrimination, which is a crime punished by the Australian Constitution??!!

This ruling is useless in Australia and cannot be issued because it conflicts with the International Conventions of Human Rights, and because the age of inquisition courts has ended all over the world expect in our honorable Arab countries…

I hope that all the ignorant persons who praise this ruling and who claim to have faith when they are the evil of the earth, would think about the motive behind this ruling. What would be the use of taking a child from the arms of his parents in the name of Islam when they live in a foreign country? Dozens other similar rulings will not have any effect on them while they are there. This action would only tarnish the reputation of Islam. As if we dig everyday for a reason for the world to repel against Muslims and Islam.

Egypt: House of National Archives refuses to issue any official documents pertaining to Bahai’is

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:54:51 +0000

This is a translation of an Arabic report that appeared on “Al Youm Al Sabi’i” (the 7th day):

Dr. Raouf Hindi, the official spokesman on behalf of the Bahai’is, confirmed that Dar Al-Mahfouzat (House of National Archives) in Egypt, specialized in issuing old official documents, refused to issue any official documents pertaining to Bahai’is and containing the sign (-) or “Bahai’i “ under the category of religion on the pretext of referring to the Islamic High Council first to check the possibility of issuing these documents.

About one month ago, when Raouf went to the House of National Archives to obtain the birth certificates of his son and daughter, Imad and Nancy Raouf Hindi, which contained the sign (-) following an administrative ruling to place the said sign under the category of religion, Hindi went to the House of National Archives once more to obtain the birth certificate of his oldest son Rami, to prove that he was a Bahai’i, and to issue a national identity card for him.

Hindi stated that Rami had an informal birth certificate that proved he was Bahai’i issued in 1987 and was valid until 2005. When he went to obtain the official electronic birth certificate, he was shocked to see an issued birth certificate stating that he was a Muslim, and considered it forgery of official documents. Hindi assured that with this obstinate behavior, Bahai’is are going back to square one, pointing out that his twin son and daughter have birth certificates containing the sign (-), while his oldest son has official document stating that he is a Muslim.

Victory for justice in Egypt

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:45:06 +0000

After a long and arduous battle, the Baha’is of Egypt were finally accorded the justice they deserve. Bilo, from the “Baha’i Faith in Egypt” blog informs us that the Egyptian Supreme Court has rejected the appeal launched by Islamist lawyers against the the ruling which permitted Baha’is to obtain official documents with a dash (-) listed under the mandatory “Religion” field.

With this ruling, all legal challenges and appeals, brought by those extremists who oppose the Baha’is in Egypt, have been defeated in court. The Ministry of Interior, the principal party to the lawsuits, has never challenged or appealed the ruling that favored the Baha’is.

With this final verdict, there are no legal or administrative obstacles left that could prevent the Baha’is of Egypt from obtaining ID cards or birth certificates in their homeland.

Without ID cards, Egyptian Baha’is were denied access to basic civil rights and faced the following problems:

They couldn’t move freely within Egypt [as those found without ID cards are subject to imprisonment]
They couldn’t certify their marriage certificates
They couldn’t obtain passports
They couldn’t perform any bank transactions
They couldn’t carry out transactions in traffic departments
They couldn’t enrol their children in schools or universities
Their children couldn’t clarify their position concerning conscription
They couldn’t apply for jobs or obtain work permits
They were denied health care
They couldn’t buy, sell, or own property

We will be brining you more coverage and reactions to the ruling within Egypt as the news comes in.

But in this joyous day, let us not forget the Baha’is in Iran, who continue to face severe violations against their rights.

Judge postpones verdict yet again

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:13:34 +0000

On the 16th of February, Egypt’s Supreme Court was set to deliver a final verdict on whether Egyptian Baha’is can obtain ID cards. But instead of issuing a verdict, the presiding judge stepped down, which was a clear indication that the case will continue to drag on in court.

Dr. Basma Moussa informs us that yesterday, and after the Islamist lawyers who launched the appeal delivered anti-Baha’i statements, the case was postponed (and for the eighth time) to the 16th of March.

Egyptian media outlets have covered the case of Egyptian Baha’is extensively, and below is a report that was compiled by Hayat TV.

To view the English subtitles, click upward-facing arrow on the bottom right and select Captions/Subtitles

Another favourable verdict in Egypt

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:22:22 +0000

Just like the twins Nancy and Raouf Hindi, Baha’i student Hussein Hosni was handed a favourable ruling on the 29th of January, 2008, allowing him to obtain identification papers with a dash listed in the mandatory “Religion” field. And similarly, the positive verdict Hosni received was soon challenged by a lawyer.

But we’re pleased to announce that the challenge was rejected, and Hosni’s right to obtain identification papers was affirmed.

However, the ruling will not be implemented as the Supreme Administrative Court has yet to issue a verdict on a separate appeal that was launched against the January 29 ruling.