Suppression of Baha’is of Iran in 1955
by Dr. Bahram Choubine

Translator’s Introduction

In introducing Ali Dashti’s seminal work, 23 Sal, Dr. Choubine has penned a learned essay that places the events of twentieth century Iran in their fuller perspective. This essay has been widely available on the internet. The erudite author has considerably expanded this essay, including more analysis and documentation, and offered it as a preface to Dasthi’s 23 Sal, distributed by Alburz Publishing, in Frankfurt, Germany. A section of this expanded essay (pages 34-42), appearing under the heading, “Sarkub-e Baha’iyan,” is provided below in translation with the kind permission of the author. All footnotes are by the author, unless otherwise noted, as are all comments in parentheses. Clarifying comments in square brackets [ ] are by the translator. Subheadings have been added in the translation to assist with the flow. The Persian original of this section is also available on-line.
– Ahang Rabbani

Read the full text by clicking here.

Baha’u'llah’s early life reflected his well-to-do circumstances. He received the education typical of a child of the minor nobility: riding, calligraphy, study of famous Persian literary works, and learning Arabic based on reading the Qur’an. Yet unlike many privileged children, he developed no attachment to wealth and ease.

There are a number of stories regarding Baha’u'llah’s childhood, which indicate he was not an ordinary child. One tells of a dream that Baha’u'llah related to his father. In this dream, he was in a garden while large birds attacked him from every side, though unable to harm him. He had other ones involving the fish in the sea following him by his hair. On hearing these, his father summoned a famous seer to interpret the dream, and was told that his son would become the founder of a great cause and would be attacked by the leaders and learned men of the world. However, they would be unable to harm him, and he would be victorious over them all.

Baha’u'llah developed a keen sense of justice and fairness at a very young age. Throughout His life, he would display these qualities, but perhaps one of the most remarkable demonstrations of this came while He was still a teenager. He witnessed three confrontations between his father and a tax collector who was “in a cruel and unjust manner” demanding payment. Incensed, Baha’u'llah rode to Tehran, a journey of two days, and sought the dismissal of the tyrannical tax collector. Incredibly, he was successful in his quest.

The youthful Baha’u'llah’s wisdom and insight were also often remarked. It was said that he could resolve problems nobody else could, and his deep knowledge of the Qur’án and traditions astounded many learned men. The well-known scholar Shaykh Muhammad-Taqi, once asked a large gathering of students to explain a particular tradition (hadith). None were able to reply until Baha’u'llah, who had received no seminary training, gave an explanation that left the great man silent. The next day he berated his students, who had had many years of instruction, for failing to explain what Baha’u'llah had elucidated so well.

His generosity was also noted. Indeed, as a young man he became known as “the Father of the Poor” for His extraordinary generosity and regard for the impoverished. It seemed that the trappings of wealth held little importance for him, even though he had grown up surrounded by them. The things of the spirit were always his focus in life.

That life, as it turned out, would be very much like his childhood dream. He embraced the Bab’s new religion immediately upon reading a few pages of the Bab, relayed by a trusted courier, Mulla Husayn. He became one of the Bab’s most active followers and suffered a brief imprisonment and torture as a result. Some months after the Bab’s execution in 1850, a group of the Babis decided on assassination of the Shah and revenging the death of their Master. This ill-conceived plan went badly and many Babis suffered death. Baha’u'llah himself was imprisoned, his property confiscated and his residence sacked by a mob.

In early 1853, after four months of captivity, he was released from prison only to be exiled to Baghdad in Iraq. His revelation, born in the prison in Tehran, would be shared with a close circles of followers ten years later and publicly in 1867-68. The exile to Baghdad was followed by a brief transfer to Istanbul, and forced banishment to Edirne and eventually to the penal colony of Akka.

Throughout these forty years of imprisonment and exile, Baha’u'llah would be beset by enemies in governments of Iran and the Ottoman, the clergy and even by his half-brother. Several attempts on his life would leave their marks upon him. Yet through it all, he remained as he had been in his childhood: a person of deep spiritual insight and wisdom, dedicated to justice and integrity, full of goodness and generosity. In short, he was one through whom the light of God illuminated the world.

For Bahá’ís, the birth of Bahá’u'lláh is a Holy Day celebrating the rebirth of the world through the love of God, just as Christmas is for Christians.

We wish our Baha’i friends throughout the world a most joyful celebration of the birth of the Baha’u’llah – a man who brought hope to the world.

One such article was published in its recent 10 Mehr 1386 [2 October 2007] issue (http://www.kayhannews.ir/860710/8.htm#other801). In this article, while engaged in usual misrepresentations about Baha’is, Kayhan raised the issue of Baha’is sending money to the Baha’i institutions in Israel and presented this as evidence of Baha’is’ collaboration with the State of Israel, and as such accused the Baha’is of espionage and charged them to be agents of Israel.

If we were to accept this conclusion in the manner argued by Kayhan, then it seems logical to accuse the Shi’ah population of Iran as being collaborators of Saddam Hussein since during his entire regime, Iranians sent money to Najaf and Karbala for maintenance of the Shi’ah Shrines in Iraq.

But of course we all know that many Iranian Shi’ahs who contributed to the upkeep of their Sacred Shrines in Iraq had nothing to do with Saddam’s regime and the thought of spying for Saddam never crossed their mind.

In like manner, the Baha’is also have certain properties that they consider sacred in Israel. Therefore, it is to be expected that Baha’is of Iran, and indeed the Baha’is of the entire world, would send funds for repair and upkeep of these properties and in so doing they have nothing to do with Israel or her political policies (the same way that Shi’ahs had nothing to do with Saddam’s policies when they contributed to Najaf and Karbala).

Of course Kayhan is not concerned with facts or historical accuracy, as its purpose is to mislead and misinform and to provoke a negative opinion against Baha’is. But if Kayhan actually had been interested in truth, then it would have recognized that the reason that Baha’i World Centre and Baha’i properties are in Israel has nothing to do with Israel as it was established there decades before the State of Israel came into existence.

It was the combined will of two tyrannical Muslim rulers, Iran’s Nasiri’d-Din Shah and Ottoman’s Sultan Abu’l-Aziz, that resulted in Baha’u’llah being exiled to the fringes of the Ottoman Empire in the summer of 1868, to the desolate and inhospitable town of Acre (today known as Akka). By mid nineteenth century, Acre had sunk under the Ottomans to the level of a penal colony to which murderers, highway robbers and political agitators were consigned from all parts of the Empire. So putrid was its air that, according to a proverb, a bird when flying over it would drop dead. The Shah and Sultan had hoped that by sending Baha’u’llah there he would perish.

Baha’u’llah did indeed pass away 24 years later in Akka and it was there that he was buried, in accordance with the instruction of the Ottoman monarch. His family continued their exile and periodic imprisonments in that town, and Baha’u’llah’s successor, Abdu’l-Baha, spent his entire life there and it was to the nearby village of Haifa that he moved during the final years of his life and it was there that he too passed away in 1921.

A few years prior to his passing, Abdu’l-Baha had organized the transfer of the Bab’s remains to Haifa also and he was buried there in 1909. So all the holy figures of Baha’is are buried in Akka and Haifa, two towns that are within a few minutes of each other.

All of this took place long before Israel came into being in 1948, some 80 years after Baha’u’llah was exiled there. The Baha’i figures (Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha and their families) had absolutely no choice or voice in the decision regarding the location of their exile or burial. This was all dictated by Muslim monarchs.

Should it then surprise anyone that Baha’is would be concerned with the upkeep of burial places of the holy figures of their faith? Are the Shi’ahs not concerned with their holy places associated with the Holy Imams in Najaf and Karbala?

So what is the cause of all this uproar by Kayhan in its constant effort to defame Baha’is by accusing them of espionage for Israel merely when they have sent funds for maintenance of their holy sites? This is utterly bewildering!

Mona Mahmudnizhad, a young high school girl, was one of several score Baha’is, including women and teenage girls who were imprisoned in the fall of 1982 because of their Faith by the Islamic Revolutionary authorities in the Iranian city of Shiraz.

The prisoners, including Mona, endured months of abuse, interrogation and torture as the Islamic judges and their revolutionary guards attempted to force them to deny their religion. All refused, and ten of the women, including Mona, were secretly sentenced to death by hanging on June 18, 1983. In a final effort to break their wills, the authorities hanged the women one by one as the others were forced to watch.

Read the rest of her story here.

On Mideast Youth, Omid posts the “Mona” video to accompany Mona’s tragic story:

Throughout history, Iranian Baha’is have not only faced consistent and humiliating abuses, but were also denied their right to live as many of them have been executed.

A ‘Minorities At Risk‘ study have provided a 10-year chronology of the Baha’is in Iran, which is worth looking at if you are interested in Baha’i human rights abuses within Iran. Here are some highlights:

Mar 18, 1992 - A leading Iranian Baha’i, Bahman Samandari, is executed after having been arrested and held without charge. Iranian officials later claim he was a Zionist spy.

Dec 24, 1993 - During a Friday sermon, an Iranian ayatollah told worshipers that a senior nineteenth century Shi’i cleric considered killing Baha’is part of his day to day activities.

Jan 1994 - The 12-year-old daughter of a Baha’i religious leader is kidnapped and tortured in what is believed to be a government-sanctioned instance of religious persecution.

Feb 25, 1997 - A man was sentenced to death because he is a Baha’i.

Oct 29, 1998 - Last month, Iran closed a covert university run by the Baha’is and arrested dozens of people. The university had been created when Baha’is were banned from Iranian universities.

We sincerely hope to see the day when our Baha’i friends will be able to live in peace like they deserve to.

Mr. Masha’llah Enayati (Masha’llah Inayati), a 63-year-old Baha’i resident of Tehran, who was well known for having constantly taught the Faith in a bold and zealous manner, died on 4 July 1997 after being severely beaten while in custody. During a visit to his native village of Ardistan to attend the meeting held to commemorate the anniversary of the Ascension of Baha’u'llah, Mr. Enayati was arrested in circumstances which are not clear.

He was taken to prison in Isfahan, where he was severely beaten on all parts of the body. It appears that he was held in prison for about a week before being taken to a hospital. His daughter, who lives in Australia, was in Iran at the time and visited her father in the hospital, where he was still under armed guard, though it was only a minor matter for which he had been arrested. She witnessed the effects of the beating, including visible bruising all over his body and especially on his hands, which were black from his injuries. She reports that he was in good health before his arrest. Mr. Enayati passed away in the hospital. The Friends in Iran have added that Mr. Enayati’s death certificate is worded in a most un… certificate. Under “cause of death” is entered, “Will be known later”, in the handwriting of the doctor.

Mr. Shahram Reza’i (Shahram Rida’i), a young Baha’i man who was serving as a conscript in the army near the city of Rasht, was shot in the head by his weapons training officer on 6 July 1997 and died the following day. In court the officer claimed that the shooting was an accident. He was released after a few days, once the court established that the man killed was a Baha’i. The court excused the officer of paying the blood-money normally required in such instances, ordering him to pay just the cost of the three bullets used to kill Mr. Reza’i. The Friends in Iran have no doubt that this was a case of deliberate murder and predicted before the “trial” that the officer would be released, since this has been so in other similar cases. We [Universal House of Justice] understand that Mr. Reza’i is the seventh Baha’i undertaking compulsory army duties to have been killed by colleagues or officers.

Such tragic events must be remembered and strongly condemned in order to avoid similar abuses from taking place in the future. May God bless all the innocent individuals who died for their faith.

* 2004-2005 (PDF)
* 2003-2004 (PDF)
* 2002-2003 (PDF)
* 2001-2002 (PDF)
* 2000-2001 (PDF)
* 1999-2000 (PDF)
* 1998-1999 (PDF)
* 1997-1998 (PDF)
* 1996-1997 (HTML)
* 1995-1996 (HTML)
* 1994-1995 (HTML)
* 1993-1994 (HTML)

It is rather unfortunate, as noted in several of our previous entries, that Iranian Baha’is continue to face many human rights abuses within the country. Muslim members of this network, some of which include Iranians, express our hopes for solidarity. We shall continue to fight for their rights as that is the right thing to do - both for Islam and humanity.

Readers may also be interested in the following podcast, featuring Ash Hartwell describing his experiences as a Baha’i in Egypt and Afghanistan.