The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights » Iran

Wave of International Response in Light of Third Anniversary of the Arrest of Seven Baha’i Leaders

Suzan — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:15:19 +0000

The third anniversary of the arrest of seven leaders of the Baha’i faith came amid news of three new arrests of Baha’i citizens and the expulsion of two Bahai’i students from Qeshm University. In light of these events, recent statements about the situation of Baha’is in Iran made by various groups and organizations all over the world hold increased importance. As Iran continues to intentionally target the persecution of its Baha’i population, it’s crimes have begun to attract increased condemnation and attention from all levels of civic society around the world.

On June 17th, several activist organizations in the United Kingdom hosted a seminar in the Houses of Parliament that “explored the crisis of human rights in Iran”. It was attended by Nazila Ghanea, the editor of the Journal of Religion & Human Rights, by women’s rights activist Shadi Sadr, and Member of Parliament Louise Ellman, among others. The seminar emphasized that the religious persecution and harassment are instigated and propagated by the Iranian regime, which often harasses businesses, universities and other members of civil society to get rid of individuals who belong to “deviant groups”, such as Baha’is.

Meanwhile, on June 20th a group of about 800 people rallied in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to support the human rights of “deviant groups”. In honor of Brazil’s thriving Baha’i population, the rally was attended by representatives of the government, many of Brazil’s religious communities, and many civil society organizations.

In a poignant display of solidarity, 8,000 pictures of the faces of the seven arrested Baha’i leaders were on display on the beach, to correspond with their 8,000 days of imprisonment. Brazilian congressman Chico Alencar summed up the message of the day with his statement, ”Religious freedom is something that cannot be touched.”

On June 28th, one of the lawyers of the seven Baha’i leaders tried to convince the European Parliament meeting in Belgium to demand such religious freedom from Iran. In a passionate speech, Mahnaz Parakand stated that the expectation of the people of Iran is “not to be left alone by the governments and international organizations whose primary policy is the respect of humanity and human rights…”

And Iran most certainly should not be left alone. Even as two more Baha’is arrested in the raid on the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education are released, more remain in Iranian prisons even after the international community took a strong stance against the arrests. Iran’s human rights abuses must continue to be condemned, and we must extend our solidarity to the Baha’i community from all levels.

Iranian State Attacks Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education

Suzan — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:16:41 +0000

A Bahá’í World News Service report describes the latest wave of a concentrated effort to restrict the Bahá’í Faith. Iranian officials have raided 30 Bahá’í homes and arrested up to 16 leaders of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) and accused them of “spreading the faith of a misled group … and setting a trap for the citizens.” Since then, nine have been reportedly released.

Considering Iran does not permit followers of the Bahá’í faith into their university programs, the BIHE is one of the main tools of self-preservation and advancement for the Bahai’i community in Iran. The arrests echo similar raids that occurred in the late 1990s, where 36 Bahá’í educators were arrested, although most of them were shortly released. Bahá’í students are regularly denied from access to higher education, and even younger Bahá’í students are harassed and persecuted because of their faith. BIHE has served as an invaluable resource for the advancement of Baha’is by providing them with access to higher education, mostly through online classes. The physical headquarters of the BIHE had been housed in the homes of a few faculty and professors, but was shut down by the Iranian authorities in 2000.

As far as is known, these Bahá’í leaders have been arrested for nothing other than their faith, as further evidence of the extensive persecution of religious minorities in Iran. However, by targeting the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education, the Iranian state is also denying the Baha’i community a fundamental right to development and denying them a crucial part of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Considering the demand for an educated population in a globalised community, and the difficulty even Iranians of the majority have obtaining employment, this further obstacle in the path of Bahá’í education is an effective means of keeping the community marginalized and suffocating it even without the use of traditional violence.

Wave of Arson Attacks against Baha’i Businesses in Rafsanjan, Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 17:58:12 +0000

In the last two months there have been nine reported cases of arson targeting Baha’i businesses in Rafsanjan, Iran.

Reports coming from human rights activists in Iran indicate that during November and December 2010 nine arson attacks were carried out targeting Baha’i-owned business. One of the victims was a Muslim owner of a coffee shop who was mistakenly identified as a Baha’i in a newsletter of Mahdi Ma`ud Cultural Foundation, which made him a target. The names of the Baha’is targeted are Siavoch Rushangir (two attacks), Ali Shakir (two attacks), Mahbub Bandi, Mas`ud Mibadi, Iraj Payandeh, Mujid Payandeh and Ali `Amadi. After the previous arson, Ali Shakir took measures to prevent future arson, including renting properties near his electronics store. The assailants managed to set the store on fire again on December 19th by pouring flammable substance through a hole in the ceiling of the store.

Following complaints from Baha’is about this recent string of attacks the leader of Friday prayer in Rafsanjan said: “What right do these Bahais have to complain? They are not even entitled to live.”

Below is a video from the most recent attack filmed by HRANA showing the fire and enormous destruction caused by the attack.

Iran: Four Baha’is arrested in November in Nour

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 20:58:51 +0000

Over the past month sources from Iran have reported about the arrest of four Baha’is, residents of the northern city Nour, and raids on three homes in the town.

The first raid took place on the evening of November 3rd, during a gathering at the home of the Razi family to celebrate a Baha’i holiday, Feast of Qudrat. During that raid, Mahmud Razi and Jamal Chupani were arrested. All those present in the gathering were required to provide information about themselves and their immediate family to the authorities.

On November 6th, the homes of the Shahnazi and Ta`id families were raided and Baha’i materials were confiscated. On November 20th, Shadya Ta`id whose house was raided two weeks prior was arrested along with her mother. The women were taken to a prison in Sari.

Supreme Leader’s adviser Larijani: Iranian regime protects people against the Baha’i “cult”

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:09:51 +0000

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior adviser to the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenai and head of the human rights council in the judiciary recently sat down for an interview with Iran Press TV, an English-language network of the Iranian regime that has previously carried anti-Baha’i propaganda. In the interview, Larijani addressed the issue of the Baha’i community in Iran (full transcript of the section below).

Larijani claimed in his November 22nd interview Baha’ism is a “closed-door cult” that prevents people from leaving it, and therefore the Iranian regime needs to protect people against this “exclusive” and “dominating” cult. Larijani stated that the treatment of the Baha’i “cult” is similar to the treatment of any other closed-door cult, whether it’s Sunni or Shia. According to him, members of the Baha’i “cult” are affluent people and “there are more than 300 Baha’i students in universities”. This means that according to Larijani’s own admission, Baha’is are discriminated against since only 0.1% of Baha’is (300 out of 300,000) attend Iranian universities and 4.8% of the general Iranian population do (3.5 million students out of a population of 72 million). This is assuming Larijani doesn’t think that Baha’is are inherently intellectually inferior compared to Muslims.

Full transcript:

Baha’ism is not a religion in Iran. The Jews are minority and they even have members in the parliament. The Christians are minority; they have members in the parliament. Zoroastrian’s are minorities.

Bahia’s are a cult and they are governed by the law which deals with different cults and as far as this cult is not preventing its follower from going out of the cult they are tolerated.

So you can find Bahai’s in universities as students as teachers. There are more than 300 Baha’i students in universities. They are professors. They are very affluent people; they have big factories and companies so they are protected by law according to the law which we call Citizenship Contract.

Regardless of their religion as far as it is within the law, they get all the protections. But the trouble starts when they start to act as a cult which is a closed door cult. It means that people can get in but cannot get out.

And we had numerous cases, some young Baha’is, they wanted to leave this cult; they said it doesn’t make sense to us. So they had been summand in meetings and they had been warned that if you leave this cult you will be punished and deprived from all the ancestral will, you will be put under pressure.

So here the law will come in and the law will prevent the use of this much exclusive or kind of dominating called procedure; any cult, being Baha’i or being Shia doesn’t matter, it will be prevented by law.

We had numerous cases of cults’ practices even with Shia groups. People have been jailed because they were putting people in some farms and not letting them to go out so we will fight with any cult activity which prevents its followers from the freedom of living the cult, being Shia or being Baha’i doesn’t matter.

The Importance of Raising Awareness about the Persecution of Baha’is in Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 12:40:01 +0000

Below is a great op-ed that appeared in a Malaysian newspaper about the prolonged persecution of the Baha’i community in Iran. The writer, a Malaysian Baha’i, points out that the persecution of Baha’is violates Iran’s obligations under international law, and when the intentional community condemned these violations, the persecution subsided.

End genocide amongst the Baha’i
by Liva Sreedharan | MalaysiaKini
November 4, 2010

For the past 29 months, they’ve been held captive, shielded from sunshine or even the slightest allure of humanity. They have had to bear with the stench of stale, putrid air. They are permitted to have fresh air only two hours each week.

For some time, they were held in solitary confinement and denied access to their families. They are deprived of basic humane facilities. Forced to sleep on the cold, hard, floor. Packed in a tiny cell less than 2m by 2m that made it hard for them to move around or obtain the smallest measure of rest.

These circumstances have quite understandably had a deleterious effect on their health.

The severe and inhumane conditions under which they are being held clearly violates the principles outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provides that no one may be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

These seven people are being imprisoned for no crime committed. These are people being punished and persecuted because of their religious beliefs. These seven people are members of the Baha’i community in Iran.

These detentions are not isolated cases. From August 2004 till May 2010, 300 followers of the Baha’i community in Iran have been arrested. Thirty-two are currently imprisoned, while 125 have been released on bail awaiting trial.

The rest have been released without bail or are free pending appeal against their sentences; some have had their verdicts overturned, or had completed their prison terms and have begun their terms of exile after serving their prison sentences.

Since its inception in 1844, Baha’is have been persecuted in their homeland (Iran). The progressive ideals of the Baha’i faith such as the elimination of all forms of prejudice, equal rights for men and women, and compulsory education for all seem to remain a constant struggle between the Republic of Iran and modern civilisation.

From 1979, attacks on Baha’is in Iran have reached a new level; that of official government policy. When the Republic’s new constitution was drafted in 1979, the rights of the Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians in Iran were specifically mentioned.

No mention whatsoever was made regarding the rights of the Baha’i community which incidentally is Iran’s largest religious minority.

Men, women and children alike have been persecuted in Iran for their religious beliefs. Courts in Iran have denied the Baha’is the right to redress or to be protected against assault, killing, injury or other forms of persecution because they are not being provided for.

Without any claim to civil rights, the conditions of the Baha’i community in Iran have deteriorated. By 1981, courts in Iran were openly sentencing Baha’is to death for their religious beliefs.

A more dramatic incident occurred in 1983 where ten Iranian women, including two teenage girls were hanged to death for conducting Baha’i moral classes for children.

These women were subjected to intense physical, mental and emotional torture in the hope that they would recant their faith; an option that was almost always presented to Baha’i prisoners proving that the persecutions were based solely on their religious beliefs.

The early 1990′s saw a shift in the trend of the persecutions to social, economic and cultural restrictions in order to block the advancement of the Baha’i community in Iran.

The Iranian government has violated almost all of the human rights under international law and under Iran’s own national obligations. The systematic elimination of the rights of the Baha’is in Iran is a clear warning sign of the government’s attempt to wipe out the Baha’i community there.

The harassment of Baha’is is persistent and pervasive and they include arbitrary arrests and detention, with imprisonments lasting for days, months, or even years.

Searches of homes and businesses, confiscating of Baha’i books and other items, school expulsions and harassment of school children by classmates, teachers and school administrators alike, and prohibition on Baha’is attending universities.

The bank accounts of Baha’is are being monitored and their movements and activities restricted. They are subjected to official interrogations requiring them to divulge information about their lives and of other Baha’is.

The renewal of their business licenses are not permitted and existing ones are confiscated including evictions from their places of business, not to mention Baha’i doctors from their offices and clinics.

They are denied work opportunities in general. They are victims of physical assaults. Efforts to drive Baha’is out of towns and villages are being pursued. The desecration and destruction of Baha’i cemeteries and harassment over burial rights is continuing.

The dissemination in official news media of misinformation about the Baha’is, and the incitement of hatred against them is ongoing.

Intimidation of Muslims who associate with the Baha’is, attempts by authorities to get Baha’is to spy on other Baha’is, threatening phone calls and letters to them, denial of pension benefits, denial of access to publishing or copying facilities for Baha’i literature and confiscation of property are yet other forms of persecution prevalent in the lives of Baha’is in Iran.

One theme that is common in the persecution of the Iranian Baha’is is the fact that they are not given the chance to defend themselves.

The Baha’i community in Iran seeks no preferential treatment or special privileges. All they want is for the basic rights as human beings to be restored to them.

23 out of the 30 articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been violated by the Iranian government in their treatment meted out towards the Baha’is. Iran is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but it violates these very rights that it claims to defend.

Such violation is not merely to be lamented or condemned on the grounds of morality. More has to be done as it constitutes a breach of a binding international law and an attempt by a government to suppress an entire religious community.

What are needed to stop the atrocities of the Iranian government against its Baha’i citizens are legal and public measures. Persecution of the Iranian Baha’is was at its highest but it subsided a little when international communities intervened and condemned it through different forums.

Any lessening in support from domestic and international communities would be deemed by the Iranian government as approval of their behaviour and persecutions against Baha’is will undoubtedly be intensified.

I am a member of the Baha’i community of Malaysia and am saddened by what is happening to my brothers and sisters in Iran. I feel defenceless and powerless, so this is my appeal on behalf of those imprisoned Baha’is in Iran to those in authority here to play their role in appealing to the Iranian authorities for the unconditional and immediate release of these prisoners of gross injustice.

The author has a Masters in Criminology with Forensic Psychology and performed her research on genocide and religious and cultural cleansing. An earlier version of the author’s article was presented at the Common Studies Session in Critical Criminology at the University of Barcelona, Spain.

Gold merchants and Iran’s self-reinforcing anti-Bahaism

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 17:50:11 +0000

Every week there are one or two anti-Bahai stories that circulate in the officially sanctioned media in Iran: they are usually transparent fabrications. Sometimes I report one which reaches the media outside Iran, or is exceptionally nasty. This week’s story is relatively innocuous: the Bahais are said to be behind the strike of goldsmiths who are protesting a new sales tax by closing their premises. Merchants’ strikes are a traditional form of social and political protest in Iran, since the economy has been the one relatively free sector in an authoritarian society, for the past several centuries. Pulling down the shutters is one of the few ways of pressuring the government available to the long-suffering people of Iran.

Many Bahais in Iran are small shop-keepers and service providers, because they are excluded from government service and employment in most sectors, and from higher education, so that small trading and services is virtually the only avenue Bahais in Iran have to earn a living. They need renewable licenses for their shops, and are periodically put out of business when the local authorities deny them a further license. Sometimes they are arrested and imprisoned or exiled as well. Others have their shops attacked by vandals or arsonists. From the news reports of these incidents, we get a picture of what kind of businesses the Bahais have. Not once have I heard of a Bahai gold merchant or jeweler being denied a license, or of the shop of a Bahai goldsmith being damaged. So this story falls into the category of transparent fabrications, so obviously false that a comment is not required.

However it got me thinking. The motive behind the story is probably not anti-Bahaism, but alarm at the gold merchants’ strike, and fear that it will spread. By saying that the Bahais are behind the strike, the inventor of this story is probably hoping to discourage individual merchants from joining in the strike. The story is circulated to warn shopkeepers, “if you shut your shop, people may think you are a Bahai.” Any perceived relationship to the Bahai Faith would have commercial, social and perhaps criminal consequences for the merchant and his family. The same may be true of the person who first thought up the story that the Bahais were behind the 2009 Ashura protests (although in that case, some Bahais have actually been charged with involvement), or the story about the Bahais running the BBC and VOA.

I think we can distinguish two different kinds of anti-Bahai fabrications: those that are primarily intended to smear the Bahais, and those that use existing anti-Bahai sentiment to serve other agendas. They reinforce one another in a vicious circle. The first kind I will call active anti-Bahai propaganda. Recent examples are the story about an unnamed Bahai man being arrested in an unnamed town for sexual relations with unnamed Muslim women, in a case that never came to court for unstated reasons. Or the one about two Bahai terrorists being arrested in broad daylight a park in Tehran, strangely enough without a single eyewitness of the arrest. When Bahais are actually arrested, which happens every week, we know fairly soon their names, and how they were arrested, and what they are charged with (the standard accusations are teaching the Bahai Faith and propaganda against the regime).

The Qom version of the blood libel story, with Bahais as the villains, is another kind of active anti-Bahai propaganda: historical libels.

The second kind of anti-Bahai propaganda feeds on the anti-Bahai sentiment, so I will call it passive anti-Bahaism. The story about the gold merchants is an example. The active anti-Bahai propaganda appears to be consciously generated and distributed, with government funding and support, but passive anti-Bahai propaganda is spontaneously generated by people with other agendas. The link between the two, is that the accumulation of individual stories about the Bahais being behind everything from local gold strikes to the United Nations, must leave the Iranian consumers with the impression that the Bahai Faith is a huge global conspiracy with tentacles everywhere. If the Bahais can arrange a strike, or a UN resolution, they could raise the price of bread and stop my mother getting her cataract operation.

The people who are producing active anti-Bahai propaganda would not want to give the impression that the Bahais are powerful in Iran, or the world, today. They are content to say things such as, the Bahai Faith was created by Russia, or England, or the Zionists, or is in league with Israel and Saudi Arabia and Freemasons, or was supported by the late Shah (who, in fact, persecuted the Bahais, often with the assistance of Muslim clerics). The last thing they would say, is that today there are Bahais behind every lamppost, becoming more and more numerous. But that’s the impression given by the spontaneously-produced passive anti-Bahai propaganda. The accumulation of those stories, which link the Bahais to any and every polemical target, turns anti-Bahaism from a-historical fabrications into a visceral threat to the men and women on Iranian streets today, and makes government policies against the Bahais seem like a justified cultural defence.

Originally posted on Sen’s Daily

Sentence of the Iranian Baha’i leaders halved to ten years

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:19:40 +0000

RAHANA, a human rights organization in Iran, reported today that the Tehran Court of Appeals commuted the prison sentence of the seven Baha’i leaders from 20 years each to ten. While this is a positive development, the Baha’i leaders committed no crime and shouldn’t serve any time in prison.

On August 8th, the sentence of collective 140 years of imprisonment for the Baha’i seven was announced following a show-trial based on fictitious charges. The heavy sentence stunned the Baha’i community worldwide and their attorney, Shirin Ebadi. The charges brought against the Baha’i leaders included espionage, initiation and expansion of illegal organizations, collecting and transmitting classified information to foreigners in the aim of disrupting national security, holding illegal meetings to plot the actions against the security of the state and spreading corruption on earth.

The seven Baha’is are the members of “Friends of Iran” (Yaran Iran), a national-level coordinating group for the Baha’i community in Iran. Six of the group, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm, have been arrested in their home in Tehran on May 14, 2008. Mahvash Sabet was arrested on March 5, 2008 during a visit to Mashad. All official Baha’i governing bodies were disbanded in Iran in 1983.

Iran Sentences Baha’i Leaders to 20 Years in Prison

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 17:27:49 +0000

After prolonged detention and a show trial, the seven unofficial leaders of the Baha’i community in Iran were sentenced to 20 years in prison each, according to reports by human rights activists in Iran.

After being held for almost two years in the notorious Evin Prison without any charges brought against them or permission to meet their lawyers, the trial of the Yaran began in January 2010 and was concluded in June 2010. The trial was held in the 28th branch of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran and was essentially a show trial. Outside observers were not allowed into the courtroom despite it officially being a trial open to the public, but film crews of the regime were dispatched to tape the trial. The Baha’i seven, aware of the role the regime planned for them, refused to participate in some of the hearings.

The fictitious charges brought against the Baha’i leaders are espionage, initiation and expansion of illegal organizations, collecting and transmitting classified information to foreigners in the aim of disrupting national security, holding illegal meetings to plot the actions against the security of the state and spreading corruption on earth. These activities were coordinated with the “usurper regime that is occupying al-Qods” (Israel) and guided by the leadership of the Baha’is, the Universal House of Justice, which is located in Israel.

Update: Initial reaction of the Baha’i international community:

“If this news proves to be accurate, it represents a deeply shocking outcome to the case of these innocent and harmless people,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“We understand that they have been informed of this sentence and that their lawyers are in the process of launching an appeal,” said Ms. Dugal.

50 Houses of Baha’is Destroyed in Northern Iran

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:33:30 +0000

Fifty Baha’i families in the village of Eival could do nothing but watch their houses being demolished this week, RAHNA reported.

On June 22, the Baha’is of Eival learned that non-Baha’is in their village are collecting signatures to destroy, level and clear the houses of the Baha’is living in the villages. Some of the Baha’is approached the local administration office but were turned away as Iranian officials stated that the reports are unfounded. On the next day, the Baha’is again approached the local office, a police station in Telmadareh and also went governor’s office in the Mazandaran province capital in Sari. All authorities stated that the reports were false and accused the Baha’is of breaking the law by approaching them.

Eival village entered a state of quarantine for 48 hours and Baha’i families were violently barred from their homes. Following this the demolition of the Baha’i houses began. According to an eyewitness, a few men with trucks demolished and leveled around fifty houses of Baha’is in the village.

The following footage of the aftermath of the destruction was obtained by HRA-IRAN: