Campaign: Mr. Misaghi, you are a member of the Right to Education Committee. Why did you form this Committee and what is the situation with the Committee members right now?

Hessam Misaghi: This Committee was formed as an independent organization to regain the general right to education. Most of its members were Bahai students who had been deprived of education, but the Committee was working to regain the rights of all students deprived from education on grounds such as gender discrimination, suspension and dismissal orders for critical students, as well as deprivation of education for Bahai students which has a long record.

This Committee had several meetings last May and June in different Iranian cities with the aim to disseminate information, something which was unprecedented under the oppressive conditions of Iran. The first meeting was held in Tehran. I participated in the meetings as the Spokesperson for the organization, so I delivered speeches. Navid Khanjani was the founder and Head of this independent organization. The Committee was established as an independent organization to regain the general right to education. Three Committee members were arrested within 24 hours and three other members’ homes were searched.

Who are the other Committee members who have been arrested or are being pursued?

Hessam Misaghi: Dorsa Sobhani, one of our Committee colleagues in Sari is under immense pressure. Her father was arrested by six people yesterday [March 6] and was interrogated blindfolded and handcuffed while he was beaten. Eeghan Shahidi, a Committee colleague in Kermanshah was arrested early in the morning on March 3rd. Sama Nourani, a Shiraz colleague who has been deprived from her medical engineering education at Tabriz Sahand University was arrested on March 3rd. I must add that after joining the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, our Committee’s central members established a new organization named “Society Against Educational Discrimination,” and this is how threats and arrests of members of Committee of Human Rights Reporters came to be related to arrests of our organization which is a defender of the right to education.

Were you summoned, too?

Hessam Misaghi: I was summoned on January 2nd. I didn’t show up to Ministry of Information. On March 3rd they stormed my home and the home of Sepehr Atefi, one of our colleagues in the Right to Education Committee and searched the premises. I have to add that we were an independent organization and our only objective was to defend the right to an education.

What were your group’s objectives regarding the right to education?

Hessam Misaghi: We ask for freedom of thought for university entry. The Right to Education Committee has been dissolved. All our colleagues are now active with the Society Against Educational Discrimination.

What do you think is the reason for the confrontation with this group? Is it because some of the members are Bahais? Or is it because the Ministry of Science has consistently denied the “starred student” phenomenon? Or are there other reasons?

Hessam Misaghi: The government deprives applicants and students from their education, as well as arresting people who are activists around this subject. I think the arrests of these individuals is not related solely to their being Bahais. These individuals were involved in civil activities to defend student rights. The rulers neither approve of their being Bahais, nor their civil activities. Bahais’ joining the Iranian civil society and joining other civil activists working to defend their fellow countrymen’s rights is a very significant development and I think the rulers cannot tolerate this, hence the severe crackdown on these education-deprived students. Dorsa Sobhani was also a One Million Signatures Campaign activist in Sari.

Crackdowns on the Right to Education activists is not unprecedented. Currently members of the Council to Defend the Right to Education are also in prison. Zia Nabavi, Majid Dorri, Saeed Jalalifar, Mahdieh Golroo, and Shiva Nazar Ahari are the ones in prison now.

What do you think about the recent remarks by Minister of Science in which he said those who do not share the regime’s views–more specifically those who do not have practical commitment to Islam and Velayat-e Faghih–will be dismissed from universities?

Hessam Misaghi: Such an approach is in contradiction to international human rights standards and shows the short-sightedness of a regime which does not accept any opposite views. In a country where the entire nation think the same way, no progress will be achieved. It is through criticism and challenge that new ideas are heard and progress is achieved.

What do you think these remarks could bring student political activists?

Hessam Misaghi: Such statements will only intensify the ruling oppression in the society and will increase pressure on student and civil activists. Consequently, security organizations would also confront harder, as we are witnessing, even though many students are already in prison. Now we see even those who have never been allowed to enter the universities despite their efforts for gaining admission are also arrested.

Can you provide more details about Dorsa Sobhani?

Hessam Misaghi: Dorsa is 20 years old. Her father was threatened by telling him that if Dorsa did not turn herself in on Saturday, they would arrest his wife and their younger daughter.
[Update: Dorsa arrived at her home in Sari on March 7th and was arrested by 12 security agents and eventually transferred to Evin Prison in Tehran - BR]

Dorsa’s father said that two days ago, when he left his home, six men waiting outside his home told him that he had to go with them. They then transferred him to an unknown location. He was handcuffed and blindfolded and interrogated for four hours during which he was threatened. I already told you about threats. Dorsa has to turn herself in on Saturday, otherwise her family will be arrested and her home will be confiscated.

Where was Dorsa?

Hessam Misaghi: Dorsa had taken a trip to (…) on the day the officers stormed their home at night.

Is she back now?

Hessam Mishaghi: They have told her father that she should return and turn herself in tomorrow. She will most likely be arrested.

What is her charge?

Hessam Misaghi: They didn’t say anything about charges. They just said we have a warrant and we will explain the charges after arrest. In my and Sepehr’s cases, they informed us of the same charges as for the other Committee members, meaning “contact with MKO” and “moharebeh.”

Are you a Bahai yourself?

Hessam Misaghi: Yes, I am from a Bahai family. This was used in a Ministry of Science letter as grounds for my dismissal from Isfahan’s Sanaee University in 2008, after I had finished two terms studying English Translation. I should add that most of my classmates did not know anything about my being a Bahai, it had never been discussed.

How did they find out and expel you?

Hessam Misaghi: Usually Bahai students are dismissed after a ruling arrives from Ministry of Science’s Security Department. Ministry of Information has all the statistics on Bahai families; they identify [the students] and do the expulsion.

How do they get their statistics? Do families announce that they are Bahais?

Hessam Misaghi: Yes. Bahai’s don’t conceal their belief because it is forbidden for them. If someone asks them they announce that they are Bahais.

What happens if you object? Is there any source to respond to your objection?

Hessam Misaghi: Over the past years, objections have been registered with Ministry of Science, Evaluation Organization, and The Cultural Revolution Superior Council both in written form and in person. But the authorities do not answer at all and consider themselves not at fault.

Navid Khanjani and I even had a situation when last December 17th we went to Ministry of Science. We were detained in a room inside the Ministry of Science for a whole day. We were threatened and interrogated because we had found a confidential letter which Ministry of Science authorities didn’t want to leave the Ministry and we were not giving them the letter.

What was in the letter?

Hessam Misaghi: It was a letter in which it was clearly stated that dismissal of these students was on orders from Ministry of Science’s Security Department. The letter has been scanned and I can send you the file. I was so surprised when I heard Larijani’s statements. We have heard so many lies during these years but this was really surprising. How far can a government go to deny its actions? We are a generation who has heard years of lies and when we tried to expose the lies we ended up in prison, like Navid, Eeghan, Sama, and maybe even Dorsa…

Does the Committee only pertain to education-deprived students or does it also include the starred students?

Hessam Misaghi: We had starred students in our gatherings, too. Our gatherings were a tribune for all education-deprived students from all orientations.

Therefore your organization is only six months old and you have endured so much pressure?

Hessam Misaghi: Yes, that’s right.

You have been illegally barred from continuing your education. When responding to criticism about imprisoning Iranian Bahais and denying them the right to education, Javad Larijani denied it in Geneva. On the other hand, when you ask the authorities to be responsive, you are summoned and arrested. How does this make you feel?

Hessam Misaghi: With all these problems, and even though my best friends are in jail, I am still not disappointed, because I know people of Iran hear our voices. Iranians’ voices demanding their rights have been heard by the world for a while now. We are people who have never accepted injustice and have fought for regaining our rights until our last breaths.

Related posts:

1. Dorsa Sobhani, a Baha’i Activist, Arrested Today in Iran
2. Confidential Iran memo exposes policy to deny Baha’i students university education
3. Baha’i students in Iran still deprived of their education

Ms. Sobhani is a Baha’i who was denied her right to higher education because of her faith, and she has also campaigned for those rights. Many students – Baha’is and politically active – have been banned from attending universities in the past. The “Committee for the Right to Education”, which Dorsa is a member of, campaigned to lift these bans. Since the disputed June election in Iran, many members of the committee were arrested.

This arrest comes after a raid on Sobhani’s home on March 2th, when six security officials entered the home in the middle of the night, searched it and confiscated belongings. On March 4th, six officials returned to Sobhani’s home, and physically and verbally attacked her father. He was then arrested, blindfolded, bound and interrogated and threatened for hours. The security officials told him that unless he turns in Dorsa, he, his wife and young daughter will be arrested and their home will be taken away from them.

This morning Dorsa arrived at her home where she was met by 12 security agents who proceeded to arrest her.

Related posts:

1. Interview With a Baha’i Education Right Activist in Iran
2. Nine Baha’is Were Arrested in Tehran Today
3. Five More Baha’is Arrested in Iran

Below is the Human Rights Watch statement:

Iran: End Persecution of Baha’is
Dozens Detained Without Charge; Leaders Face Charges Carrying Death Penalty
February 23, 2010

(New York) – The Iranian government should immediately stop harassing and arbitrarily detaining members of the Baha’i community, Human Rights Watch said today.

The detention of 13 Baha’is on February 10 and 11 follows the arrest of 13 others in early January. The government alleges that those arrested in January helped to organize recent anti-government demonstrations but has not made public any charges against those detained in February. These arrests come during a broad government crackdown on opposition activists.

“The Iranian government seems to be using the post-election unrest as a cover for targeting the Baha’i community,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “These arrests are only the latest chapter in the government’s systematic persecution of the Baha’i.”

Unlike Iran’s Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian communities, which are accorded constitutional protection, the Iranian government does not recognize the Baha’i Faith and considers its adherents to be apostates from Shi’a Islam. Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the Iranian government has put in effect various discriminatory policies against the Baha’is, including limiting access to education and employment.

Since October 2009, authorities have detained at least 47 Baha’is in Tehran, Mashhad, Sari, Semnan, and Yazd, according to the United Nations office of the Baha’i International Community (BIC) in Geneva. In May 2008, the government arrested seven leaders of the Baha’i community in Tehran, who have been held in detention since then. Their trial began on January 12, but has been postponed to April 10.

The Judiciary has charged the seven community leaders with a range of national-security-related offenses, including spying for the benefit of foreigners, propaganda against the system, establishing and spreading illegal organizations, undermining the image of the Islamic Republic in the international community, and spreading “corruption on earth.” Most of these charges carry the death penalty. During the more than a year and a half that the five men and two women have been held, they have been allowed only limited visits from family and lawyers.

One of those detained on February 10 was Alaeddin Khanjani. According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters in Iran, Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) agents entered his home in Tehran at about 2:30 a.m., searched the premises, confiscated personal belongings including a computer and religious material, and took him into custody. Khanjani is the son of Jamaloddin Khanjani, one of the seven Baha’i leaders on trial in Tehran. Ministry of Intelligence agents had also arrested Alaeddin Khanjani’s adult daughter in January. Within several hours of Alaeddin Khanjani’s arrest, agents arrested seven more Baha’is, claiming they were being detained for their involvement in recent public demonstrations. On February 11, agents arrested five Baha’is in their homes in Tehran. No charges have been filed against any of the 13.

On January 3, MOI agents also raided the homes of 13 Baha’is and detained them, releasing three of them after they indicated they would not participate in further public demonstrations. In addition to the others arrested on February 10, one of those arrested on January 3 and then released was rearrested on February 10.

In a press statement on January 12, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran general prosecutor, said that the 10 Baha’is who have been held since January 3 faced charges of “organizing the unrest on Ashura [December 27] and sending photos of the unrest abroad.” In a previous statement on January 8, he claimed that authorities had found arms and ammunition in some of their homes. Dolatabadi denied that the arrests had anything to do with their Baha’i affiliation. Security forces have reportedly arrested hundreds of Iranians for their alleged involvement in the demonstrations on Ashura, a Shi’a day of mourning.

The authorities are holding those arrested on January 3 in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj and have not allowed them to contact their lawyers. According to the BIC, a few of them were allowed to contact family members after spending several weeks in prison.

The BIC also indicated that 60 Baha’is are currently in detention, with an additional 90 having been released but awaiting trial. Since 2004, 99 Baha’is have been convicted of various charges, including acting against national security, teaching against the Islamic Republic, propaganda against the regime, involvement in establishing illegal groups and organizations, and insulting the sacred institutions of Islam. These individuals are free pending appeal. Scores of others have been summoned and interrogated by security and intelligence agents without being taken into custody, according to the BIC.

The five Baha’is arrested in Tehran on February 11 are: Taraneh Ghanouni, Naghmeh Ghanouni, Shaida Yousefi, Aria Shadmehr, and Riaz Firouzmandi.

In addition to Alaeddin Khanjani, those arrested on February 10 are: Ashkan Bassari, Maria Ehsan Jafar, Bashir Ehsani, Romina Zabihiyan, Houtan Sistani, Simin Ghaffari, and Pedram Sanaei.

Those arrested on January 3 are: Mehran Rowhani, Farid Rowhani, Babak Mobasher, Leva Mobasher Khanjani, Payam Fanaian, Jinous Ghazanfari Sobhani, Artin Ghazanfari, Nikav Hoveydaei, Ebrahim Shadmehr, Zavosh Shadmehr, Negar Sabet, Mona Hoveydaei Misaghi, and Nasim Beiglari. Negar Sabet, Mona Misaghi, and Nasim Beiglari were released on January 3, but Mona Misaghi was summoned to the MOI agency’s office again on February 10 and rearrested.

The seven members of the Baha’i leadership whose trial began on January 12 are: Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm.

Background

Due to governmental restrictions on openly practicing their faith, Baha’is in Iran are unable to convene and administer a National Spiritual Assembly as in most countries where Baha’i communities exist. Instead, they have formed an informal coordinating body known as the “Friends of Iran.” The seven members facing trial consist of six leaders and the secretary of this coordinating body.

Haifa, in present-day Israel, is the final resting place of Baha’ullah – the founder of the Baha’i Faith – and the faith’s administrative headquarters since 1868, when Haifa was under Ottoman rule, Despite the fact that sites in and around Haifa were considered holy to the Baha’is well before the creation of the state of Israel, the Iranian government has repeatedly used the connection as an excuse to accuse Baha’is in Iran of spying for Israel, with which Iran has hostile relations.

During a recent review of its human rights record before the United Nations Human Rights Council, Iranian officials dismissed numerous concerns by member states regarding the government’s treatment of its Baha’i minority. Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran’s UN delegation, stated on February 15 that “no Baha’i in Iran is prosecuted because he is a Baha’i,” and the government rejected recommendations put forth by other governments calling for “an end to discrimination and incitement to hatred vis-à-vis the Baha’i.”

Related posts:

1. Five More Baha’is Arrested in Iran
2. Trial of Recently Detained Baha’is to Start “this Week” in Tehran
3. Serious Charges Emerge against Recently Detained Baha’is in Iran

The Baha’is: A Tiny Weird Group in Your Backyard

The Bahá’ís have been in the news out of Iran and neighboring regions.

I could go on about the governmental angle but my real focus is the experience and attitudes of people. This isn’t just about government oppressions and fanatical theologies to hold onto power. This is really about bias and oppression of a minority that becomes increasingly visible – something you heard about as children and youth and something you had a chance to see for yourselves. In Debating Muslims[1], one of the authors reviews his youthful pranks and how he grew up and did more serious things. This isn’t about government policies – this is about children and youth and what’s ok to make fun of.

Well maybe it’s about government a little bit. We still see government policies subverting their own rules to systematically denigrate and attempting to dismantle the Bahá’í community. We see allegations of Bahá’í involvement with other powers still being promulgated even as we did a century ago. And in all the world we see this mostly from Iran. In Iran we see testimony like Eliz Sanasarian who says [2] “Of all non-Muslim religious minorities the persecution of the Bahais has been the most widespread, systematic, and uninterrupted.… In contrast to other non-Muslim minorities, the Bahais have been spread throughout the country in villages, small towns, and various cities, fueling the paranoia of the prejudiced.” Just to the north in Turkmenistan we  see that though Perestroika took hold across the Soviet block, and the Bahá’í community of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan was the first to reform its institutions, had doubled its numbers from 1989 to 1991, and had successfully registered with the city government of Ashgabat but still the national government of Turkmenistan revised it’s religious registration laws such that by 1997 it forced the de-registration of the Bahá’ís along with several other religious communities and more than just being unable to form administrative institutions, own properties like temples, and publish literature, perform scholarly work and community service projects - their membership in a religion is simply unrecognized, the religion is considered banned, and homes are raided for Bahá’í literature.[3] Moving further northwest we have the situation in Uzebekistan – news reports mention how a government official thinks Bahá’ís “can drink tea – that’s not forbidden” but banishes others and a government policy apparently forced cable television operators to air what they knew was propaganda. But at least Bahá’ís are able to be registered and operate their eight local communities. And then we see in Kazakhstan, another step further north west, a somewhat hostile atmosphere demanding national and local registration but there are at least 25 communities so registered and no talk of banishment and propaganda.[4]

I think it is fair to say that when the great well known religions were young they all went through some stages before they were able to establish themselves in a civilization, a way of life among the people. The Founders of the religion were dealt with painfully and their followers were killed in number. But a student of these histories may know of different times when things were done less viciously. These events in modern day Iran do not compare with the burning of Christians to provide light as was done in early Rome.[5] The comparable period of the Bahá’í Faith is past. This isn’t the somewhat disinterested concern over weirdness in a community as in the case of Emperor Trajan [6] against the Christians. That seems more like what Stalin did – it didn’t matter what we believed, we were just different but left alone if we were unobtrusive. Perhaps this is more like “Diocletian’s preference for activist government, combined with his self-image as a restorer of past Roman glory, presaged the most pervasive persecution (of Christianity) in Roman history.”[7]

But let’s broaden the view here. Bahá’ís are interested in fairness – not regime change. We’ve lived and died under harsher abuse when we were blown from cannons and danced with lit candles carved in our skins, or when the Stalinist Soviets broke up small cities of Bahá’ís. We didn’t foment rebellion. But most Bahá’ís are not Persian or in Iran and haven’t been for a long time. One can quote statistics – that according to the Britannica Book of the Year (1992–present) the religion is the second most widespread of the world’s independent religions in terms of the number of countries represented. Or that for at least 35 years Christian evangelist sources known to favor counting Christians above other groups still noted the religion as among the fastest growing religions in the world – it certainly hasn’t been growing in Iran! But I believe statistics don’t matter much to most people. They just take up alittle air time to say but don’t impress upon people a grasp of what’s really going on. Children would still pick on children who are different. Youth would roll by in small gangs still pushing around kids who are different. But these children and youth grow up alittle more and encounter things not just in their backyard. So I urge people to examine their belief by exploring the depth and breadth of the community represented in these and other statistics. Pick a country – any country – and see if you can find the Bahá’ís there, something of their history there, the experience of the local people who’s heritage is in that spot. Some of this can be seen on Wikipedia but there are depths far beyond what can be reviewed in a dry semi-acadmic summary of what others say. There are parents, young love, and children, there is art and acts of service, there may be a change in outlook and behavior here and there. Is this the spreading of corruption or the bending of knee and grasping of hands to work together? Christians were judged weird and dedicated by ancient thinkers.[8] Perhaps we honor that heritage? Though barely established Bahá’ís helped in the 2010 Haiti earthquake just as we did in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake just as we do in India, Bolivia, Zambia, Czech….

References

1. Debating Muslims, pages 48–54, 222–250.

2. Religious minorities in Iran, page = 53, 80

3. The letters of the younger Pliny, page 295.

4. Bahá’í Faith in Turkmenistan

5. Bahá’í Faith in Kazakhstan

6. The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 15#44

7. Lane Fox, Robin. Pagans and Christians. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986. ISBN 0-394-55495-7, page 595.

8. Backgrounds of early Christianity, page 601

Related posts:

1. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
2. Iranian human rights group concerned about persecution of Baha’is
3. The story of Mehri Mavvadat

According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), the names of the people arrested are Niki Khanjani, Ashkan Besari, Maria Jafari and her son, Hooman Sisani and Romina Zobihian. Niki Khanjani is the son of Jamalodin Khanjani, one of the members of the now-dissembled Friends of Iran (Yaran Iran), the unofficial leadership group of the Baha’is in Iran. Jamalodin Khanjani was arrested along with five others members of the group in May of 2008 (another member was arrested in March 2008). Niki Khanjani’s daughter Lava Khanjani and her husband Babak Mobasher have been arrested on January 3 in Tehran on charges of instigating protests on Ashoura along with other eight Baha’is. Maria Jafari, who was arrested earlier this week is the niece of Payam Fanaeeian who was also arrested on January 3rd.

A report in the daily Javan newspaper that is associated with the Revolutionary Guard did not detail the charges against the five arrested, but claimed that Baha’is are now escaping Iran abroad and to remote border region after fomenting post-election protests.

Related posts:

1. Trial of Recently Detained Baha’is to Start “this Week” in Tehran
2. Nine Baha’is Were Arrested in Tehran Today
3. Human Rights Watch Issues a Statement on the Violation of Baha’i Rights in Iran

Part 1:

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

Part 3:

Part 4:

Related posts:

1. Round-up of Updates about the Ongoing Persecution of Baha’is in Iran
2. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
3. Round-up of updates from Iran: Persecution of Baha’is continues unabated

Monstrous spite of corrupt reactionary Muslim religious rulers against Iran’s Baha’i citizens is nothing new; it has a 150 year history, which has to this date resulted in the execution and displacement of tens of thousands of our Iranian countrymen. After the genocide and mass murder of thousands of Babis (forerunner of Baha’is) by Ghajar kings and Muslim clergies through issuing fatwas (religious rulings), the constitutional revolution (1906-1911), put an end to killings and pressures against Baha’is. When I say, “end to killings and lifting of government imposed pressures against Baha’is”, it does not mean that after the constitutional revolution malicious religious rulers stopped spreading hatred against free thinkers, and religious minorities, especially Baha’is. It is true that the constitutional revolution moved fanatic clergies from their prominent political positions to the sidelines, but they, at the pulpits, commended and praised the Pahlavi dynasty (ruling dynasty before the Islamic revolution of Iran in 1979), and continued to spread detestation and arousing ignorant mob against the free thinkers and the followers of other religions, especially Baha’is. On occasions, they even embarked on the terror of intellectuals, and attacked the offices of political parties and newspapers without facing any repercussions or any obstructions in their path by the government officials (terror of free thinkers and freedom fighters such as Ahmad Kasravi, Mohammad Masoud, Hussain Fatemi and many others, attacks on political parties, newspaper offices, and Spiritual Assemblies of the Baha’is , in the presence of Pahlavi regime’s military officials by a group called Fadaiyan-e-Islam are examples of such heinous acts).

Today, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, Ayatollah Jannati, Ayatollah Yazdi, Ayatollah Khaz-Ali, and others like them are leading the Islamic regime’s hooligans and hoodlum and government’s baton and knife goons. They encourage their puppets to commit murder, torture and rape of the freedom seeking sons and daughters of Iran. If we look at their past history, these wicked and dangerous creatures were all threshold kissers at the king’s court during Pahlavi dynasty. At that time, under the banner of Hojjatieh Society [1], they were busy harassing the free thinkers, spreading superstitions, and hatred and animosity towards the Baha’is of Iran.

With Muslim clergies gaining power after the Iranian revolution of 1979, Baha’is were the first group of citizens to be expelled from all government offices, were assaulted, tortured and executed as the result of implementation of the legislation by the newly established Islamic government. To justify their crime, the perpetrators were accusing Baha’is of membership in “misguided Baha’i sect” and spying for “International Imperialism and Zionism”. Existence of Baha’i religious center in Haifa, Israel was an excuse for the newly established Islamic government of ignorance and crime to portray Baha’is of Iran as Zionist spies in the minds of the oblivious mob. Has anybody asked these deceitful liars: “at the time of the kings and rulers of Ghajar dynasty, you ill-willed clergy, who in the name of protectors of Islam massacred thousands of innocent Babis, were they also agents of “Imperialism and Zionism”? Were Babis (the ancestors of today’s Baha’is) so harshly subjected to your malicious, monstrous attacks and murders at that time because they were spying for Israel and America? Any rational mind knows that the land (Palestine & Shamat), where Babis of Iran found refuge and built their place of worship after they were subjected to killings and savageries in the hands of Ghajar rulers and clergies, was a part of Sunni Muslim Ottoman Empire. At that time there was no country by the name of Israel in the Middle East, and Zionism was not heard of.

The hounding and harassment of Baha’is in Iran has continued without interruption over the past 31 years. Our Baha’i countrymen have not had a moment of peace during any of the damned reign of the Islamic regime. However, during Ahmadinejad’s government which has been a breeding ground for Hojjatieh Society’s mullahs such as Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, persecution of the Baha’is has doubled. From the beginning of Ahmadinejad’s government, in different parts of the country, regime’s hooligans and thugs, instigated by the fanatic religious leaders, have set Baha’i homes on fire, or have demolished them with bulldozers. The Islamic rulers have expelled Baha’i students from universities; have increased persecution and arrests to force the remaining Baha’is to migrate out of Iran so that they can accomplish the complete extermination of this group of our countrymen.

In recent months, the freedom seeking people of Iran initiated a green movement (jonbesh-e sabz), protesting the rigged presidential election of Ahmadinejad. In response, the reactionary, digressive Islamic government has escalated the wave of suppression, horror and terror, encompassing all levels of society, including religious minorities, and especially the Baha’is.

In the latest peaceful demonstrations on Ashura [2], the regime’s hooligans and hoodlums (driving cars, on motorbikes, or on foot), attacked people and left a carnage behind; and again showed the world scenes of their monstrous behavior. Citizens of the world witnessed how the innocent Iranians demonstrated peacefully with bare handed, against the Islamic regime’s monsters and tyrants, demanding freedom, independence and social justice. After the militia’s murderous acts on Ashura (December 27, 2009), Ahmadinejad’s government added the Baha’is to the list of groups that have been singled out to bear the blame for all the turmoil in the country. The government pointed the accusing fingers at Baha’is, calling them “heads of commotion” and “instigators of green movement’s protests on Ashura”!

To complete their ridiculous scenario and fanning the flame of their baseless allegations of “plotting to overthrow the regime and insulting the sanctity of revolution and Islam”, the government announced that from the homes of some Baha’is “guns and ammunition” have been retrieved! However, many citizens of Iran and the whole world know that this group of our harmless and peace loving countrymen, due to their religious belief, are against any type of aggression, and are forbidden from using violence as a means of attaining their social and religious aspirations.

The crux of the matter is, to date the pronouncements of Mir-Hossein Mousavi [3] and Mehdi Karroubi [4], have lacked any reference to a major yearning of the people of Iran, which is freedom and equality for all religious groups. This can raise questions about Mousavi and Karroubi by the proponents of the green movement. In a country with diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, treating varied groups as equals in the sight of law, is necessary and is the prerequisite to any democratic change in the society.

The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and some other reformists are insisting on its implementation, is by itself the source and promoter of religious, ethnic, gender, and all other sorts of intolerance and discrimination. The constitution is unacceptable by the nation, and has to give way to a new set of laws that emphasize equal rights for all the citizens irrespective of their religious or other affiliations. The criteria for recognizing a real reformist from a phony one is that the real reformist seeks the eradication of all sorts of discrimination, whereas the phony one is interested in continuation of the inequities latent in the constitution of Iran’s Islamic regime.

The young generation, the force behind Iran’s green movement, has to be mindful of proclamations announced these days from within and outside of Iran. They should critically and constructively evaluate and challenge the pronouncements so that the fruits of green movement, irrigated by the blood of hundreds of our youth, are not confiscated by a group of self serving opportunists.

If Ayatollah Montazeri [5] as a Marja (religious authority) of many Shia Muslims, towards the end of his life, free of fear and political considerations, won the respect of a nation by defending the civil rights of the Baha’is, today no one can claim to be a reformist and close his eyes on the many biases in the articles of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Any claim that discriminations enshrined in the constitution will be dealt with and lifted some day in the future should be looked at with suspicion.

Any stereotyping of Iranian citizens based on their belief system, gender, ethnicity or social status, the exact foundation on which the constitution of the Islamic Republic is based on and has received the seal of approval, is condemned and will be discarded in the dustbin of history in the near future. The brave and courageous citizens of Iran have tried in the recent months to convey this message to the crazy and bloodthirsty rulers of our country. However, their message has fallen to deaf ears.

[1] Hojjatieh Society — is a semi-clandestine traditionalist Shia organization founded in Iran in 1953 by Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi (a Tehrani mullah from Mashhad; 1900-1998) with permission of Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi. The organization was founded on the premise that the most immediate threat to Islam was the Bahá’í religion, which they viewed as a heresy that must be eliminated. In March to June 1955, the Ramadan period that year, a widespread systematic program was under taken cooperatively by the government and the clergy. During the period they destroyed the national Bahá’í Center in Tehran, confiscated properties and made it illegal for a time to be Bahá’í (punishable by 2 to 10 year prison term.) Founder of SAVAK, Teymur Bakhtiar, took a pick-ax to a Bahá’í building himself at the time. Halabi is said to have worked with SAVAK security agency under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, offering his full cooperation in fighting “other heathen forces, including the Communists.” By doing so he was given freedom to recruit members and raise funds, and by 1977 Hojjatieh is said to have had 12,000 members. However, since the Shah’s regime, in Halabi’s view, allowed the Baha’is too much freedom, he then supported Khomeini’s movement to overthrow the Shah. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hojjatieh]

[2] The Day of Ashura is commemorated by Shia Muslims as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar in year 61 AH (October 10, 680 AD). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Ashura]

[3] Mir-Hossein Mousavi is an Iranian reformist politician, painter and architect who served as the seventy-ninth and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a candidate for the 2009 presidential election. In 2009 presidential election, Mousavi chose green as his campaign color, a color which has since become pervasive in Iran. He is the Leader of the Green Movement and announced the Green Path of Hope as its social network.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir-Hossein_Mousavi – cite_note-1 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir-Hossein_Mousavi]

[4] Mehdi Karroubi is an influential Iranian reformist politician, democracy activist, mojtahed, and chairman of the National Trust Party. He was Chairman of the parliament from 1989 to 1992 and 2000 to 2004, and a presidential candidate in the 2005 and 2009 presidential elections.
Karroubi is a critic of the Guardian Council and Iran’s Judicial System and calls himself a follower of Iran’s ex-leader Ruhollah Khomeini. By appointment of the Supreme Leader, he was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and an adviser, posts he held until resigning from all his posts on June 19, 2005 after the first round of the 2005 presidential election.
Karroubi considers himself a pragmatic reformist. He is now the head of the Etemad-e-Melli party (National Trust or National Confidence party). He has been described as a “moderate” with a “mostly rural” base of support. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Karroubi]

[5] Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri (1922 – 19 December 2009) was a prominent Iranian Islamic theologian, democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the leaders of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. He was once the designated successor to the revolution’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, with whom he had a falling out in 1989 over government policies that Montazeri said infringed on people’s freedom and denied them their rights. He was widely known as the most knowledgeable senior Islamic scholar in Iran and a Grand Marja (religious authority) of Shi’ite Islam. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein-Ali_Montazeri]

Related posts:

1. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
2. Baha’i Faith insulted in mandatory Islamic propagation classes
3. The story of Kourosh Nikoui

Announcement from: the implementation committee of the revolutionary work force organization of Iran (Rah-e kargar).

The court hearing of the Yaran, who are taking care of the affairs of the Baha’i community in the absence of the dismantled National Spiritual Assembly of Iran, was convened on Tuesday January 12, 2010 at branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court. This branch had previously charged Roxanna Saberi (Iranian American Journalist) with espionage and had sentenced her to eight years of imprisonment. After being used for propaganda purposes, she was released and allowed to leave Iran. The court’s prosecutor, who is the successor of the investigator, is an agent of the Intelligence Ministry. The Yaran is: Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. They have been languishing in jail since May 2008 (Mrs. Mahvash Sabet has been incarcerated since March 2008 – translator).

The Yaran’s court hearing is underway, yet their lawyers have not been given the opportunity to access their files (or meet) with their clients. The charges against them are: “espionage for foreign countries”, “propaganda against the Islamic regime”, “association with Israel”, “assisting in the gathering of classified information and forwarding such information to foreign powers with the aim of undermining the country’s security” and “corruption on earth”. The Tabnak site (a pro Islamic Government site) has described the Yaran as “seven Baha’i terrorists who have been accused of terrorist acts including planning and carrying out the bombing of Hojjatieh Rahpouyan mosque in Shiraz and spying for the occupant regime of Israel”. Tabnak has added, “the arrested individuals have never denied their association with the occupying regime of Israel and the Baha’i headquarters is in Haifa – Israel”.

The ruling court with a previous questionable history, is using a Ministry of Intelligence agent as its prosecutor, and is not allowing the Yaran’s lawyers access to their files. This court is only being convened to broadcast a pre-determined outcome with a specific political and security agenda in mind. The accusations are organized in a way that the verdict could be execution for the Yaran. Under the present atmosphere, faced with fear of annihilation, the Islamic regime is clinging to severe suppression; the outcome of which can cost the lives of the prisoners.

Needless to say, it’s clear that the fabricated charges are the work of the intelligence and security organizations of the Islamic regime. The Baha’is only crime is their belief in a different religion. The Baha’i community of Iran, from its inception over 150 years ago, has been inflicted with the worst manner of tyranny and repression in the hands of prejudiced shia Muslims; whether at the time of the Ghajar dynasty when the Babis (forerunner of Baha’is) and the Baha’is had burning candles placed in their carved flesh while forced to walk in alleys and streets, or in the current Islamic Republic Regime, in which so many of the followers of the Baha’i Faith have been executed, that this religion can befittingly be called the “religion of martyrs”. Hatred and revulsion against Baha’is, combined with the harshest forms of suppression during different governments of the Islamic regime, has taken a more ruthless dimension now that power is in the hands of Mesbah Yazdi [1] and Hojjatieh Society’s [2] followers.

Our organization strongly condemns the suppression of the Baha’i community on groundless charges and considers it a harsh subjugation of those that think differently and believe in a different religion. The suppressive policy has not been limited to the Baha’is but has also been inflicted on Sunni Muslims. Freedom to believe in any religion or no religion is one of the basic principles of democracy.
Our organization strongly condemns the efforts of the Islamic revolutionary courts in sentencing Baha’is and other political prisoners to jail terms or execution to soothe their shameless hatred. We urge all freedom fighters, defenders of equality, human rights organizations and foundations to wholeheartedly object Islamic regime’s merciless and suppressive policy.

Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran,
Long live freedom, long live socialism.

The implementation committee of Revolutionary Workforce Organization of Iran

[1] Mesbah Yazdi is a hardline Iranian cleric and politician who is widely seen as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spiritual advisor. He is also a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for choosing the Supreme Leader, where he heads a minority ultraconservative faction. He has been called “the most conservative” and the most “powerful” and “influential … clerical oligarch” in Iran’s leading center of religious learning, the city of Qom. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Taqi_Mesbah-Yazdi]

[2] Hojjatieh Society — is a semi-clandestine traditionalist Shia organization founded in Iran in 1953 by Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi (a Tehrani mullah from Mashhad; 1900-1998) with permission of Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi. The organization was founded on the premise that the most immediate threat to Islam was the Bahá’í religion, which they viewed as a heresy that must be eliminated. In March to June 1955, the Ramadan period that year, a widespread systematic program was under taken cooperatively by the government and the clergy. During the period they destroyed the national Bahá’í Center in Tehran, confiscated properties and made it illegal for a time to be Bahá’í (punishable by 2 to 10 year prison term.) Founder of SAVAK, Teymur Bakhtiar, took a pick-ax to a Bahá’í building himself at the time.

Halabi is said to have worked with SAVAK security agency under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, offering his full cooperation in fighting “other heathen forces, including the Communists.” By doing so he was given freedom to recruit members and raise funds, and by 1977 Hojjatieh is said to have had 12,000 members. However, since the Shah’s regime, in Halabi’s view, allowed the Baha’is too much freedom, he then supported Khomeini’s movement to overthrow the Shah. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hojjatieh]

Related posts:

1. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
2. Long List of Charges against the Seven Baha’is as their Trial Commences
3. Trial of 7 Baha’i leaders delayed yet again

For the first time, the allegations against the seven were revealed, and they 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. The charges of spreading corruption on earth (Mofsed fel-Arz) carries the death penalty.

In a clear indication that this is not a fair trial, but a show trial intended to intimidate and scapegoat the Baha’i community, no observers were allowed to enter the court, but film crews for the regime were able to enter the court. In addition, the lawyers for the defense were barely allowed to enter the court, after having little to no access to their clients since their arrest in May and March of 2008.

Diane Ala’i, the representative of the Baha’i International Community to the UN stated that “In any event, all of these accounts point to a trial that is highly irregular, very similar to the show trials that have been held in Iran in recent months.”

The seven are a members of the “Friends in Iran” (Yaran Iran), the unofficial leadership group of the Baha’is in Iran. They are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. All official Baha’i governing bodies were disbanded in Iran in 1983. The indictment against the seven stated again that all Baha’i activities are illegal and prohibited in Iran.

Related posts:

1. Trial of 7 Baha’i leaders delayed yet again
2. Trial of 7 leaders delayed
3. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating

The Baha’i World Community flatly denied those charges. Diane Ala’i, the Community’s Representitive to the UN told the AFP that “without doubt, these are baseless fabrications devised by the government to further create an atmosphere of prejudice and hatred against the Iranian Baha’i community.”

According to a BBC Farsi report, the nine Bahai’s who were arrested on January 3, 2010 are: Babak Mobasher, Lava Khanjani-Mobasher, Negar Sabet, Jhinoos Sobhani, Artin Ghazanfari, Nasim Biglari, Sa’id Rowhani, Mehran Rowhani, and Payam Fanaian.

Related posts:

1. Nine Baha’is Were Arrested in Tehran Today
2. Serious Charges Emerge against Recently Detained Baha’is in Iran
3. Trial of 7 Baha’i leaders delayed yet again