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.”

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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

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1. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
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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]

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Two representatives of Parliament, Fatemeh Alia and Mohammd Ismail Kowsari both of whom are also members of the influential Commission on Foreign Policy and National Security, become the latest to scapegoat Baha’is and accuse them and others of having a role in the Ashura protests.

Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi, whose office has published numerous hateful anti-Baha’i articles in recent months, implicitly connects Baha’is to the unrest: “We have never seen a disturbance as big and complex as this in the last 30 years. The hypocrites, non-Muslim secularists, and misguided sects are very active in this disturbance.”

Sign reads: Mousavi, the Baha’i, must be executed

Following the mass opposition demonstrations on Ashura, the regime brought its supporters to the streets across the country, in rallies that usually didn’t attract many participants. In one such rally in Isfahan on December 29 this sign was visible.

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Unknown men bulldozed over the Baha’i cemetery of Vilashahr and Najafabad, near Isfahan. This is the 18th time that cemetery has been destroyed. According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, following the destruction, a Baha’i family was not given permission to bury a member of the family in that cemetery. Authorities also impeded the burial of a Baha’i men in Semnan by first denying them a birth certificate, then by demanding that the pay four times as much for the needed certificate. Finally, after acquiescing to the persistent pleas of the family, the funeral was carried out. Toward the end of the ceremony, local hooligans harassed the grieving family with insults, and later a small group of protesters marched in Semnan, chanting anti-Baha’i slogans. Also in Semnan, Susan Tebyanian-Jabbari was released from detention to find a letter notifying her that her work permit has been revoked. Near Semnan, the crops of a Baha’i farmer were torched.

Many Baha’i students who passed the college entrance exam were denied education, on account of “incomplete application”. This is a known tactic used by Iranian authorities to disguise the fact that Baha’is are routinely denied the basic human right of education. In addition, a Baha’i student was expelled from Bandar Abaas University.

The courts have had a busy time trying Baha’is across Iran based on the usual charges of teaching the Baha’i Faith, acting against state security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. In Semnan, Behnam Moteareffi was sentenced for 18 months, and Ali Eshsani for two years in prison, two years in exile and a fine. The Revolutionary Court in Shahr-e-Rey is now trying a Baha’i for sedition, insulting Islam, membership in illegal groups and Messianic claims. The Revolutionary Court in Sari managed to hand down no less than six sentences for Baha’is in just two days. In Ghaem-Shahr the Iranian authorities closed down the businesses of an imprisoned Baha’i couple.

Baha’is cannot lead a normal life in Iran. They are discriminated against, harassed, put on trial, imprisoned and even killed solely for practicing a different religion. Please don’t let their suffering be forgotten. Make your voices heard.

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

Sect Member Sows Trouble
By Abduvali Turayev
September 16, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related posts:

1. Iran State Media Blames the “Baha’i Sect” for Recent Unrest
2. Iranian media claims arrested Baha’is possessed commincations equipment
3. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating

Here are some photos:

Related posts:

1. Iran’s persecution of Bahá’ís is devastating
2. Troubling times for the Baha’is of Iran
3. Another Baha’i Cemetery Desecrated in Iran

My name is Foad. I was born in one of the little towns of the Mazandaran province, which is located in Northern Iran in June 1987 (month of Khordad, year 1366 according to the Iranian calendar), but I was brought up in Tehran. Due to the numerous problems Baha’is face in furthering their education in Iran, I took refuge in Turkey when I was 16, and at the moment I am a student of electrical engineering in the USA. From the early years of my childhood, I have adored Iranian traditional music, and I play Persian musical instruments. However, at the moment I find that the Rap genre is best suited for me to express my inner feelings. My efforts are mostly focused on addressing the problems of religious and ethnic minorities – especially the Baha’is – through my songs.

We are extremely flattered to say that Foad has liked our latest video so much that he turned it into a rap song of its own, keeping the scenes, remixing the music, and adding relevant vocals to the background. The result is amazing and you may listen to it here:

You may download the audio here.

If you would like to find out more about him, please read this interview.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Foad: Using music to increase awareness on the plight of Baha’is in Iran
2. Latest Video: United for Baha’i Human Rights
3. European Parliament Resolution on Human Rights in Iran