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

Translator’s Introduction

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

Read the full text by clicking here.

O God, what can I write? Who can I write to? What recourse have I? I have no one but you, I have no helper except you. I am helpless in every way. All I have is to seek your protection, to beg for your help. You are my helper. You are the All-Knowing and are aware of what is in every heart. By your own Lordship, ordain whatever you know to be best for these dear prisoners whose only crime has been serving the human race and those who are in need. I am a father who rises early every morning and with a hopeful heart, goes to visit the holy places to pray for the safety and release of these precious prisoners and to pray for all of humanity. I beg Him to grant perseverance to my family and I and to all other families who have loved ones that have been imprisoned for the crime of serving humanity. I beg Him to grant these loved ones strength and perseverance to get through this divine test with pride. O God, as I write this letter, my son’s picture is before me and I am thinking of what two other families, like me, are going through and how concerned they must be for their loved ones. What can we do? We must be content with the good-pleasure of God. Let me say a few words about my son, Sasan. According to everyone, he was one of the most lovable individuals in this community, always sharing in the joys and sorrows of others, a friend and mentor to other youth his age, and always eager to help others in their time of need in any way possible.

It’s me. A mother. A mother to who God gave three children, Sasan being my oldest son. I want to write about the day that God gave me Sasan. Before Sasan was born, two of my previous children had died of illnesses. The day Sasan was born, I placed him in the care of God. When his uncle read the verse (the prayer that is recited into the ears of newborn babies) into Sasan’s ear, I made an oath to raise him in such a way that he will follow only the right path. After Sasan, God gave me two daughters who I raised in the same way. Ever since he was a child, Sasan was a lovable boy. In the early years of the revolution, when they expelled all the children from school, Sasan was likewise expelled. His teachers loved him so much that they wept for him. As he grew older, the love and attraction those around him had for him increased. He grew more sincere, more selfless. Every night, well into the late hours, he would serve and look after the youth his age and others in the community with the most tender-care.

I would sit at home waiting for him to return, counting the minutes. As soon as I heard the door, I would warm up his food. How many a night did I stay up late waiting for him to put his key in the door and say, ‘Mom, Dad, I’m home.’ Its now 16 days that my son has been sitting alone in the corner of a prison cell in these autumn nights while his father, sister and I wait eagerly for him to return. Lord, are service, being kind, and caring for others a crime? Do his father and I deserve in our old age to sit in anticipation of him to return to us? Every day, we count the seconds until Tuesday when we can see our son for 4-5 minutes from behind a glass. God, at this age, I long to see my son wearing a tuxedo, but alas, he is wearing a prison uniform—a uniform with the scales of justice on it, but alas, these are the scales of injustice, not justice. O God, hear my cry for help and release my son. Bring back those nights when I would stay up late eagerly waiting for him for return.

We are Sasan’s sisters, one 3 years younger and the other 6 years younger than him. However, neither our age difference—nor even our gender difference—has ever posed an obstacle in our relationship with Sasan. Each of us loves Sasan in her own special way. I am the older sister. Prior to my marriage, Sasan would help me in every way and take care of me. After my marriage, he would continue to help me in every way as before. He loves my husband like a brother. He does everything in his power for me. If I were to write about it all, this letter would become too long. I will hand the pen over to my younger sister, who misses him more than anyone else these days. She also performed some of the same services that Sasan was rendering.

I am the younger sister. I was also imprisoned for a week and know the kind of place that prison is. God only knows how close I am to Sasan. If I ever sensed that Sasan was sad or upset, I too became upset. I wouldn’t sleep at night until Sasan returned home. I’d call him more than three times a day on his phone. But, it has now been some time since we heard his voice, his laughter, his jokes here at home. At night, I sit and wait hoping that he will return at some late hour. But when I see his picture, I remember that he is in prison because of his convictions, because of his country, because of his countrymen. I sometimes cry, I cry from missing him, but I also yearn, I yearn for the innocent youth who are imprisoned for their country. God help me because I feel that the load of responsibility that Sasan had taken on his shoulders is now being placed on mine since my older sister is married and lives far from us. Lord, grant patience to my father and mother so they may witness their children’s success with their own eyes. O God, every day, I stretch out my arms to you and pray to you to administer justice to them. Be their shield and protector. As I write these words, my mother has been staring at Sasan’s picture. She says nothing. My father recites prayers under his breath. Whatever you have decreed Lord is certainly what is best. Have mercy on these three families and grant them strength and perseverance.

This posting appeared to be an essay by a Baha’i in Iran and made us reflect on the plight of so many innocent people throughout the world! As always, we welcome comments and reflections by our dear readers.

Summary translation follows:

Night before last I saw a poignant clip on television. It showed that several fully armed Israeli soldiers, along with a bulldozer, had gone to a small farm in the Palestinian area and were in process of uprooting a tree.

A Palestinian woman who owned that farm was wailing and weeping, and with bare fists attacking the armed soldiers, crying, “This is my land. Why are you uprooting my tree? This tree is older than my son!”

In the midst of all commotions and protestations by villagers, someone made a comment that I thought was most amazing, perhaps it was the same woman. Anyway, it was said to the soldiers, “If you’re man enough, put your submachine gun away and we’ll fight with fists!”

When I saw this, I started thinking. First it occurred to me that a fruit tree like this must be so vital to a poor family in Palestine that its removal must have prompted this wretched woman to hopelessly confront the soldiers. Obviously she felt that there was no place for her to take her complaint. There was no administration of justice that would come to her aid. No one that would listen to her and protect her right. No one that would tell soldiers, “For what purpose are you uprooting a fruit bearing tree that supports a penniless family?”

I was thinking about the harsh economic and psychological pressure on that Palestinian family through the removal this tree when I remembered Faraj Abdi, a Baha’i who lived in a village in Kurdistan. It was some years ago when someone named Hadi (a governmental representative) had come to Abdi’s village and began anti-Baha’i activities and defamation. In no time, the Muslim villagers attacked Abdi’s orchard and uprooted all his grapevines – his sole source of income. But I don’t remember Abdi ever raising slightest complain or attacking anyone with his fists!

As I thought some more about the Palestinian woman and the manifest injustice brought upon on her, I thought of a situation in Nayriz (a small town in south of Iran). There was a certain Muslim cleric named Sayyid Muhyi’d-Din Fali who was particularly antagonistic towards Baha’is. This Sayyid wanted to build a mosque. For this purpose, he asked Tehran for a grant from the Islamic endowment funds, but was told that he needed to place as indemnity the title of a parcel of land. Since the lands around the fort of Khajih in Nayriz belonged to Baha’is who had cultivated them into walnut orchards, he sent words to one of the Baha’is named Ali-Akbar Rawhani that he wanted to “purchase” his land for a nominal fee, and if he did not do so, then his orchards would be uprooted in no time. Rawhani did not heed this warning and decided not to “sell” his land. Next week when Rawhani visited his orchard, he saw that the Sayyid’s men had uprooted all his trees, including precious walnut trees that were nearly a hundred years old and were most productive. Not only were the trees removed, but the land was ploughed so thoroughly that he was unable to tell the exact location of his orchard. This is how the Sayyid confiscated his land and used it as surety to build a mosque! But Rawhani never complained – and he certainly did not use his fists!

If Palestinians are using every means at their disposal to establish their rights, including desperate suicide bombings and other forms of armed struggles, Baha’is are not doing any of these things. No Baha’i in Nayriz ever confronted the Sayyid for destroyed a magnificent orchard and outright theft of a fine Baha’i-owned property.

No Baha’i in all these long years of intense persecution has ever raised a fist against the attackers. When hundred of thousands of Baha’is are deprived of the most basic human rights, when their orchards are confiscated, when their homes are taken from them, when their dwelling are set on fire, when their children are thrown out of schools, when their youth denied education, when their hard-earned pensions are seized, when their bank accounts are impounded, when their businesses are commandeered, when their loved ones are imprisoned, tortured and killed, when their holy sites and places of worship are destroyed, when their cemeteries bulldozed, when their fathers and mothers are taken away in the middle of night and shot to death, when their very survival hangs by the thinnest threads, when all of these things are done to them, not one Baha’i – not ever! – has raised a fist against the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity.

Baha’is do not say, “Put down your submachine guns so we can fight by fists.” They say, “Put down your guns so our hands are free, and hand-in-hand we can build and develop this nation and create a better future for children of all humanity.” They say if uprooting a tree on a Palestine farm is a shameful act and deserves our condemnation, then how much more so when homes, orchards, livelihood, education, and the very existence of a body of people are threatened and often uprooted merely because they are Baha’is! Does this not deserve the attention of the entire world?

End of summary translation.

The latest act in this campaign against the Baha’is was a poster distributed recently in the town of Karaj, outside of Tehran. An image of this poster is shared below and a translation follows, offered as an example of such mischaracterizations by the clergy in Iran. In a near future we will offer blog postings exposing lies and false descriptions in this distributed poster, and present the true nature of the Baha’i teachings.

And although the clergies have titled this document as “True Face of Baha’is”, this is pure deception and future blogs will explain the nature of Baha’i teachings and laws.

Translation of the above-mentioned poster against the Baha’is follows:

“True Face of Baha’is”

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has stated: “These people are considered religious heretics and they must be avoided. No business transaction or marriage is permitted with them.”

Since the foundational belief of Baha’is centers on misleading Muslims from the straight path and creating division among them, and Baha’is greatly insist in presenting whatever is accepted in Islam as unworthy and according to Baha’u’llah’s teachings all the sayings of God and the Prophet are completely reversed. In truth, in his books Baha’u’llah has brought a series of teachings all void, devoid of meaning, frivolous, bereft of literary value, and filled with errors – and he has presented these as the principles of the Baha’i faith. So that the reader will be better informed some of them will be discussed below:

1. No one should criticize monarchs or governments of their time and a Baha’i is not permitted to interfere in political matters, otherwise he will be expelled from the Baha’i community. (This holds true even if a tyrannical monarch is the seat of authority. It is interesting that the Universal House of Justice constantly encourages Iranian to interfere in political matters and to uproot the Islamic Republic, and the very foundational teachings of Baha’is is political in nature and they have no thoughts other than elimination of Islam.)

2. Baha’u’llah presented himself as effulgent of God and claimed that God has entrusted him with creation and the order of universe.

3. With appearance of the Bab and Baha’u’llah, the Islamic shari‘ih [jurisprudence] was annulled and the period of Muhammad’s prophethood came to an end.

4. Each year has 19 months, and each month consists of 19 days. The period of Fasting is 19 days and occurs in the month before Naw-Ruz.

5. Pilgrimage is to the house of Ali-Muhammad Bab in Shiraz or the house of Mirza Husayn-Ali Baha in Iraq, and a specific time has not been designated for it.

6. One may marry one’s daughter, sister or other family members. The sole exception is marrying one’s step-mother. This act takes place under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice. (The enormous building of the House of Justice was constructed at the cost of $250 million dollars and direct support of Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister of the Zionist regime, and under the care of two Iranian Baha’i escapees named engineer Hossein Amanat and Dr. Fariborz Sahba.)

7. All things are clean and nothing is unclean, not even urine, refuse, dog, pig or semen.

8. Consent of parents of the bride and groom is unnecessary for marriage.

9. Obligatory prayers should not be offered in congregation, except the Prayer for the Dead. Baha’is have three obligatory prayers. First one is the long obligatory prayer which is to be offered once in every 24 hours and has completely invented genuflections and verses. The second obligatory prayer is the medium one, offered in the morning, noon and night. The third is the short obligatory prayer and offered at the time of sunset. Of course reciting one of these three prayers will suffice. And if one were to chose the short obligatory prayer it is almost like not praying at all. The Qiblih [the Point of Adoration] is the burial spot of Mirza Husayn-Ali Baha in Akka, Israel.

10. If one does not have water for ablution, then he may repeat five times, “In the Name of God, the Most Pure, the Most Pure.”

11. The age of maturity of girls and boys is 15.

End of Translation.