Persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran

The Education Under Fire initiative announced the release of Faith and Sacrifice: The Baha’is in Iran (9:18) – part two of the seven-part “Angels of Iran” documentary series. These short videos are personal stories of courage and resilience in the face of torture, imprisonment and execution under the Islamic Republic of Iran.

‘Faith and Sacrifice’ opens with an interview with Iranian-American Baha’i Iraj Kamalabadi, whose sister Fariba Kamalabadi is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Iran. Fariba’s only crime is having been a member of the former ad-hoc leadership group who served the spiritual needs of the Iranian Baha’i community, the largest religious minority in Iran. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Baha’is have been excluded from Iran’s Constitution, which has given the government unrestricted license to run roughshod over the rights of an invisible, unprotected group.

‘Faith and Sacrifice’ weaves together accounts of nine family members of Baha’is who have faced imprisonment, torture and execution under Iran’s present government.

Iranian-American Kimia Kline, whose grandfather Fat’u’llah Ferdowsi was executed in 1982, is interviewed about the Iranian government’s policies and systematic attempts to destroy the Iranian Baha’i community, “The Iranian government wants these lives erased, their memories erased. But, when you sacrifice something as irreplaceable as your life…that is inherently unforgettable.”

The video also features commentary by Mr. Glenford Mitchell, retired member of the world governing council of the Baha’i Faith.

Background information

Amnesty International, United4Iran, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Education Under Fire, The Boroumand Foundation, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, the Baha’i national communities of the United States and Canada, and other organizations will be encouraging their supporters to spread these new Angels of Iran videos far and wide through social media.

The organizations encourage their networks to view the videos and share the links and embed codes through their ow social networks and blogs: www.educationunderfire.com/angels-of-iran

Over seven weeks, as the videos are released one-by-one, the coalition hopes human rights advocates will seize the opportunity to raise awareness about the violation of human rights in Iran.

Already, thousands across the country have become part of the DRIVE TO 25 initiative. The coalition invites all freedom-loving people of conscience to add their names to the ever-growing list of signatories who have taken the action called for by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President José Ramos‐Horta of East Timor.

Visit www.educationunderfire.com/25, post this link and the Angels of Iran videos to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Tags: Amnesty International, Baha'is of Canada, Baha'is of Iran, Baha'is of the U.S., Education Under Fire, Fariba Kamalabadi, Fat'u'llah Ferdowsi, Glenford Mitchell, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Iraj Kamalabadi, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Islamic-Republic-of-Iran, Kimia Kline, The Boroumand Foundation, United4Iran

The Education Under Fire initiative will release seven new “Angels of Iran” videos — short films of Iranian citizens’ personal stories of courage and resilience in the face of torture, imprisonment and execution under the Islamic Republic of Iran. Beginning Jan. 17, the videos will be released weekly.

“Love and Freedom: The Life of Reza Fani Yazdi” is the first video in the series. The 12-minute film tells of love, strength and belief in freedom and features former political prisoner, human rights activist, and freelance writer Reza Fani Yazdi and his wife Soheila Vahdati.

“Torture is all about your identity, about your dignity, about your existence,” Reza relates in the interviews.  “You think, ‘If I break, if I give up, I have lost my dignity. I have lost my existence. If I lose my dignity, who am I going to be after that?”’

The release schedule is:

1/17: LOVE AND FREEDOM: THE LIFE OF REZA FANI YAZDI
Also with Soheila Vahdati
1/24: FAITH AND SACRIFICE: THE BAHA’IS IN IRAN

The Education Under Fire organizers urge participants that,

Over the next seven weeks as we view these short but powerful videos, we should dedicate ourselves more fully to raising awareness about the violation of human rights in Iran. Already, thousands across the country have become part of the DRIVE TO 25 initiative, and we invite you to add your names to the ever-growing list of signatories who have taken the action called for by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President José Ramos‐Horta of East Timor. Visit www.educationunderfire.com/25, post this link and the Angels of Iran videos to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

For more information, contact:
DAVID HOFFMAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA
(336) 580-7660

GEOFFREY TYSON, GENERAL MANAGER
HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA
(256) 604-6265

Tags: Amnesty International, Angels of Iran, Baha'is of Canada, Baha'is of the United States, Boroumand Foundation, Education Under Fire, human-rights, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, United4Iran

The human rights world lost two of its staunch defenders this month. Abdelfattah Amor, a noted human rights lawyer and Tunisian jurist, and Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, a prominent diplomat and professor of law from El Salvador, played key roles in exposing the harsh treatment and unjust policies of the Iranian government toward the Baha’is in Iran.

The Baha’i International Community released public statements expressing its condolences over their passing and extolling their contributions to the United Nations in their respective capacities as UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (1993 to 2004) and UN Commission on Human Rights’ Special Representative on Iran (1987 to 1994.)

Baha’i International Community mourns passing of human rights expert

Jan. 8, 2012

GENEVA — The Baha’i International Community has expressed its condolences over the passing of noted human rights lawyer and Tunisian jurist Abdelfattah Amor.

Professor Amor – who has died at the age of 68 after suffering a heart attack – was best known internationally for his 11 years of service as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, from 1993 to 2004.

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UN investigator who revealed Iran’s “Baha’i Question” memorandum dies aged 93

Jan. 10, 2012

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, a noted legal scholar who uncovered significant evidence of human rights violations in Iran in the late 1980s and early 1990s, passed away here last Thursday.

A prominent diplomat and professor of law, Prof. Galindo Pohl was well known internationally even before his 1987 appointment as the United Nations Commission on Human Rights’ Special Representative on Iran. He had served as El Salvador’s UN ambassador and was also – among other posts – the director of legal affairs for the Organization of American States.

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(Top) Dr. Abdelfattah Amor, 1943-2012. Photo: FIDH. (Bottom) Professor Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, 1918-2012. UN Photo by Yutaka Nagata.

Tags: Abdelfattah Amor, Baha'i International Community, Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, UN Commission on Human Rights' Special Representative on Iran, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief

KCUR
By Alex Smith

Every 19 days, members of Kansas City’s Baha’i religious community gather for a potluck and a traditional service they call a feast. It’s a remarkable diverse mix of races, ages and backgrounds celebrating a 150-year-old gospel of global unity. But the optimistic spirit of many of Kansas City’s Baha’is has been tested. Many have fled for their lives in order to practice their religion.

The Kansas City Baha’i center is in a former bank building on Independence Avenue.  Here, at a recent Baha’i service, about 40 of Kansas City’s 400 community members take turns reading from scripture, and some offer songs and poetry. The diversity of the group is no accident; in fact, you could almost say it’s the point. Baha’i is a religion with a goal. The faith seeks to break down racial, cultural and economic boundaries to achieve peace and stability for the planet, and its scriptures offer a very specific plan for how to do that. This focus on unity is what brings many people, like Earl Moore, to Baha’i.

“One of the things that attracted me to the faith – cause I came up during the sixties and all that, and I found that so many things that we were trying weren’t complete; they didn’t have the complete answer. And I saw the Baha’i faith as the complete answer to the race problem in America and the problems of inequality around the world. It’s the complete package.”

Baha’i was founded in 1866 by an Iranian called Baha’u’llah, but Baha’is believe that his teachings and writings just the latest in a series of sacred revelations. Baha’is believe that all the world’s major practices – Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam – are all aspects of the same basic religion. And some Baha’is refer to the teachings of Baha’u’llah as the latest “update.” Baha’i has no hierarchy or clergy. Instead, local communities elect a group of nine to an assembly which serves as an administration. Kansas actually has a special connection to Baha’i. The second assembly in the western hemisphere was formed in the small town of Enterprise, Kansas in 1897.

Baha’i Persecution

For a group that prides itself on tolerance, Baha’is have drawn a lot of intolerance, especially in Iran, where the religion originated. Ever since Baha’i began, its followers have come under attack by fundamentalist Muslims. An early incarnation of Baha’is, the Babis, saw 20,000 of their members killed in the mid-19th century, and Baha’is founder, Baha’u’llah, spent most of his life either in prison or in exile. Badir Eshragi explains the problem some fundamentalist Muslims have with Baha’i.

“Their opposition to Baha’i is that they say that the Muslim faith is the last religion according to their Koran. That Mohammed was the last prophet, and based on that they say any religion that comes after them is not true. And that’s why they don’t accept.”

Baha’is are the largest minority group in Iran, but in a country that is 98% Muslim, they are just a sliver of the population. Zabi Khorram is one of Kansas City’s Iranian-born Baha’is. They make up about a quarter of Kansas City’s community. Khorram grew up in the small city of Yazd during the ‘50s and ‘60s, when there were about half a million Baha’is in the country. In Yazd, like in all of Iran, Baha’is and Muslims lived in the same neighborhoods and attended the same schools. Zabi says he realized at an early age that life was different for Baha’is.

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Tags: Alex Smith, Baha'i Faith, Bahai, bahais in iran, diversity, Kansas City, KCUR Public Radio, Middle East, religious freedom, religious minorities, religious persecution, religious tolerance, unity

 

Once, during Ramadan in the mid-1990s, Erfan Sabeti was on his way to an all-day genetics class at the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education in Tehran.

He had taken to wearing a tie to show he was not a hard-liner, though the Ayatollah Khomeini had just issued a fatwa saying that ties were a symbol of westernisation. As he was about to get into a taxi, he was stopped by revolutionary guards.

Young and fearless at the time, Sabeti immediately told them he was a Baha’i going to a meeting, where the accepted costume was suit and tie. So they took him to their headquarters and one of them said: “You Baha’is are very cheeky, because we’ve got you ‘on our tongue’. We could swallow you up whenever we wanted, if it wasn’t for pressure from the international community.”

“They interrogated me for three or four hours,” Sabeti recalls now, “cut my tie and fined me about £5. By lunchtime they let me go. My professor was very worried and almost fainted when I told the story, because of the risk that I’d been followed.”

“Mona” (not her real name) also remembers that she and fellow students of the BIHE had to keep the location of classes and labs secret in order to avoid raids by the government.

“We were particularly cautious about the labs, because we didn’t want our textbooks, equipment, photocopiers, computers and teaching materials to be confiscated.”

So what exactly is the BIHE? Why has it long been a target of official hostility in Iran, subject to a notable crackdown in 1998 and now under even more severe threat?

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Tags: Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Bahai, BIHE, Iran, Matthew Reisz, Times Higher Education, university

On the day marked annually as Students Day in Iran, nearly 50 leaders of U.S. medical schools expressed solidarity with Baha’i students and educators barred from university by the Iranian government.

In an open letter addressed to Iran’s representative to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, 48 medical school deans and senior vice-presidents, who “believe that education is an inherent human right,” called for the release of educators associated with the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), which was set up to provide university-level studies for young Baha’is denied their right to education.

“The arresting of BIHE faculty and administrators as well as the banning of generations of Baha’is from education solely on the basis of their religious background are violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights to which Iran is a State Party,” the open letter states. Read the full text of the open letter in English and Persian.

The signatories added their names to the letter when they gathered last month at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Council of Medical School Deans.

The letter’s chief signatory, Dr. Philip Pizzo, Dean of Stanford University’s School of Medicine, helped collect the signatures of individual leaders from more than a third of the medical schools in the U.S.

“We therefore urge your government,” the letter concludes, “to release the instructors and administrators of BIHE from prison. We also request that your government extend Baha’i students and faculty in Iran the same rights to education that we offer every student and professor at our institutions regardless of their heritage, religion or country of origin.”

The open letter from medical school leaders comes on the same day that the situation of the Baha’i educators and students was raised in a joint statement by an international group of lawmakers, including U.S. Senators Mark Kirk (IL) and Joseph Lieberman (CT). In the statement, the lawmakers list by name the seven Baha’is associated with BIHE now serving four- and five-year jail terms: Mahmoud Badavam, Nooshin Khadem, Vahid Mahmoudi, Kamran Mortezaie, Farhad Sedghi, Riaz Sobhani, and Ramin Zibaie. Read the full statement.

Full list of signatories to the open letter

Continue Reading »

Tags: Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Philip Pizzo, Farhad Sedghi, Kamran Mortezaie, Mahmoud Badavam, Mohammad Khazaee, Nooshin Khadem, Ramin Zibaie, Riaz Sobhani, Students Day in Iran, Vahid Mahmoudi

On May 12, 2011, United States Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois hosted a reception to raise awareness about the seven Baha’i leaders imprisoned in Iran.

Actress Eva LaRue is among the notable figures offering their support. Also featured in the video are Senator Kirk; U.S. Representative from New York, Michael Grimm; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Kathleen Fitzpatrick; Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S., Kenneth E. Bowers; and brother of one of the imprisoned leaders, Iraj Kamalabadi.

Read a full review of the reception.

Tags: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Eva LaRue, Iraj Kamalabadi, Iran, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Kenneth E. Bowers, Michael Grimm, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the U.S., seven Baha'i leaders, U.S. Representative from New York, U.S. Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois, Yaran

BWNS — Using some of its strongest language to date, the United Nations General Assembly has roundly condemned Iran for its “serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations.”

By a vote of 86 to 32, with 59 abstentions, the Assembly’s Third Committee today approved a six-page resolution that catalogs a wide range of abuses in Iran, including “a dramatic increase” in executions, the use of torture, the systematic targeting of human rights defenders, pervasive violence against women, and continuing discrimination against minorities, including members of the Baha’i Faith.

“With its long and detailed list of crimes against ordinary citizens, this year’s resolution has condemned the behavior of the Iranian authorities in the strongest language we have yet seen,” said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the UN.

“The result can leave no doubt about what the world community thinks of Iran’s relentless efforts to violate virtually every human right,” she said.

Go to the Baha’i World News Service for the full article and entire text of the resolution.

The United Nations Headquarters buildings in New York City. The UN General Assembly Third Committee today voted in favor of a resolution that condemned Iran for its “serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations.” The resolution – which is expected to be confirmed by the full Assembly in December – also requests that the UN Secretary General issue a report on human rights in Iran again next year. UN Photo/Mark Garten.

Tags: Baha'i Faith, Baha'i International Community, Baha'i World News Service, Bani Dugal, human-rights, Iran, resolution, Third Committee, United Nations General Assembly

Representatives of Coptic, Kurdish, Baha’i and Jewish communities discussed the plight of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East, during a panel hosted by the New York City Bar Association on Nov. 8 at their Manhattan headquarters.

The blog post by the Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University School of Law summarized the presentation by the representative of the U.S. Baha’i community:

Anthony Vance, Director of the Baha’i Office of External Affairs for the National Spiritual Assembly, highlighted the dangers faced by the Baha’i community in Iran.  Vance insisted that much of the Iranian population has been desensitized by media propaganda and the lack of a free press.  He discussed ways that the United States, and the international community as a whole, could help Baha’is and other oppressed minorities in the Middle East, the most important being use of the media and internet to stop the spread of misinformation.

Read the entire summary of the presentations on the “CLR Forum” blog.

Tags: Anthony Vance, Bahai, bahais in iran, Center for Law and Religion at St. John's University School of Law, CLR Forum, minorities in the Middle East, New York City Bar Assocaition

Religious leaders, congressional staff, policy researchers and academics participated in an unprecedented discussion about the Iranian regime’s persecution of members of the Baha’i faith, hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in its Religion and Foreign Policy conference call series.

Leading the conversation were:

• CFR’s Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Elliott Abrams
• Deputy Director for Policy and Research, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Dwight Bashir

Listen to the Nov. 7 recorded session:http://www.cfr.org/iran/iranian-crackdown-regime-against-baha/p26439

Read Abrams’ post in his blog ‘Pressure Points‘: Iran Punishes the Baha’i for the Crime of Education

Tags: Council on Foreign Relations, Dwight Bashir, Elliot Abrams, Middle Eastern Studies, Pressure Points, Religion and Foreign Policy Conference Call Series, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF

iranhumanrights.org, Nov. 2 – Following the sentencing of seven Baha’is associated with the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, their families’ only hope is that the Appeals Court will change the ruling. They were each sentenced to four or five years in prison and were all transferred from Evin Prison to other prisons several days after the lower court ruling.

Naim Sobhani, son of Riaz Sobhani, who was sentenced to four years in prison by the lower court on the charge of providing financial assistance to the Baha’i University, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that, “We have no recourse other than trying to change the judicial ruling [at the appeals stage]. Even though we know the Judiciary does whatever it wants on an arbitrary basis. We can’t even believe my father was sentenced to four years in prison for no crime or wrongdoing. Only for the reason of having helped the Baha’i University. Our father is very ill and may not last even one year in prison. He has heart problems and is under medical treatment, he also has digestive problems, and his eyesight is weak. He’s an old man after all.”

Judge Moghisseh, presiding over Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, sentenced Kamran Mortezaie and Vahid Mahmoudi each to five years. The same court sentenced Ramin Zibaie, Mahmoud Badavam, Farhad Sedghi, Riaz Sobhani and Noushin Khadem to four years in prison. A few days after the trial, without any explanation, Khadem was transferred to Rajee Shahr Prison in Karaj and the other six were transferred to Gohar Dasht Prison in Karaj.

Mahtab Mortezaie, daughter of Kamran Mortezaie who was sentenced on charges of teaching and administrative tasks for the Baha’i University, told the Campaign, “My father is in Evin Prison and has developed back and knee pain. Apparently when he was in Evin he was held with three to four people in a very small cell. His leg pain is due to the fact that he only had enough space to stretch one leg out. He also developed back pain because in Evin he was forced to sleep on the floor. Now apparently his cell in Gohar Dasht Prison is a little bigger and also has a bed. Either way he’s had the need to be seen by a doctor a few times.”

 Read full article.

Media briefing on BIHE

Freedom House and the Baha’i External Affairs Office in Washington hosted a media briefing titled: “Education discrimination in Iran leads to creative use of technology by Bahai online university.” Mahtab Mortezaie was one of the panelists and spoke about her father’s condition and the difficulty in retaining legal services.

Watch highlights video of panel

Tags: Anthony Vance, Behrooz Sabet, Farhad Sedghi, Freedom House President David Kramer, Gohar Dasht Prison, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Kamran Mortezaie, Karaj, Mahmoud Badavam, Mahtab Mortezaie Farid, Naim Sobhani, Niknaz Aftahi, Noushin Khadem, Rajee Shahr Prison, Ramin Zibaie, Riaz Sobhani, Vahid Mahmoudi

The Wall Street Journal Opinion, October 28, 2011

By Firuz Kazemzadeh

In some 40 years as a university professor, I have been privileged to teach students who went on to serve their people as senators, ambassadors, prominent scholars and even U.S. president. None of this would have been possible had I lived in my family’s homeland of Iran. As a member of the Bahai faith, I would have been barred from teaching freely—and I might even have been imprisoned, as seven Bahai educators now are.

While many Iranian citizens are targets of repression by the current regime, the treatment of Bahais, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious community, is a special case. Unlike Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, who have certain limited rights under the Islamic Constitution, Bahais were declared unprotected infidels immediately following the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Bahais have faced persecution in Iran since their religion was founded more than a century and a half ago, but it was never as systematic as in the last 30 years. Since the Islamic Revolution, more than 200 Bahai leaders have been put to death. The regime has outlawed Bahai institutions, confiscated their properties, desecrated their cemeteries, demolished their holy places. Bahais are subject to constant state-sanctioned pressure to recant their faith.

To stamp out that faith, Iranian Supreme leader Ali Khamenei approved the so-called Golpaygani memorandum in 1991. Photo copies describing plans to slowly strangle Iran’s Bahai community were made public by the United Nations in 1992. One measure was to deny Bahais entry to universities, thereby impoverishing them intellectually and economically.

Bahais had already begun educating their youth, founding what became known as the Bahai Institute for Higher Education in 1987. In Tehran and beyond, Bahai professors—unemployable elsewhere because of their membership in what the mullahs called “the deviant sect”—taught languages, biological sciences, civil engineering, literature and even music. Classes were held in private homes, labs were set up in garages, and the Internet eventually provided access to resources abroad.

AFP/Getty ImagesMembers of the Bahai religion demonstrate in Rio de Janeiro in June for the release of seven Bahai prisoners.

The institute avoided teaching about the Bahai faith or other religions, thus avoiding the possible accusation of proselytizing. It operated quietly but not secretly: No enterprise of such size—with thousands of students and hundreds of faculty—could be secret. No law prohibited instruction in languages, sciences, accounting and the like, so the institute didn’t violate the letter or spirit of any law.

The institute’s success frustrated the government. In spite of constant harassment, it achieved academic standards equal to or higher than those of state universities and was frequently recognized by foreign universities that admitted its students into masters and doctoral programs.

In 1996 and 1998, the regime raided homes where classes were held and confiscated equipment. In the second attack, agents of the Ministry of Information arrested 36 faculty and declared the institute closed. The regime demanded that the 36 sign a pledge not to cooperate with the institute. Not one complied.

The regime’s latest assault began on May 22 with raids on 39 homes. Months later, widespread arrests and interrogations of faculty, staff and students continue.

This month, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced seven Bahai faculty members to a combined 30 years behind bars. Meanwhile, a senior lawyer of theirs, Abdolfattah Soltani, remains incarcerated under suspicious circumstances.

Such repression is extreme but not isolated—Iran’s regime targets other minorities as well as women, intellectuals and others. This makes many Iranians feel solidarity with their Bahai fellow citizens.

In an eloquent open letter to the Bahai community in 2009, 243 academics, writers, artists and human rights activists proclaimed, “As Iranian human beings we are ashamed for what has been perpetrated upon the Bahais in the last century and a half in Iran.” That year, demonstrators on the streets of Tehran shouted slogans supporting religious minorities, including Bahais. Even Grand Ayatollah Montazeri—once an enemy of the Bahais—issued a fatwa to the effect that Bahais have every right accorded to Iranian citizens.

The rights of Iran’s Bahais cannot be separated from the human rights of the general population. That journalists, artists and activists languish in jails; that students are excluded from universities based on their religion; that seven Bahai leaders have been condemned to prison for 20 years and seven Bahai educators now face a similar fate; that all Bahais are virtual outlaws in their native land—it’s all part of a single assault on human dignity. One hopes the rest of the world won’t close its eyes.

Mr. Kazemzadeh is professor emeritus of history at Yale and a former commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Tags: Abdolfattah Soltani, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Bahai, Firuz Kazemzadeh, Golgaypani memorandum, Iran, Iran's Revolutionary Court, The Wall Street Journal, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF

GENEVA, Oct. 4, 2011 – We join with the global chorus of condemnation protesting the sentencing of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, and calling for his release.

For a court of law to rule against someone from Muslim ancestry who has freely chosen to be a Christian is yet another instance of the brutality being meted out by the Iranian authorities on their own people.

The recent public proclamation reporting that the charges against Pastor Nadarkhani have been changed – as a result of the global outcry at his conviction – only further exposes the arbitrary nature of decisions made by the judiciary system of Iran and the transparent injustice of the situation.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, pictured with his younger son. Photo credit: Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

The sentence he faces is not only reprehensible; it is a violation of every legal, moral, spiritual and humanitarian standard.

Which temporal government in the world can reasonably decide it has the power to curtail freedom of belief? Belief is not something that can be taken away or bartered; it is a matter of conviction, of the heart, the mind and the soul, beyond the realm of any government’s control.

The Baha’i community understands well the challenging circumstances facing minorities living in Iran today. And now it is evident that those minorities which are nominally recognized by the state are as equally subordinate to the majority as those who have no rights.

There is little need to rehearse here the endless list of executions, torture, imprisonments, privations and other afflictions that are being meted out on the sorely-tried people of Iran.

Everything that country’s representatives profess on the world stage is contradicted by their treatment of their own people at home. Yet, its officials travel freely to other nations where they are offered a platform from which to broadcast their untruths, denying the callous treatment of their own citizens while displaying pretensions of good will for the people of the world.

There is much to be done to alert the people of the world to the hypocrisy of a government which is widely and continually oppressing its people.

There is much to be done for humanity to be alerted to what is going on inside Iran and to be awakened to the appalling memory of what can occur when we fail to act against state-sponsored campaigns of hatred.

Read full story.

Tags: Baha'i International Community, Christian pastor, death sentence, Iran, Iran's Supreme Court, Rasht, Youcef Nadarkhani

(top row, left to right) Cornel West, Princeton, U.S.A.; Graham Ward, Oxford, U.K.; Charles Taylor, McGill, Canada; Leonardo Boff, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; (bottom row, left to right) Ebrahim Moosa, Duke, U.S.A.; Hilary Putnam, Harvard, U.S.A.; Stanley Hauerwas, Duke, U.S.A.; and Tahir Mahmood, former member, Law Commission, India.

Text of the open letter and the names of 43 signatories:

Dear sir,

As philosophers, theologians, and scholars of religion, living throughout the world, we are raising our voices in protest against the recent attack by Iranian authorities on the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE).

As people of faith, we affirm that human beings are fundamentally spiritual in nature, created with the innate capacity to know God and investigate truth for themselves. To acquire knowledge and learning is the sacred and legal right of all; indeed, the state is obliged to provide it.  In Iran, the government has done the opposite. Among the numerous violations of the human rights of Bahá’ís, their access to higher education is systematically blocked for no other reason than their beliefs.  In order to cater to the needs of their youth, Iranian Bahá’ís developed the BIHE – their own, informal, community education initiative. On 22 May, 39 homes associated with the BIHE were raided. The Institute’s activities have since been declared “illegal.” Nine educators remain incarcerated.

Attacks such as these, against the rights of citizens to organize and be educated in freedom, can no longer be tolerated. We call upon the Iranian government not only to cease its persecution of Bahá’ís, but to provide, and promote, education for all.

Charles Taylor
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
McGill University

Hilary Putnam
Cogan University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Harvard University

Cornel West
Class of 1943 University Professor of African American Studies
Princeton University

Leonardo Boff
Professor Emeritus of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and Ecology
Rio de Janeiro State University

Stanley Hauerwas
Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics
Duke University, North Carolina

Ebrahim Moosa
Professor of Religion and Islamic Studies
Duke University, North Carolina

Graham Ward
Regius Professor of Divinity
Oxford University

John Milbank
Professor in Religion, Politics and Ethics
University of Nottingham

Rabbi David Novak
Professor of Philosophy
University of Toronto

Tahir Mahmood
Chairman, Amity University Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
New Delhi

Moshe Idel
Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Abdulkader Tayob
Professor of Islamic Studies
University of Cape Town

William Desmond
Full Professor of Philosophy
Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven

Xinjian Shang
Professor of Philosophy
Peking University

Kevin Hart
Edwin B Kyle Professor of Christian Studies
University of Virginia

Murray Rae
Professor of Theology
University of Otago

Asghar Ali Engineer
Head of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai

Remi Brague
Chair of the Study of Religion
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

A. Rashied Omar
Research Scholar of Islamic Studies and Peacebuilding
University of Notre Dame, Indiana

Joshua Cho
President and Professor of Christian Thought
Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary

Douglas Pratt
Professor of Religious Studies
Waikato University

Ashok Vohra
Professor of Philosophy
Delhi University

Carver Yu
President and Professor of Christian Thought
China Graduate School of Theology, Hong Kong

Laurie Zoloth
Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics
Northwestern University, Ilinois

Pilgrim W.K. Lo
Professor of Systematic Theology
Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong

Philip Goodchild
Professor of Religion and Philosophy
University of Nottingham

Paul Morris
Professor of Religious Studies
Victoria University of Wellington

James E. Faulconer
Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding
Brigham Young University, Utah

Rod Benson
Ethicist and Public Theologian
Tinsley Institute, Morling College, New South Wales

Hassan Mwakimako
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies
Pwani University College, Kilifi

Yunus Dumbe
Lecturer in Islamic Studies
Islamic University College, Accra

Joseph Cohen
University Lecturer in Philosophy
University College, Dublin

Adam Miller
Professor of Philosophy
Collin College, Texas

Raphael Zagury-Orly
Head of the Master of Fine Arts Programme
Bezalel School of Design and Fine Arts, Jerusalem

Felix O Murchadha
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy
National University of Ireland Galway

Na’eem Jeenah
Associate Lecturer of Political Studies
University of the Witwatersrand

Kathleen Flake
Associate Professor of American Religious History
Vanderbilt Divinity School, Tennessee

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen
Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature
American Jewish University, California

Jeffrey Bloechel
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Boston College

William Hackett
Research Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy
Australian Catholic University

Rabbi Akiba Lerner
Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies
Santa Clara University, California

Nathan Oman
Assistant Professor of Law
William and Mary School of Law, Virginia

(Originally published Oct. 10 in The Daily Telegraph letters to the editor)

Tags: A. Rashied Omar, Abdulkader Tayob, Adam Miller, American Jewish University, Amity University Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Asghar Ali Engineer, Ashok Vohra, Australian Catholic University, Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Bezalel School of Design and Fine Arts, BIHE, Boston College, Brigham Young University, Carver Yu, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Charles Taylor, China Graduate School of Theology, Collin College, Cornel West, Delhi University, Douglas Pratt, Duke University, Ebrahim Moosa, Felix O Murchadha, freedom of education, Graham Ward, Harvard University, Hassan Mwakimako, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hilary Putnam, Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary, human-rights, Iran, Islamic University College, James E. Faulconer, Jeffrey Bloechel, John Milbank, Joseph Cohen, Joshua Cho, Kathleen Flake, Katholieke Universiteit, Kevin Hart, Laurie Zoloth, Leonardo Boff, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Lutheran Theological Seminary, McGill University, Morling College, Moshe Idel, Murray Rae, Nathan Oman, National University of Ireland Galway, Na’eem Jeenah, Northwestern University, Oxford University, Paul Morris, Peking University, Philip Goodchild, Pilgrim W.K. Lo, Princeton University, Pwani University College, Rabbi Akiba Lerner, Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, Rabbi David Novak, Raphael Zagury-Orly, Remi Brague, Rio de Janeiro State University, Rod Benson, Santa Clara University, Stanley Hauerwas, Tahir Mahmood, The Daily Telegraph, Tinsley Institute, University College, University of Notre Dame, University of Nottingham, University of Otago, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Toronto, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Victoria University of Wellington, Waikato University, William and Mary School of Law, William Desmond, William Hackett, Xinjian Shang, Yunus Dumbe

Tags: Baha'i Faith, California, human-rights, Iran, Kavli Theatre, Maziar Bahari, Rainn Wilson, Shiva Rose, Thousand Oaks, Ventura County Star

The release of an open letter from two Nobel Peace Prize winners regarding the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education coincided with the first round of trials for imprisoned staff members of the beleaugured Institute.

Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta called for an end to education discrimination in Iran in a Huffington Post homepage article titled “Iran’s War Against Knowledge – An Open Letter to the International Academic Community.” Meanwhile, three separate trials were underway in Iran’s Revolutionary court for seven Baha’i educators currently behind bars for making higher education possible for youth denied access to university because of their religious beliefs. Read more.

The open letter by the Nobel laureates is part of a new initiative called “Education Under Fire,” which is kicking off just as the academic semester gets into full swing.

The “Education Under Fire” campaign includes:

1. A website [http://www.educationunderfire.com/] where visitors can sign on to the Laureates’ letter and invite their networks to do the same.
2. A 30-minute documentary about the Institute, trailers of which can be watched on the website and feature actor Rainn Wilson, President Ramos-Horta, and prominent Iranian academics, human rights attorneys and activists such as Hamid Dabashi.
3. A series of screenings on college campuses around the country, starting with Columbia University in late October. Each screening will be accompanied with a group discussion led by experts in human rights, education and Iran.

The timing, setting and nature of the initiatives are expected to raise the interest of university administrators and campus newspapers about what’s going on with higher education in Iran and to give a sense of urgency to the work of students, faculty, staff and alumni to increase awareness in their campus communities.

Given that the Tutu/Ramos-Horta letter is addressed to the international academic community, anyone who is connected to places of higher education has a meaningful role to play in sharing the document with professors and university leaders.

Tags: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Columbia University, documentary, education discriination, Education Under Fire, Hamid Dabashi, Huffington Post, international academic community, Iran, Laureates, Nobel Peace Prize, open letter, President Jose Ramos-Horta, Rainn Wilson, Revolutionary Court, Roxana Saberi, Shirin Ebadi, university

The lawyer preparing to defend Baha’is facing trial in Iran’s Revolutionary Court has been detained again.

Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani was a senior member of the legal team representing the prisoners who face vague charges of threatening national security for teaching biology, engineering, architecture and other academic disciplines to young Baha’is denied university education because of their religion.

Soltani is a co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, along with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi and others. The Tehran-based Center was shut down in a police raid in December 2008.

Mr. Soltani was also imprisoned for two months in 2009 during the time he represented Iran’s seven Baha’i leaders who are currently serving harsh 20-year sentences for tending to the basic needs of the community, such as births, marriages and burials. Read more.

Amnesty International called on Iran to release Mr. Soltani immediately and commended the courageous lawyer for “refusing to bow to pressure from the Iranian authorities,” adding that, “Now he is again paying the price for that commitment.” Read full statement.

“We are deeply concerned at the detention of Mr. Soltani,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community‘s representative to the United Nations in Geneva. “What precisely are the motives of the Iranian authorities for this arrest, just before his clients are expected to face trial?” Read more.

In 2009, Mr. Soltani was interviewed by the Committee of Human Rights Reporters on the trial of the seven Baha’i leaders in Iran. Read the translation.

Tags: Amnesty International, Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Baha'i International Community, Committee of Human Rights Reporters, Defenders of Human Rights Center, Diane Ala'i, Iran's Revolutionary Court, Iran's seven Baha'i leaders, Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has named Iran among eight “Countries of Particular Concern” in relation to its repression of religious minorities.

At the launch of the State Department’s Annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom, Secretary Clinton highlighted those countries whose governments engage in – or tolerate – “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

“In Iran, authorities continue to repress Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Sunnis, Ahmadis, and others who do not share the government’s religious views,” said Secretary Clinton.

“When governments crack down on religious expression, when politicians or public figures try to use religion as a wedge issue, or when societies fail to take steps to denounce religious bigotry and curb discrimination based on religious identity, they embolden extremists and fuel sectarian strife,” she said. Read more.

The report highlights Iran’s growing catalog of government imprisonment, harassment, intimidation and discrimination based on religion.

Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, described the U.S. government’s frustration at “a number of things in Iran, including the continued harassment of the Baha’i.”

“In Iran, members of the Baha’i are arrested, expelled from university, and their leaders languish in prison,” he said.

“There were seven Baha’i leaders who were sentenced to 20 years in jail. The government then reduced it to 10 and now they’ve upped it again to 20 years. There are eight leaders of one of the Baha’i schools of higher education that are being put on trial…Baha’i kids can’t go to the regular universities. So there’s a range of things, not only the Baha’i but other minority communities,” said Mr. Posner. Read more.

The report cites examples of arbitrary arrest of Baha’is, prolonged detention, confiscation of property, and negative campaigns in government-controlled broadcast and print media.

The obstacles placed in the way of young Baha’is wishing to access higher education are also documented in the report: “The Ministry of Justice stated that Baha’is must be excluded or expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, if their religious affiliation became known…Public and private universities continued to deny admittance to or expel Baha’i students. Although the government maintained publicly that Baha’is were free to attend university, reports indicated that the implicit policy of preventing Baha’is from obtaining higher education remained in effect during the reporting period.” Read more

The report was launched as eight imprisoned Baha’is associated with an informal community arrangement – known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) – await trial.

They were arrested in connection with raids carried out three months ago on some 39 homes of administrators, staff and students of BIHE. Press reports in Iran have recently announced that the educational initiative for excluded students has been declared illegal. Read more.

Tags: Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Bahai, Bahais, Countries of Particular Concern, Human Rights and Labor, Iran, Michael H. Posner, State Department's Annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton

Arrest, imprisonment and trumped up charges for one man
in Iran hits close to home for another man in the U.S.

After the Iranian government took Mahmoud Badavam into custody for teaching young Baha’is barred from university, Anthony Vance, Director of the Office of External Affairs for the Baha’is of the U.S.,  reflected on the time when the two were students in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Read the article in The Huffington Post.

Event details
Where:
Freedom House, 4^th Floor,
1301 Connecticut Ave., Washington, D.C.
When:
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011
10 a.m.
All media, organizations and public welcome.

Delegation to visit Washington to speak out about
resilience of Baha’i students and educators in Iran

Washington, D.C. — With looming court dates for 8 Baha’i educators charged with conspiracy in Iran, three Iranian Baha’is living in the U.S. will visit Washington, D.C., Sept. 12-13, to discuss the group’s response to government policies that exclude Baha’is from post-secondary studies. On the second day, Freedom House will host a public briefing, with remarks by its executive director David J. Kramer.

The three witnesses have strong ties to the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), which Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology declared illegal in June, according to a report by the state-run Iran Student News Agency. The delegation hopes to raise international pressure calling for the release of the Institute’s imprisoned faculty and staff, most of whom were taken into custody during government raids on May 22, 2011. The prisoners now face stiff charges of conspiracy against the Islamic Republic and their trials are expected to commence while the delegation is in Washington.

The delegation includes: San Diego resident Niknaz Aftahi, 27, a recent graduate of the institute’s new architectural program; BIHE administrator Behrooz Sabet, 57, who coordinated American and Canadian online instructors from his base in Louisville, KY; and George Mason University grad Mahtab Mortezaei Farid, 26, whose father was arrested in the May 22^nd raids in Iran the same day as her graduation ceremony in Virginia. The Washington Post covered her graduation party-turned-vigil.  Read more

Baha’is have been persecuted in Iran, owing to their religious beliefs and social teachings, since the faith began there in 1844. Although Baha’is, as matters of religious principle, refrain from partisan politics and obey their government, rulers and clerics in Iran insist they are a political group rather than a religious community and refuse to recognize them under the constitution despite the fact that Baha’is constitute Iran’s largest religious minority.  The strangulation of the Baha’i community in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 is well-documented, including secret government memoranda uncovered by UN human rights investigators. Read more

The New York Times called the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education “an elaborate act of communal self-preservation.“ It is also an interesting case study in the opportunities of the Internet for minority groups in repressive countries. Read more

Additional media fact sheet—with photos, longer bios and more sources—available upon request.

Contact: Ginous Alford, Media relations officer
Phone: (202) 833-8990, Email: galford@usbnc.org

Tags: Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, Behrooz Sabet, BIHE, David J. Kramer, Freedom House, Iranian Student News Agency, Islamic Revolution, Mahtab Mortezaei Farid, Ministry of Science Research and Technology, Niknaz Aftahi, The New York Times, The Washington Post