Persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran

On August 12, Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project, spoke these words at an event in support of the Baha’is in Iran: “Never Again, Never More, Never in the Name of Iran.”

During his speech at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, he described the “theological tensions” that lie at the root of Iran’s ongoing persecution of its Baha’i minority.

But there is also another reason for the obsessive zeal of many Shiites in fighting the Bahai faith. The Bahai’s message of peace in contrast to the Islamists’ increasing use of violence; the Bahai’s promise of gender equality in contrast to a faith where misogyny has long been a way of life; and finally the Bahai’s almost Jeffersonian devotion to the principle that in matters of faith there must be neither coercion, nor acceptance by happenstance of birth, but that children born to Bahai parents should at the moment of maturity decide for themselves their own faith in contrast to a state religion that mandates conversion a capital crime, punishable by death–all combine to create a glaring set of contrasts that render traditional Shiism sclerotic. In comparison, their nemesis faith is a harbinger of modernity and its incumbent reformation–a reformation wherein faith is a private matter between men and women and their own notions of the sacred.

Milani also extolled the various contributions Baha’is have made to the development of Iranian society, and called upon a democratic Iran to recognize its past injustices and grant Iranian Baha’is full citizenship rights.

Democratic societies, like healthy individuals, perpetually and critically contemplate their past, uncovering dark moments of injustice or inequity, and moving to end or amend them. For Iran, the treatment of the Bahais in the last 150 years, our society’s acts of omission and commission, what we said and did or failed to say and do, all create an embarrassing blot of shame on our history. Iran can’t become a democracy unless it has had a full reckoning with its Bahai problem. Iran can’t be a democracy unless the Bahais are considered full citizens of the society and their faith–like those of Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, or members of any other faith, belief, or even disbelief– is recognized as a private matter where the state, social institutions, or actors have no right of inquiry, interference, or harassment.

• Read Abbas Milani’s full speech in The New Republic.
• Learn more about the event in San Francisco.
• View his speech on YouTube, the first half of which is embedded below.

ShareThis

GENEVA — The trial of seven Baha’i leaders imprisoned in Iran has been postponed until October 18, 2009, the Baha’i International Community learned today.

According to Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community representative to the United Nations in Geneva, following a request for postponement of the trial from Mr. Hadi Elsmaielzadeh and Ms. Mahnaz Parakand — attorneys from the Defenders of Human Rights Center who are representing the seven Baha’is — the court has decided to delay the hearing for two months.

Two senior members of the legal team, Nobel laureate Mrs. Shirin Ebadi and Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani, were unable to attend the hearing as Mrs. Ebadi is out of the country and Mr. Soltani is in prison, having been detained on June 16, 2009 in the wake of the civil unrest following the presidential election in Iran.

“Our hope now is that our seven innocent co-religionists will be released on bail,” said Ms. Ala’i.

The seven Baha’i prisoners are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. All but one in the group were arrested on May 14, 2008 at their homes in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was arrested on March 5, 2008 while in Mashhad. They have since been held at Tehran’s Evin prison without formal charges or access to their lawyers.

Official Iranian news accounts have said the seven are to be accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic.”

The Baha’i International Community categorically rejects all charges against the seven, stating that they are held solely because of religious persecution.

• Read the full article from Baha’i World News Service
• Read coverage from Reuters and Washington TV.

ShareThis

In an article published online by CNN on August 13, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi called for the release seven Baha’i prisoners falsely accused of espionage and other crimes. Ebadi, who is the senior attorney registered with the court to defend the Baha’is, said Iranian authorities do not have any evidence against the seven prisoners.

ShareThis

WASHINGTON — Today, August 15, Mr. Hassan Haddad of Tehran’s prosecutor office confirmed that the trial of seven Baha’i leaders falsely accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009. The Bahá’í International Community categorically denies all the charges, at least one of which carries the death penalty in the Islamic Republic.

The lead lawyers registered with the court to represent the Baha’is, including Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani and the Nobel laureate Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, are either in prison or outside the country. According to Mr. Haddad’s publicized statements, the seven standing trial will have new attorneys appointed for them.

The announcement was first published by IRNA, Iran’s official news agency.

• View coverage from CNN, BBC News and Reuters.

ShareThis

The seven Baha’i leaders, with spouses, before their arrest in Spring 2008.
Photo courtesy of Baha’i World News Service.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following last week’s show trial of post-election protesters in Iran, seven Baha’i leaders face yet another failure of legal due process as they prepare to stand trial Aug. 18, 2009, on a series of false charges stemming from their membership with the Baha’i Faith. This despite the fact that the lead lawyers registered with the court to represent them are either in prison or outside the country.

Authorities recently sent to Mr. Abdolfattah Soltani, a key member of the legal team representing the seven Baha’is, who is himself currently detained in Evin prison, a notice dated July 15, 2009, indicating that the trial was scheduled for 9 a.m., Tuesday, August 18, in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. That is the same court that tried Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.

The writ of notification was specifically addressed to Mr. Soltani, a well-known human rights lawyer and a principal of the Tehran-based Defenders of Human Rights Center, which was founded by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and has since last year undertaken to defend the seven Baha’is. To date, Mrs. Ebadi, the senior member of the legal team, remains outside the country.

Official Iranian news accounts have said the seven Baha’i leaders—Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm—are to be accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic,” charges that have been completely and categorically rejected by the Baha’i International Community.

Efforts to have the accused released on bail have not succeeded, nor have they been granted access to their legal counsel since they were arrested more than one year ago.

These circumstances are particularly alarming, because some 25 years ago members of Iran’s national-level Baha’i leadership were rounded up in a similar manner, and executed.

• Read more from Baha’i World News Service.
• Download a high resolution photo.
• Read coverage from CNN International, Washington TV, and Voice of America (Farsi).

ShareThis