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.
A spokesman for Iran’s Judiciary, Ali-Reza Jamshidi, announced on 17 February that the seven Baha’i leaders would have court hearings within a week on charges of espionage,but no specific hearing date was ever announced. They have been charged with spying for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. These charges are unfounded and no evidence against them has been brought to light. The Baha’i leaders have been held for nearly a year in Evin prison and denied access to their attorney, the Nobel Laureate, Shirin Ebadi.
In mid-March, the families of the seven imprisoned Baha’is who were the members of the group called the Friends in Iran were informed that prosecutors were still working on the case and that court proceedings were a month away.
We have compiled a list of all the U.S. Government and NGO statements along with statements from other governments which can be accessed by clicking on the links below. We also have links to all significant national and international media coverage, and a selection of blog postings.
Because of the escalation in the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran in recent months and the circumstances surrounding the possible trial of the seven Bahá’í national leaders in Iran, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S has decided to expand the scope of the video contest it launched late last fall about the denial of education of Bahá’í students in Iran to incorporate the general persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran. The video contest has now been opened up to any videos that cover general and specific aspects about the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran. Continue Reading »
Iran’s Attorney General, Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, wrote a letter to the country’s Minister of Intelligence, Muhseni-Azheh’i. The letter is undated, but since it was published online on 19 February 2009, it appears that it was dispatched around mid-February. The letter includes various instructions regarding the government’s treatment of the Baha’i community, http://www.yjc.ir/News/NewsDesc.aspx?newsid=150113.
In an open letter dated March 9, 2009, scholars and academic specialists in the fields of Middle Eastern and Iranian studies call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to put an end to human rights abuses against Baha’is in Iran. Continue Reading »
H. Res. 175 condemning the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran introduced on February 13, 2009, has 30 cosponsors as of March 11, 2009. Continue Reading »
Some 300,000 Baha’is live throughout Iran, making the Baha’i Faith the country’s largest minority religion. The persecution of Baha'is in Iran has been taking place since the religion began there in the mid-nineteenth century. More than 200 Baha’is were killed in Iran between 1978 and 1998, the majority by execution, and thousands more were imprisoned.More
