Troubling times for the Baha’is of Iran
February 12th, 2009
Yesterday, Iran announced that it will be trying 7 leaders of the Baha’i community, 6 of whom were arrested in May last year, under charges of “espionage for Israel”.
The arrested 7 are in fact members of “the Friends”, an informal society that oversaw the needs of the Baha’i community in Iran. The group is described as informal because in 1983, after executing all members of two consecutive National Spiritual Assemblies, the Iranian government placed a ban on all Baha’i institutions and activities.
Accusations that Baha’is collaborate with foreign powers are not new and in fact have been circulating since the early years of the Faith’s inception. The Baha’i Faith was said to have been a Russian creation in order to undermine Iran, and its leaders were accused of being British spies who were involved in elaborate plots to establish a puppet regime. Today, the accusations of the past have been forgotten in favour of a more convenient narrative: that Baha’is are agents of Zionism.
The strongest “evidence” given to support the claim that Baha’is are Israeli spies is the presence of the Universal House of Justice in Israel, ignoring the fact that it was occasioned by the expulsion of Baha’u'llah to Acre, which was then under Ottoman rule.
The fate that will befall the arrested 7 is unknown, but due to the serious nature of the charges brought against them, they face the threat of execution.
Last August, the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights released a short clip on the persecution of Baha’is in Iran, and concluded it with a message that,”If we do not speak up on behalf of the Baha’is and break the silence, the government will suffocate them, to their very last breath, and we will see horrors we do not wish to see. We cannot let this happen”
That message is even more urgent today.
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The regime feel very insecure and this arresting and trying of the Bahais show the insecurity of the authorities more and more. They cannot fight the fact that Iranians are not what they want Iranians to be, and they are just the opposite, specially the youth, and this is a very frightening fact and I can sympathise with the regime, because even a frightened cat scratches.
What a good looking Bahai gents and ladies. See even this picture looks better than all the officials here, you ask all of them with their families to pause and take a picture and place it beside this picture of our Bahais, then ask our youth which one they appreciate more. Oh they are so done with.
Elinor, I would like to know more about the situation of the Baha’is in Iran. What is your view of their actions, philosophy, and present situation? What is the present mood of the “Iranian Street”? I’d value your ideas and opinions.
Hi Lynne,
Lynne, even though this is a forum dedicated to free speech and with a nickname no one is able to track you down, you wouldn’t see any one from Iran, or even an Iranian from out of Iran commenting here, there is fear, a very sad kind of fear, but then, it could altogether melt down, it could all of sudden trun ito a volcano, that is the very complicated nature of Iranians.
Lynne, we don’t see the Bahais, we don’t know who is a Bahai or who is not, we don’t even know if there is any Christian, Jewish, Zarostian Irananian, because their communities are not very large and they do not have a right to preach about their religion, many a cpouple of neighbors, or coleagues or long term friends know more about them. Bahais in particular had been very roughly handled, not only after the revolution, they were mistreated right form the begining. But then I know about the Iranians who had boldly stood beside them, there are Iranians who would call the Bahias any thing inhum,ane, and there are Iranians who would not accuse any other fellow- contreyman that way, I am very very sorry to say that in the years of after-revolution suffocation, we see more of the bigots and of the hypocrites, and we less publicly come across the Iranians we are so proud of. The ones we are so proud of, we just don;t know about them, we just don/t know about them untill after they are caught for some very unbelieving reaspon and sent to jail, then you hear about a great schol;ar, a man of thought and knowlege a person who was so fearless in speaking his/her mind has just commited suicide, where? In Da Jail! Confound them, that is what they are doing to us, and we Iranians are left to the heroic pages of our ancient scriptures, many those beautiful verses revive that spirit that we had always been so proud of, the spirit that once defined us and now it is just missing, it is just not there, well, every now and then when there is a national tragedy befalling you see that re-emerge for some time, as long as it consumes the greatest of our youth and the best of our people who would sacrifce their lives for the others, specially the opportunist who save their behinds in the heat of the moment and engross like a engaring pest.
A regime or a government deficiency is an enlarged reflection of the collective ignorance. We are not well informed about Bahaism, we are mostly represented by very biased judgements and assusations that need some very serious cultural efforts to be uprooted, and Bahais do not find the right opportunity to defend themselves as the followers of a religion. In some previous years they even could not have a legal marriage registered like any one else, they had serious problems in any thing legal, includinng their ownership of their respective properties in Iran, and these are not much of the problems that they have faced and are still confronting in Iran. Iran recogizes many religions, you could see that the authorities sport numerous seminars and conferences calling for co-existence, peaceful co-existence of the followers of different religions, especially those practiced by Iranians, you wouldn’t see any representative form the Bahai communities of Iran or overseas, what does that mean? That they don’t exist? We only know about their being around when they are arrested, nothing more.
You go to a small town in the North of Iran and hear about the neighbor of a relative who was a Bahai” Oh those evil Bahai’s, they are so honest, they never lie, they are so well behaved, but they are evil all the same, they had to declare in the local newspaper that they are not bahis any more”. You would see them every now and then, and as you would say hello, you wouldn’t notice any thing evil about them.
The youth are the ones who are able to change the distorted images, because they can kick the hollow glasses of discrimination and look the thruth in the eye. Perhaps if one day things are going to change in Iran they will be though the amazingly large number of the youth, I heard some 24 million, and I can be hopeful that they are motivated to scatter the false images and reach for the glittering rainbow of truthfulness and fraternity. Amen
From the front page of CNN today: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/17/wilson.faith/index.html
Hi Jessica, that was a very interesting article, I tried to comment and that didn’t work. so what I will do is posting my comment on that article here, alright?
Mr. Rainn, what is needed is a cultural reform, because culture provides the context for all these shameful persecutions, we ant to convert a society into some thing more bearable, we need to honsetly and turly invest our efforts into the culture, it might be a long-term appraoch to change, but this is what works, and it workds longer. 6 Nahais in the jail, there are 200,000 out of jail in Iran, but the passive culture tainted with the opportunistic manner of ruling this country would make all the other 200,000 subject to persecution and injustice, the culture needs to change. How? Not through English speaking people of course, even if they have the best of intentions, they are not understood by Iranians, we need Persian speaking people tallking to peopletalkint ot the youth, through satire, comedy, plays,documentaries, the subject needs to be culturally addressed. The Persian BBC which has started working for few weeks does provide for the change. The programs are decent and they do make sense to the common sense of the youth or random Iranian population, but then, I am not sure if they are very much willing to speak openly about Bahaism and its hoistory in Iran and the history of their mass persecuition, Bahais of the hostory, Bahais today in Iran and overseas. Because that might create much problems between the authorities of the two countries which are trying to tolerate one another at the moment for sake of the mutual inmterests somehow.
What I am trying to tell you is that the problems of the Bahais, which is indeed a very serious problem is one of the numerous problems we face and we are just a little portion of the Middle East and this Middle East is just a little part of our plant, which is a very tiny thing any way, in the universe. You and me and other, with the best of intentions are not able to fix every thing, we can react, what I suggest is purity of intention and trusting one another and making a pool of all these little little ambitions, asking G-d to give us the direction, whatever we do could be but a little contribution, I will try to openly oppose the unjust rtreatment of the Bahais my way, but remember, we have a bunch of insecure guys ruling, it is not USAl it is a Middle Eastern totalitarian entity. Any way, thank you for your very ” honset” request. Abha
Bahai’is are gentle peace-loving people. Sounds like the Iranian regime is sicker than I’ve realized.