Persecution of Bahá'ís
Encyclopedia
The persecution of Bahá'ís is the religious persecution
of Bahá'ís in various countries, especially in Iran
, where the Bahá'í Faith
originated and the location of one of the largest Bahá'í populations in the world. The origins of persecution stem from a variety of Bahá'í teachings inconsistent with traditional Islam
ic belief, including the finality of Muhammad's
prophethood, and places Bahá'ís outside the Islamic faith. Thus Bahá'ís are seen as apostates from Islam
, and, according to some, must choose between repentance and death.
Bahá'ís as well as the United Nations
, Amnesty International
, the European Union
, the United States
and peer-reviewed academic literature have stated that the members of the Bahá'í community in Iran
have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture
, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals and the Bahá'í community, denial
of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.
, which was established in 1844 by the Báb
in Iran. Eighty-nine percent of Iranians adhere to the Twelver branch of Shi'a Islam
, which holds as a core doctrine the expected advent of a messianic figure known as the Qa'im or as the Imam Mahdi
. The Báb claimed he was the Imam Mahdi and thus he had equal status to the Prophet Muhammad
with the power, which he exercised, to abrogate the final provisions of Islamic law
.
Bahá'u'lláh
, a Bábí who claimed to be the one foretold by the Báb
, claimed a similar station for himself in 1863 as a Manifestation of God
and as the promised figure foretold in the sacred scriptures of the major religious traditions of the past and founded what later came to be known as the Bahá'í Faith.
Concerning the historical context of the persecutions, Friedrich W. Affolter in "War Crimes, Genocide, & Crimes against Humanity" writes:
In addition to this the Bábí religion, the forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith had a violent history in Iran. Friedrich W. Affolter writes:
Others have stated that the Bábís originally armed themselves and prepared for a holy war that became defensive when they encountered state troops in several locations and that two to three thousand Bábís were killed.
Bahá’u’lláh took a more conciliatory position, forbidding the use of holy war
to spread his faith. Instead, he attempted to engage various governments in dialog; however, the radical nature of his claim to prophethood did little to change the perception of the people of Iran. To this day, Bahá'ís are a widely persecuted minority group in Iran and other predominantly Muslim countries, since they are seen as apostates from Islam, and supporters of the West
and Israel
.
in 1906 set the groundwork for the institutionalized persecution of Bahá'ís. While the constitution was modelled on Belgium's
1831 constitution, the provisions guaranteeing freedom of worship were omitted. Subsequent legislation provided some recognition to Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians as equal citizens under state law, but it did not guarantee freedom of religion and "gave unprecedented institutional powers to the clerical establishment."
The Islamic Republic of Iran, that was established after the Iranian revolution
, recognizes four religions, whose status is formally protected: Zoroastrianism
, Judaism
, Christianity
, and Islam
. Members of the first three minority religions receive special treatment under Iranian law. For example, their members are allowed to drink alcohol, and representatives of several minority communities are guaranteed seats in parliament
.
However, religious freedom in Iran is far from absolute, to say the least. Conversion away from Islam (apostasy
) is forbidden, with both converts and missionaries risking prison. Those seeking to start a new religious group (whether Muslim or not) face severe restrictions.
The Bahá'í Faith faces an additional, technical hurdle. Iranian law recognizes all those who accept the existence of God and the prophethood of Muhammad as Muslims. Bahá'ís accept both of these precepts; however, Bahá'ís recognize the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh as additional messengers that have appeared after Muhammad. Muslims, on the other hand, assert the finality of Muhammad's revelation. Iranian law therefore treats Bahá'ís as "heretics" rather than members of an independent religion, as they describe themselves.
Other unrecognized Iranian religious minorities include the Ahl-e Haqq, the Mandaeans
, Azalis and Evangelical
Christians. Non-Muslims comprise less than 1% of Iran's population. See religious minorities in Iran.
was "a way of showing mullah
s who was boss." Correspondingly, since the Bahá'ís were a relatively small minority and most Iranians followed traditional beliefs of Apostasy in Islam
, when the government was politically weak and in need of clerical support, withdrawal of government protection to "allow active persecution of the Bahá'ís," was a "low cost pawn that could be sacrificed to the mullah
s". Thus during the heyday of secular ruler Reza Shah
Bahá'ís were protected; while in 1955, when Reza Shah's son, Muhammad Reza, needed clerical support for the Baghdad Pact and with the 1953 Iranian coup d'état only two years past, Bahá'ís were attacked.
in 1903 more than 100 Bahá'ís were killed. Later on Bahá'í schools, such as the Tarbiyat boys' and girl's schools in Tehran, were closed in the 1930s and '40s, Bahá'í marriages were not recognized and Bahá'í literature
was censored.
During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, due to the growing nationalism and the economic difficulties in the country, the Shah gave up control over certain religious affairs to the clergy of the country. Among other things, the power sharing resulted in a campaign of persecution against the Bahá'ís. Akhavi has suggested it is likely the government had hoped that by orchestrating a movement against the Bahá'ís it could serve to obscure the fact that revenues obtained by the distribution of oil from western oil companies was going to be too low for the growing nationalistic sentiment; it would also serve to gain the support of the clergy for their foreign policy. They approved and coordinated the anti-Bahá'í campaign to incite public passion against the Bahá'ís started in 1955 and included the spreading of anti-Bahá'í propaganda in national radio stations and official newspapers.
During the month of Ramadan
in 1955, Sheikh Mohammad Taqi Falsafi, a populist preacher, started one of the highest-profile anti-Bahá'í propaganda schemes. After receiving permission from the Shah to state anti-Bahá'í rhetoric in his sermons, he encouraged other clergy to discuss the Bahá'í issue in their sermons. These sermons caused mob violence against Bahá'ís; Bahá'í properties were destroyed, Bahá'í centres
were looted, Bahá'í cemeteries desecrated, Bahá'ís were killed, some hacked to pieces, Bahá'í women were abducted and forced to marry Muslims, and Bahá'ís were expelled and dismissed from schools and employment. During the third week of the sermons the National Bahá'í Centre in Tehran
was occupied by the military and its dome later destroyed. The Minister of the Interior, Amir Asadollah Alam, wrote in his memoirs:
While the government tried to stop the sermons, Falsafi did not stop his sermons until the end of Ramadan. Throughout the 1950s the clergy continued to initiate the repression of the Bahá'í community; however, their efforts were checked by government ministers who, while they were sympathetic to the anti-Bahá'í sentiment, feared that the violence would get out of control and cause international criticism.
Also during the 1950s, the fundamentalist Islamic organization named Hojjatiyeh, whose central aim was to combat the Bahá'í Faith, was founded. Members of the group entered Bahá'í communities, and many of the Bahá'í arrests, imprisonments and executions are often attributed to Hojjatiyeh members having access to Bahá'í registration books. Also during the Pahlevi era, the Hojjatiyeh seem to have cooperated with SAVAK
, the Iranian government's intelligence agency who had gathered information about the religious affiliation of Iranian citizens, to attack the Bahá'ís.
Eliz Sanasarian states that while many Iranians blamed the Bahá'í persecution on Hojjatiyeh, who was the most visible anti-Bahá'í force, that the silent Iranian majority "cannot avoid personal and communal responsibility for the persecutions of the Bahá'í in this extreme manner. To provide tacit support, to remain silent, ... do not excuse the majority for the actions based on prejudice and hate against an Iranian religious minority group."
In the late 1970s the Shah's regime, due to criticism that he was pro-Western, consistently lost legitimacy. As the anti-Shah movement gained ground and support, revolutionary propaganda was spread that some of the Shah's advisors were Bahá'ís. Bahá'ís were portrayed as economic threats, supporters of Israel and the West and popular hatred for the Bahá'ís increased.
and others report that 202 Bahá’ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution (see below), with many more imprisoned, expelled from schools and workplaces, denied various benefits or denied registration for their marriages. Additionally, several Bahá’í holy sites were destroyed in the revolution's aftermath, including the house of the Báb in Shiraz, the house of Bahá'u'lláh at Takur (in Mazandaran), and the house of Muhammad-Ali Barfurushi (Quddús
) in Tehran
.
The Islamic Republic has often stated that arrested Baha'is are being detained for "security issues" and are members of "an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular," but according to Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, "the best proof" that Bahais are being persecuted for their faith, not for anti-Iranian activity "is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam ..."
During the Iranian revolution
attacks against the Bahá'ís increased. In 1979 Hojjatiyeh members took over the Bahá'í National Centre in Tehran and other cities and expelled staff and seized personnel files and membership lists. These files were later used by Hojjatiyeh including sending flyers in the mail warning Bahá'ís of the consequences of continuing to believe in the Bahá'í beliefs. Also, once again, there were reports of mob attacks, arson, and deaths and murders against the Bahá'ís across Iran; twenty-two Bahá'í cemeteries as well as hundreds of Bahá'í homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. During December 1978 in Sarvestan
, a city south of Shiraz
, it was reported that several hundred Bahá'í houses were set on fire, and more than 1,000 Bahá'ís were left homeless. Reports of the attacks suggest that they were not spontaneous, but that they were initiated by the military government appointed by the Shah, that SAVAK provided the addresses for Bahá'ís, and when the army showed up they did not take action to prevent the fires from spreading. Further attacks happened throughout the country including Bahá'ís who would not recant being fired at and having their homes destroyed; the violence continued even after the Shah fled Iran.
The new government's spokesman in the United States
told that while religious minorities would retain their religious rights emphasized that the Bahá'ís would not receive the same treatment, since they believed that the Bahá'ís were a political rather than religious movement. Bazargan, the provisional prime-minister, while being emphatic that all Iranians would enjoy the same rights, insisted that the Bahá'ís were a political movement and would not be tolerated.
During the drafting of the new constitution the wording intentionally excluded the Bahá'ís from protection as a religious community. Referring to the recordings of the proceedings of the official transcripts of the constitution drafting process, Sanasarian states that anti-Bahá'í thought was obvious as there was haggling "over every word and expression of certain articles to assure the exclusion of the Bahá'ís." The final version of the constitution explicitely withheld recognition from the Bahá'ís by stating in Article 13 that the "Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians are the only recognized religious minorities..." Responding to international criticism due to the exclusion of the Bahá'ís, spokesmen for the government stated, as before, that the Bahá'ís were a "misguided group... whose affiliation and association with world Zionism is a clear fact" and that "Bahá'ísm is not a religion, but a political doctrine."
Starting in late 1979 the new government of the Islamic Republic of Iran systematically targeted the leadership of the Bahá'í community by focusing on the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) and Local Spiritual Assemblies (LSA). In November 1979, Ali Murad Davudi
, the secretary of the NSA, was kidnapped and never seen again. In August 1980 all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly were arrested while meeting at a private home. In a statement on September 10, 1980, then speaker of the House Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, stated that an order for the arrests of the Bahá'ís had been issued, but by October 9, 1980 Rafsanjani changed his statement and said that no members of the NSA were arrested. There has been no further news regarding the nine NSA members since their arrest in 1980, and their fate remains unknown, although there are reports that they were at some point held in Evin prison
; they are now presumed dead. After the disappearance of the NSA members, the Iranian Bahá'í elected a new NSA. On December 13, 1981 eight of the nine new NSA members were arrested by the Iranian authorities, and were executed on December 27, 1981 without trial.
In addition to the execution of the members of two National Spiritual Assemblies, the members of Local Spiritual Assemblies throughout the country were also killed. Between April 1979 and December 1980 at least eight prominent Tehran
Bahá'ís were killed. In September 1980 in Yazd
, fifteen Bahá'ís were arrested, and after a graphic trial that was partially televised, seven of the Bahá'ís were executed; the remaining eight were released after four months. In Tabriz
in 1979 two prominent Bahá'ís were executed and then in 1981 all nine members of the Tabriz LSA were executed. In Hamadan
seven members of the LSA of Hamaden were executed by firing squad, and while the bodies were being prepared for the funeral it was found that six of the men were physically tortured before their death. In Shiraz
between 1978 and 1981, the House of the Báb, a Bahá'í holy place, was destroyed, five prominent Bahá'ís were executed, and more than 85 Bahá'ís were arrested for interrogations; then in 1983 sixteen more Bahá'ís were executed.
On August 29, 1983 the government announced a legal ban on all administrative and community activities of the Bahá'í community, which required the dissolution of the third National Spiritual Assembly and about 400 Local Spiritual Assemblies. The Bahá'í community complied with the ban, but the former members of the LSAs were routinely harassed, and seven members of the third NSA were eventually arrested and executed.
himself, signaled an increase in efforts to suffocate the Iranian Bahá'í community through a more "silent" means. The document organized the methods of oppression used to persecute the Bahá’ís, and contained specific recommendations on how to block the progress of the Bahá'í communities both inside and outside Iran. The document stated that the most excessive types of persecutions should be avoided and instead, among other things recommended, that Bahá'ís be expelled from universities, "once it becomes known that they are Bahá'ís," to "deny them employment if they identify themselves as Bahá'ís" and to "deny them any position of influence."
The existence of this so called Golpaygani Memorandum was brought to the attention of the public in a report by the then UN Human Rights Commissioner Mr Galindo Pohl (E/CM4/1993/41, 28 January 1993), and the policy recommendations of the document are still in force.
In 2004, Iranian authorities demolished the shrine and grave site of Muhammad-Ali Barfurushi (Quddús
), a Bábí leader. In late 2005, an anti-Bahá'í media campaign was launched in Iran, asserting that the religion was created by colonialist powers to subvert Islam and to subjugate the Muslim peoples of Iran. In 2006 Iranian officials arrested 54 Bahá'ís, mostly young people, in Shiraz
. In March and May 2008 the seven "senior members" who form the leadership of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested.
. Officers from the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran searched and raided the homes of the six people in the early hours of May 14. The arrest of the six follow the detention of another Bahá'í leader in March, who was originally taken to answer questions relating to the burial of a Bahá'i in the Bahá'í cemetery in Mashad. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has stated that they are concerned for the safety of the Bahá'ís, and that the recent events are similar to the disappearance of 25 Bahá'í leaders in the early 1980s. In May Amnesty International
also announced an Action Alert about the arrests. At year's end all seven members of the Bahá'í national leadership and a total of at least 40 Bahá'ís were imprisoned in Iran. On February 17, 2009, Iranian state run news agency, IRNA, reported that the Bahá'í leaders had been officially accused of espionage.
In June 2008 Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi
volunteered to be their lawyer, and received threats against her life for defending the Baha'i community. On December 21 Ebadi's office of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights was raided and closed. On December 29, government security officers posing as tax officials raided Ebadi's private law offices, seizing office files and computers. A second lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani
, reportedly taking up the case is reported to have disappeared June 16.
The court case has been postponed several times, but went ahead on January 12, 2010. Apparently no observers were allowed in the court, and the defence lawyers, who have had nearly no access to the defendants for two years, also had difficulty entering the court. The chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chairman said that it seems that the government has already predetermined the outcome of the case and violating international human rights law. Further sessions were held on February 7, 2010, April 12, 2010 and June 12, 2010. On August 11, 2010 it became known that the court sentence was 20 years imprisonment for each of the seven prisoners which was later reduced to ten years. After the sentence, they were transferred to Gohardasht prison
. In March 2011 the sentences were reinstated to the original 20 years.
There have been widespread calls from public figures, governments and organizations to the Iranian government to release the Bahá'ís, especially after the trial was announced on February 11, 2009. Members of government across the world including from Brazil, the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia have either released statements or sponsored resolutions condemning the government of Iran for the arrest of the Bahá'í leaders. The Presidency of the European Union
(EU), with the support of the EU associated countries denounced the trial.
Human rights organizations have also released statements: Amnesty International
has released updated Action Alerts about the trial since in 2009. Freedom House
strongly condemned the trial, and World Organisation Against Torture
proposed actions to secure the freedom of the leadership and others arrested. Responding to a letter from Roxana Saberi
, who was in contact with two of the women Bahá'í leaders while she was in prison, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
demanded the seven prisoners be freed rather than stand trial.
There have been groups of individuals also speaking out. On February 4, 2009 267 non-Bahá'í Iranian academics, writers, artists, journalists and activists from some 21 countries including Iran signed an open letter of apology posted to Iranian.com
and stating that they believed that the Bahá'ís had been deprived of their rights in the Islamic Republic, and pledging their support of achieving the rights detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
for the Bahá'ís in Iran. British
entertainers wrote an open letter printed in the The Times
of London of those to be on trial stating their solidarity with the Bahá'ís." A prominent group of more than sixty professors and scholars who specialize in Middle Eastern and Iranian Studies have added their voices in protest as well. Others who have spoken out include Rainn Wilson
and Shohreh Aghdashloo
.
In February 2010, Iranian authorities detained five more members of the Bahá'ís, reportedly including Niki Khanjani, daughter of Jamaloddin Khanjani, one of seven Bahá'í leaders jailed since 2008.
, according to representatives of the International Bahá'í Community. Apparently the group was arrested during its participation in a community-service project teaching classes to underprivileged children, initiated by a local non-governmental organization. The group is reported to have had in its possession a letter of permission from the Islamic Council of Shiraz to undertake this service project at the time of its arrest. The nature of the charges against the Bahá'ís is unknown at present as are the conditions under which the detainees are being held.
On the very same day, one of the 54 Bahá'ís who had been arrested earlier but who was under the age of 15 was released without having to post bail. Several other young people who had been arrested along with the Bahá'ís but who were not themselves Bahá'í were also released without posting bail.
"The arrests coincided with raids on six Bahá'í homes during which notebooks, computers, books, and other documents were confiscated," according to an article by the Bahá'í World News Service. The article further reports that since January, other than the aforementioned 54 detainees, "seven Bahá'ís have been arrested and held for periods of up to one month in Kermanshah
, Isfahan
, and Tehran
.
On May 24, fourteen of the Bahá'ís were released, each having been required to provide deeds of property to the value of ten million tumans (approximately US$11,000). On the following day 36 Bahá'ís were released on the strength of either personal guarantees or the deposit of work licenses with the court as surety that they will appear when summoned to court.
The last three of the group of 54 Bahá'ís were released on 14 June. Although the judge originally demanded a bond equivalent to $54,000, they were released without bail on the promise that they would return for a later court appearance. No formal charges have been made against them. However, in most cases, some form of bail, such as deeds of property, were demanded before release. Currently, two Bahá'ís, arrested in Tehran and Sanandaj, remain in prison.
On January 29, 2007 Iran's judiciary sentenced the 54 Bahá'í for four years in prison for propaganda against the regime. Part of the group, 51 Bahá'ís, were given suspended one-year jail sentences conditional on their attendance of courses held by the Islamic Propaganda Organisation, which is organized by the government. Amnesty International
has called for the release of the Bahá'ís stating that they are "detained solely because of their religious beliefs, or their peaceful activities teaching underprivileged children."
has instructed the Command Headquarters to identify people who adhere to the Bahá'í Faith and to monitor their activities and gather any and all information about the members of the Bahá'í Faith. The letter was addressed to the Ministry of Information
, the Revolutionary Guard
and the Police Force. The letter was brought to the attention of the international community by Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on freedom of religion or belief, in a March 20, 2006 press release.
In the press release the Special Rapporteur states that she "is highly concerned by information she has received concerning the treatment of members of the Bahá'í community in Iran." The UN's press release summarizing Ms. Jahangir's report states:
The monitoring of Bahá'ís has also been seen in other official government documents; in a letter dated 2 May 2006 from the Trades, Production, and Technical Services Society of Kermanshah to the Iranian Union of Battery Manufacturers, it was asked of the Union to provide a list of members of "the Baha'i sect” in their membership. Furthermore, in a letter dated 19 August 2006, Iran's Ministry of the Interior to the Department of Politics and Security in Offices of the Governors’ General throughout Iran ordered officials to step up the surveillance of Iranian Bahá'ís throughout the country. Among the information requested in a detailed questionnaire about the activities of local Bahá'ís is their financial status and social interactions.
The Anti-Defamation League
has stated that the government's effort to identify and monitor Bahá'ís is similar to the what the Jews faced in the beginning of the Nazi era: they wrote the orders issued were “reminiscent of the steps taken against Jews in Europe and a dangerous step toward the institution of Nuremberg-type laws.”
and others report that 202 Bahá’ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution (see below). The most recent death of a Bahá’í in the custody of the Iranian government occurred on Dec, 15, 2005, in the city of Yazd
. Zabihullah Mahrami
had been sentenced to death
in 1995, but in 1999 this was commuted to life in prison
.
His arrest was for the crime of apostasy against Islam, but he was convicted of spying for Israel. He was approximately 59 years old. He died in his prison cell of unknown causes. The United States condemned the imprisonment and alleged persecution of Zabihullah Mahrami, and State Department Deputy Spokesman, Adam Ereli, said that Mr. Mahrami had received death threats in prison and been forced to perform arduous physical labour.
The most recent Bahá’í execution apparently occurred in 1998, when the Iranian government hanged Ruhollah Rohani in Mashad on the charge of converting a woman to the faith though she herself stated that she had been a lifelong Bahá’í. Newspaper accounts describe this as the first Bahá’í execution in six years. Death sentences had also been passed against Sirus Zabhi-Moghaddam and Hedayat Kashefi-Najabadi, which have apparently not yet been carried out and Ataollah Hamid Nazrizadeh has received a ten-year prison sentence for related offences arising from the same situation.
also found that university officials in Iran had “received orders from above not to score the tests of Baha’i students,” or that these officials had suggested that a student would receive his test scores only if the student’s family renounced their faith. The Committee called for the complete publication of all test scores without discrimination.
In an effort which the New York Times called "an elaborate act of communal self-preservation," the Bahá'í community in 1987 established its own program of higher education to meet the educational needs of its young people, which evolved to become known as the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), whose classes were held in private homes and had an enrollment of approximately 900 students. In 1998 (29 September - 2 October), Iranian authorities broke up the underground institution invading more than 500 Bahai homes and office buildings in at least 14 cities around Iran. Hundreds were arrested. In addition to books and computer equipment confiscated, personal possessions such as silverware and refrigerators were taken in what was described as "thieve[ry] in the name of Islam."
Iranian columnist Iqbal Latif calls Iran's denial of access to university education for Bahá'ís "[i]ntellectual cleansing of their ethnic brothers by the clergy-dominated regime."
In April 2004, Iranian authorities demolished the shrine and grave site of Muhammad-Ali Barfurushi (Quddús
), a Bábí leader. The following June, the Tehran house of Mírzá `Abbás-i-Núrí
(aka Mírzá Buzurg), Bahá'u'lláh's father, was destroyed. The previous such incident occurred in 1993 when a Bahá'í cemetery in Tehran was bulldozed in order to build a municipal centre.
newspaper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei
, ran nearly three dozen articles defaming the Bahá'í Faith. The articles, which make use of fake historical documents, engage in a distortion of history to falsely describe Bahá'í moral principles in a manner that would be offensive to Muslims, thus inducing feelings of suspicion, distrust and hatred to members of the Bahá'í community in Iran.
The articles claim, in the face of all historical data, that the religion was invented and implanted by colonialist powers to subvert Islam and to subjugate the Muslim peoples of Iran. They use fake historical documents such as the memoirs of Prince Dolgorouki, a mid-nineteenth century Russian minister in Tehran, to substantiate their claims; the memoirs were however manufactured in Iran in 1937 and have long since been exposed as forgeries.
The articles also state that the Báb
, one of the Bahá'í Faith's central figures, was taught simultaneously by the Jews and the Tsarist government of Russia, even though the Tsarist government was well-known to have been unfavourable towards the Jews. The Bahá'í World Centre claims that the linking of Bahá'ís with Zionism serves to provoke suspicion and hatred towards the Bahá'ís.
An Israeli mockumentary
about the religion called Baha'is In My Backyard was released in 2006. According to the producer, the film was pirated, professionally dubbed and streamed by an Iranian website then altered again to make serious accusations against the Bahá'ís using excerpts from the film on another Iranian website. Another attack was through national television - a "documentary" was televised called The Secret of Armageddon in the first half of 2008 which outlined a Jewish-Bahá'í conspiracy against Iranian interests.
In November 2009, the popular Iranian conservative newspaper Hamshahri
, known to take a critical stand towards President Ahmadinejad, was closed down temporarily, only because it published in an advertisement for tourism travel to India a photograph of a temple of the Baha'i Faith. After the contested Iranian election of 2009 and the continuing unrest, the government increased its anti-Bahá'í rhetoric, blaming Bahá'ís for the demonstrations, which observers have stated is without merit. The government of Iran has historically defined the Bahá'ís as an 'other' to draw public attention away from the government.
In October 2011 the Bahá'í International community published a report titled "Inciting Hatred: Iran's Media Campaign to Demonize Baha'is", analyzing media items between late 2009 and early 2011.}}
In April 2005, Diane Ala'i, Bahá’í spokesperson to the United Nations
in Geneva, described other forms of persecution to the UN Commission on Human Rights:
Ms. Ala'i also said that in March 2005, in Tehran, Iranian intelligence agents entered the homes of several Bahá’ís and spent hours ransacking their houses before carting away their possessions and taking them into custody.
The Bahá’í's New York spokesperson, Bani Dugal, clarified some of the involved in December 2005:
Ms. Dugal said that although the majority of those Bahá’ís who have been arrested were released, nine remained in prison as of late October [2005].
In May 2008 Albert Lincoln, secretary-general of the Bahá'í International Community, stated that in recent months there have been cases of arson, threats, kidnappings and beatings:
Since the later part of the 20th century many third party organizations have made statements regarding the persecution of Bahá'ís asking that human rights be maintained. To date, the United Nations
, Amnesty International
, the European Union
, the United States
, Brazil
, Australia
, New Zealand
, Austria
, Canada
, UK, Germany
, France
, Netherlands
, Ireland
, Hungary
, Norway
and India
have made official statements condemning the treatment of Bahá'ís abroad, in particular, in Iran
.
The United Nations
and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
has published reports on the persecution of the Bahá'ís since the Iranian Revolution in 1979; in every year since 1984, except for 2002, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has passed a resolution expressing concern about human rights violations against the Bahá'ís in Iran. The Special Representative on Iran, Professor Galindo Pohl, Canadian Jurist and UBC Law Professor, Maurice Copithorne, and the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Professor Abdu’l Fatah Amor, have all reported on the persecutions that the Bahá'ís have faced in Iran. For example, in 1995 the commission wrote that "... the Bahá'ís, whose existence as a viable religious community in the Islamic Republic of Iran is threatened ..." and in November 2005 they wrote that "... the escalation and increased frequency of discrimination and other human rights violations against the Bahá’í[sic], including cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs, the disregard of property rights, the destruction of sites of religious importance, the suspension of social, educational and community-related activities and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing and other benefits ...".
Amnesty International
has also documented the persecution of the Bahá'í community in Iran. For example in 1998 it gave statements regarding the execution of a Bahá'í prisoner: "Amnesty International unreservedly condemns the execution of Ruhullah Rouhani and fears that he was executed for the non violent expression of his beliefs. Amnesty International currently knows of seven cases of Bahá'í prisoners under the sentence of death and is calling for commutation of these and all other death sentences without delay"
The European Union
in the 2004 EU Annual Report on Human Rights wrote:
Then in a speech given at the European Parliament in October 2005 on behalf of the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, Jan Figel said:
The United States
Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor stated in the 2004 Report on International Religious Freedom that "The Government harasses the Bahá'í community by arresting Bahá'ís arbitrarily," that "the property rights of Bahá'ís are generally disregarded, ... the Government has confiscated large numbers of private and business properties belonging to Bahá'ís," and that "Public and private universities continue to deny admittance to Bahá'í students"
The Iranian government responds to these statements by saying that Bahá'ís are enemies of the state, were supporters of the former Shah
's government and spies employed by imperialist governments of the West. The Ayatollah Khomeini, even before his return to Iran said in an interview that he believed that Bahá'ís were traitors — Zionists — and enemies of Islam.
The Iranian representative to the United Nations tried several times, albeit unsuccessfully, between 1982 and 1984 to convince the United Nations diplomatic community that the Bahá'í Faith is a politicized organization with a record of criminal activism against the Iranian government and not a legitimate religion like Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism which are protected under Iranian law; Iran has not acknowledged that the Bahá'í Faith is a religion. The United Nations responded to the Iranian government's accusations by stating that there has been no evidence of Iran's claims and that the Bahá'í community in Iran professes its allegiance to the state. The United Nations pointed to the Bahá'í teaching of obedience to the government of one's country and stated that any involvement in any subversive acts against the government would be antithetical to precepts of the Bahá'í religion. The United Nations also stated that if the Iranian government did acknowledge that the Bahá'í Faith is a religion, it would be an admission that freedom of religion does not apply to all in Iran and that it is not abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenants on Human Rights to which it is a signatory.
There are many Iranians who have published how and why Iranians think of Bahá'ís as outsiders. Dr. Mohammad Tavakoli, a Muslim-Iranian, who is a Professor of Middle Eastern Studies
at the University of Toronto
presents in Iran-Nameh, a Persian language
academic journal, a study that examines the processes that led to the ghettoization and eventual "othering" of the Bahá'ís in Iran by the political and religious forces within Iranian society.
became the first Islamic state to legally recognize the Bahá'í Faith as an independent religion apart from Islam. Despite a historically active Egyptian Bahá'í community during the early twentieth century, Bahá'í institutions and community activities have been banned since 1960 by Law 263. This law was decreed by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser
, seven years after the founding of the Arab Republic of Egypt. All Bahá'í community properties, including Bahá'í centers, libraries, and cemeteries, were confiscated by the government. The current Egyptian Bahá'í community, estimated to number between several hundred and two thousand, has also had fatwa
s issued against it by Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Center, which charges Bahá'ís with apostasy.
In January 2001, 18 people, mostly Bahá'ís, were arrested in the city of Sohag under the pretence of having violated Article 98(F) of the Penal Code ("insulting a heavenly religion") and other possible charges, 10 of whom were held in detention for over 10 months without being formally charged.
began in the 1990s when the government modernized the electronic processing of identity documents, which introduced a de facto requirement that documents must list the person's religion as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish (the only three religions officially recognized by the government). Consequently, Bahá'ís were unable to obtain government identification documents (such as national identification cards, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage or divorce certificates, or passports) necessary to exercise their rights in their country unless they lied about their religion, which conflicts with Bahá'í religious principle. Without documents, they could not be employed, educated, treated in hospitals, travel outside of the country, or vote, among other hardships.
Following a protracted legal process culminating in a court ruling favorable to the Bahá'ís, the interior minister of Egypt released a decree on April 14, 2009, amending the law to allow Egyptians who are not Muslim, Christian, or Jewish to obtain identification documents that list a dash in place of one of the three recognized religions. The first identification cards were issued to two Bahá'ís under the new decree on August 8, 2009. Under this compromise solution, the Bahá'í Faith is still unrecognized by the government — Islam, Christianity, and Judaism remain the only recognized religions.
(1969), Iraq
(1970 and versions since) and Indonesia
(especially but not exclusively 1962-2000). During the late 1970s, the Bahá'í Faith was also banned in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Burundi
, 1974; Mali
1976; Uganda
1977; Congo
, 1978; and Niger
, 1978).
.
, a region that has some of the earliest connections with the Bahá'í Faith, there have been several news stories covering severe social, bureaucratic and legal limits on religious communities, including the Bahá'ís, since the fall of the Soviet Union
. Bahá'ís are trying to recover properties that were confiscated in the 1930s. In 2004, Tavachur Aliev, a Bahá'í, claimed to have been arrested for mentioning his religion and was released when he promised not to mention his religion again. Furthermore in 2006, laws are being considered that will curtail the rights and privileges of Bahá'ís and others religious minorities. See Bahá'í Faith in Azerbaijan
.
, while the government gave Bahá'ís the freedom to organize in 2000, the national registration system continues to restrict religious freedom of persons who do not belong to the five officially recognized faiths; thus Bahá'ís cannot register their marriages or children's births. Couples prevented from registering their marriage or the birth of their child in accordance with their faiths must either convert to one of the five recognized faiths or misrepresent themselves. Those who choose not to register their marriages or births risk future difficulties; for example, many children without a birth certificate cannot enroll in school or may not qualify for scholarships and individuals without birth certificates cannot qualify for government jobs.
Muslims who converted to the Bahá'í Faith in Sulawesi
were intimidated by their neighbors and by the local government in 2007. Of seven households who converted, two returned to Islam, four refused to change, and the other ignored requests to convert again.
there were episodes of religious persecution in 1962-1963, when 15 Bahá'ís were arrested for their religious convictions; three were given death sentences and several others years of prison term at hard labour. There were months of diplomatic efforts; US Senator Kenneth B. Keating stated in the U.S. Senate on February 18, 1963, "How far religious freedom under the Moroccan Constitution really applies, will be revealed in the coming weeks when the appeal before the Supreme Court [of Morocco] is heard." On March 31, 1963 during a visit to the United States and the United Nations, King Hasan of Morocco was interviewed on television and addressed the audience saying that though the Bahá'í Faith was "against good order and also morals" that he would pardon the death sentences. Persecution of Baha'is occurred again in 1984, whose response was to seek diplomatic redress emphasizing the non-partisan and obedience to government principles of the religion. Bahá'ís have more recently been denied passports and can practice their religion only in private. See Bahá'í Faith in Morocco
.
has had a Bahá'í community since 1926, including Marie of Edinburgh
, Queen of Romania at that time. After the fall of communism in Romania, which generally had outlawed religion, the Romanian Bahá'í community organized to form its first National Spiritual Assembly in 1991. In 2005 the Romanian Bahá'í community numbered some 7,000, but in January 2007 a law was passed that had restrictive requirements for religious communities to be recognized, which Bahá'ís and other religions could not meet. Some of the restrictions include waiting twelve years from petitioning for recognition and to have over 22,000 members.
Religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....
of Bahá'ís in various countries, especially in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, where the Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
originated and the location of one of the largest Bahá'í populations in the world. The origins of persecution stem from a variety of Bahá'í teachings inconsistent with traditional Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic belief, including the finality of Muhammad's
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
prophethood, and places Bahá'ís outside the Islamic faith. Thus Bahá'ís are seen as apostates from Islam
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
, and, according to some, must choose between repentance and death.
Bahá'ís as well as the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and peer-reviewed academic literature have stated that the members of the Bahá'í community in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals and the Bahá'í community, denial
Denial of request
Denial of request is the refusal of one party to grant the request of another. Some acts that can be considered denial may include the refusal of a person or a group of people representing a company, organization, or government agency to provide what a client or one seeking to be a client has...
of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.
Historical context
The Bahá'í Faith grew out of BábismBábism
The Babi Faith is a religious movement that flourished in Persia from 1844 to 1852, then lingered on in exile in the Ottoman Empire as well as underground. Its founder was Siyyid `Alí Muhammad Shirazi, who took the title Báb—meaning "Gate"—from a Shi'a theological term...
, which was established in 1844 by the Báb
Báb
Siyyid `Alí Muḥammad Shírází was the founder of Bábism, and one of three central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. He was a merchant from Shíráz, Persia, who at the age of twenty-four claimed to be the promised Qá'im . After his declaration he took the title of Báb meaning "Gate"...
in Iran. Eighty-nine percent of Iranians adhere to the Twelver branch of Shi'a Islam
Shi'a Islam
Shia Islam is the second largest denomination of Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shīʻatu ʻAlī , meaning "followers of Ali", "faction of Ali", or "party of Ali".Like other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is...
, which holds as a core doctrine the expected advent of a messianic figure known as the Qa'im or as the Imam Mahdi
Muhammad al-Mahdi
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī is believed by Twelver Shī‘a Muslims to be the Mahdī, an ultimate savior of humankind and the final Imām of the Twelve Imams...
. The Báb claimed he was the Imam Mahdi and thus he had equal status to the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
with the power, which he exercised, to abrogate the final provisions of Islamic law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
.
Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh , born ' , was the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He claimed to be the prophetic fulfilment of Bábism, a 19th-century outgrowth of Shí‘ism, but in a broader sense claimed to be a messenger from God referring to the fulfilment of the eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity, and...
, a Bábí who claimed to be the one foretold by the Báb
Báb
Siyyid `Alí Muḥammad Shírází was the founder of Bábism, and one of three central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. He was a merchant from Shíráz, Persia, who at the age of twenty-four claimed to be the promised Qá'im . After his declaration he took the title of Báb meaning "Gate"...
, claimed a similar station for himself in 1863 as a Manifestation of God
Manifestation of God
The Manifestation of God is a concept in the Bahá'í Faith that refers to what are commonly called prophets. The Manifestations of God are a series of personages who reflect the attributes of the divine into the human world for the progress and advancement of human morals and civilization...
and as the promised figure foretold in the sacred scriptures of the major religious traditions of the past and founded what later came to be known as the Bahá'í Faith.
Concerning the historical context of the persecutions, Friedrich W. Affolter in "War Crimes, Genocide, & Crimes against Humanity" writes:
In addition to this the Bábí religion, the forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith had a violent history in Iran. Friedrich W. Affolter writes:
Others have stated that the Bábís originally armed themselves and prepared for a holy war that became defensive when they encountered state troops in several locations and that two to three thousand Bábís were killed.
Bahá’u’lláh took a more conciliatory position, forbidding the use of holy war
Religious war
A religious war; Latin: bellum sacrum; is a war caused by, or justified by, religious differences. It can involve one state with an established religion against another state with a different religion or a different sect within the same religion, or a religiously motivated group attempting to...
to spread his faith. Instead, he attempted to engage various governments in dialog; however, the radical nature of his claim to prophethood did little to change the perception of the people of Iran. To this day, Bahá'ís are a widely persecuted minority group in Iran and other predominantly Muslim countries, since they are seen as apostates from Islam, and supporters of the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Legal context
The Iranian constitution that was drafted during the Iranian Constitutional RevolutionIranian Constitutional Revolution
The Persian Constitutional Revolution or Iranian Constitutional Revolution took place between 1905 and 1907...
in 1906 set the groundwork for the institutionalized persecution of Bahá'ís. While the constitution was modelled on Belgium's
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
1831 constitution, the provisions guaranteeing freedom of worship were omitted. Subsequent legislation provided some recognition to Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians as equal citizens under state law, but it did not guarantee freedom of religion and "gave unprecedented institutional powers to the clerical establishment."
The Islamic Republic of Iran, that was established after the Iranian revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
, recognizes four religions, whose status is formally protected: Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
, Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Members of the first three minority religions receive special treatment under Iranian law. For example, their members are allowed to drink alcohol, and representatives of several minority communities are guaranteed seats in parliament
Majlis of Iran
The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
.
However, religious freedom in Iran is far from absolute, to say the least. Conversion away from Islam (apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
) is forbidden, with both converts and missionaries risking prison. Those seeking to start a new religious group (whether Muslim or not) face severe restrictions.
The Bahá'í Faith faces an additional, technical hurdle. Iranian law recognizes all those who accept the existence of God and the prophethood of Muhammad as Muslims. Bahá'ís accept both of these precepts; however, Bahá'ís recognize the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh as additional messengers that have appeared after Muhammad. Muslims, on the other hand, assert the finality of Muhammad's revelation. Iranian law therefore treats Bahá'ís as "heretics" rather than members of an independent religion, as they describe themselves.
Other unrecognized Iranian religious minorities include the Ahl-e Haqq, the Mandaeans
Mandaeism
Mandaeism or Mandaeanism is a Gnostic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist...
, Azalis and Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Christians. Non-Muslims comprise less than 1% of Iran's population. See religious minorities in Iran.
Political context
At least one scholar has described Bahá'ís in Iran prior to the Islamic Republic as "a political pawn". Government toleration of Bahá'ís being in accord with secular Western ideas of freedom of worshipFreedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
was "a way of showing mullah
Mullah
Mullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
s who was boss." Correspondingly, since the Bahá'ís were a relatively small minority and most Iranians followed traditional beliefs of Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
, when the government was politically weak and in need of clerical support, withdrawal of government protection to "allow active persecution of the Bahá'ís," was a "low cost pawn that could be sacrificed to the mullah
Mullah
Mullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
s". Thus during the heyday of secular ruler Reza Shah
Reza Shah
Rezā Shāh, also known as Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and Rezā Shāh Kabir , , was the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran from December 15, 1925, until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran on September 16, 1941.In 1925, Reza Shah overthrew Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Shah of the Qajar...
Bahá'ís were protected; while in 1955, when Reza Shah's son, Muhammad Reza, needed clerical support for the Baghdad Pact and with the 1953 Iranian coup d'état only two years past, Bahá'ís were attacked.
History
Starting in the twentieth century, in addition to repression that impacted individual Bahá'ís, centrally-directed campaigns that targeted the entire Bahá'í community and institutions were initiated. Some of these persecutions were recorded by missionaries who were in the areas at the time of the massacres. In one case in YazdYazd
Yazd is the capital of Yazd Province in Iran, and a centre of Zoroastrian culture. The city is located some 175 miles southeast of Isfahan. At the 2006 census, the population was 423,006, in 114,716 families....
in 1903 more than 100 Bahá'ís were killed. Later on Bahá'í schools, such as the Tarbiyat boys' and girl's schools in Tehran, were closed in the 1930s and '40s, Bahá'í marriages were not recognized and Bahá'í literature
Bahá'í literature
Bahá'í literature, like much religious text, covers a variety of topics and forms, including scripture and inspiration, interpretation, history and biography, introduction and study materials, and apologia...
was censored.
During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
, due to the growing nationalism and the economic difficulties in the country, the Shah gave up control over certain religious affairs to the clergy of the country. Among other things, the power sharing resulted in a campaign of persecution against the Bahá'ís. Akhavi has suggested it is likely the government had hoped that by orchestrating a movement against the Bahá'ís it could serve to obscure the fact that revenues obtained by the distribution of oil from western oil companies was going to be too low for the growing nationalistic sentiment; it would also serve to gain the support of the clergy for their foreign policy. They approved and coordinated the anti-Bahá'í campaign to incite public passion against the Bahá'ís started in 1955 and included the spreading of anti-Bahá'í propaganda in national radio stations and official newspapers.
During the month of Ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
in 1955, Sheikh Mohammad Taqi Falsafi, a populist preacher, started one of the highest-profile anti-Bahá'í propaganda schemes. After receiving permission from the Shah to state anti-Bahá'í rhetoric in his sermons, he encouraged other clergy to discuss the Bahá'í issue in their sermons. These sermons caused mob violence against Bahá'ís; Bahá'í properties were destroyed, Bahá'í centres
Haziratu'l-Quds
The term Haziratu'l-Quds or Bahá'í centre refers to national, regional and local Bahá'í administrative centres....
were looted, Bahá'í cemeteries desecrated, Bahá'ís were killed, some hacked to pieces, Bahá'í women were abducted and forced to marry Muslims, and Bahá'ís were expelled and dismissed from schools and employment. During the third week of the sermons the National Bahá'í Centre in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
was occupied by the military and its dome later destroyed. The Minister of the Interior, Amir Asadollah Alam, wrote in his memoirs:
- "Falsafi managed to fool both the Shah and the military authorities and start a campaign against the Bahá’ís that dragged the country to the edge of disaster. It was Ramadan. [Falsafi’s] noon sermons were broadcast throughout the nation via radio and caused violence and terror in many locations. People killed a few Bahá’ís here and there. Falsafi justified these acts by saying that they increased the Shah’s prestige. I had no choice but to order him, in my own rash way, to refrain from giving further speeches until order was reestablished."
While the government tried to stop the sermons, Falsafi did not stop his sermons until the end of Ramadan. Throughout the 1950s the clergy continued to initiate the repression of the Bahá'í community; however, their efforts were checked by government ministers who, while they were sympathetic to the anti-Bahá'í sentiment, feared that the violence would get out of control and cause international criticism.
Also during the 1950s, the fundamentalist Islamic organization named Hojjatiyeh, whose central aim was to combat the Bahá'í Faith, was founded. Members of the group entered Bahá'í communities, and many of the Bahá'í arrests, imprisonments and executions are often attributed to Hojjatiyeh members having access to Bahá'í registration books. Also during the Pahlevi era, the Hojjatiyeh seem to have cooperated with SAVAK
SAVAK
SAVAK was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah on the recommendation of the British Government and with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور...
, the Iranian government's intelligence agency who had gathered information about the religious affiliation of Iranian citizens, to attack the Bahá'ís.
Eliz Sanasarian states that while many Iranians blamed the Bahá'í persecution on Hojjatiyeh, who was the most visible anti-Bahá'í force, that the silent Iranian majority "cannot avoid personal and communal responsibility for the persecutions of the Bahá'í in this extreme manner. To provide tacit support, to remain silent, ... do not excuse the majority for the actions based on prejudice and hate against an Iranian religious minority group."
In the late 1970s the Shah's regime, due to criticism that he was pro-Western, consistently lost legitimacy. As the anti-Shah movement gained ground and support, revolutionary propaganda was spread that some of the Shah's advisors were Bahá'ís. Bahá'ís were portrayed as economic threats, supporters of Israel and the West and popular hatred for the Bahá'ís increased.
Islamic Revolution and Republic
The 1979 Islamic Revolution has refocused the persecutions against the Bahá'í Faith. Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and others report that 202 Bahá’ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution (see below), with many more imprisoned, expelled from schools and workplaces, denied various benefits or denied registration for their marriages. Additionally, several Bahá’í holy sites were destroyed in the revolution's aftermath, including the house of the Báb in Shiraz, the house of Bahá'u'lláh at Takur (in Mazandaran), and the house of Muhammad-Ali Barfurushi (Quddús
Quddús
Jináb-i-Quddús , is the title of Mullá Muḥammad ‘Alí-i-Bárfurúshi, who was the most prominent disciple of the Báb, a nineteenth century Prophet of the Bahá'í Faith. He was the eighteenth and final Letter of the Living....
) in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
.
The Islamic Republic has often stated that arrested Baha'is are being detained for "security issues" and are members of "an organized establishment linked to foreigners, the Zionists in particular," but according to Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, "the best proof" that Bahais are being persecuted for their faith, not for anti-Iranian activity "is the fact that, time and again, Baha'is have been offered their freedom if they recant their Baha'i beliefs and convert to Islam ..."
During the Iranian revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
attacks against the Bahá'ís increased. In 1979 Hojjatiyeh members took over the Bahá'í National Centre in Tehran and other cities and expelled staff and seized personnel files and membership lists. These files were later used by Hojjatiyeh including sending flyers in the mail warning Bahá'ís of the consequences of continuing to believe in the Bahá'í beliefs. Also, once again, there were reports of mob attacks, arson, and deaths and murders against the Bahá'ís across Iran; twenty-two Bahá'í cemeteries as well as hundreds of Bahá'í homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. During December 1978 in Sarvestan
Sarvestan
Sarvestan + estan; also Romanized as Sarvestān and Sarvistān) is a city in and the capital of Sarvestan County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 16,846, in 4,094 families....
, a city south of Shiraz
Shiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
, it was reported that several hundred Bahá'í houses were set on fire, and more than 1,000 Bahá'ís were left homeless. Reports of the attacks suggest that they were not spontaneous, but that they were initiated by the military government appointed by the Shah, that SAVAK provided the addresses for Bahá'ís, and when the army showed up they did not take action to prevent the fires from spreading. Further attacks happened throughout the country including Bahá'ís who would not recant being fired at and having their homes destroyed; the violence continued even after the Shah fled Iran.
Islamic Republic
After the Shah left Iran on January 16, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned on February 1, 1979 and started the process of creating a new government. During an interview before returning to Iran with Professor James Cockroft, Khomeini stated that Bahá'ís would not have religious freedom:- Cockroft: Will there be either religious or political freedom for the Bahá'ís under the Islamic government?
- Khomeini: They are a political faction; they are harmful. They will not be accepted.
- Cockroft: How about their freedom of religion– religious practice?
- Khomeini: No.
The new government's spokesman in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
told that while religious minorities would retain their religious rights emphasized that the Bahá'ís would not receive the same treatment, since they believed that the Bahá'ís were a political rather than religious movement. Bazargan, the provisional prime-minister, while being emphatic that all Iranians would enjoy the same rights, insisted that the Bahá'ís were a political movement and would not be tolerated.
During the drafting of the new constitution the wording intentionally excluded the Bahá'ís from protection as a religious community. Referring to the recordings of the proceedings of the official transcripts of the constitution drafting process, Sanasarian states that anti-Bahá'í thought was obvious as there was haggling "over every word and expression of certain articles to assure the exclusion of the Bahá'ís." The final version of the constitution explicitely withheld recognition from the Bahá'ís by stating in Article 13 that the "Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians are the only recognized religious minorities..." Responding to international criticism due to the exclusion of the Bahá'ís, spokesmen for the government stated, as before, that the Bahá'ís were a "misguided group... whose affiliation and association with world Zionism is a clear fact" and that "Bahá'ísm is not a religion, but a political doctrine."
Starting in late 1979 the new government of the Islamic Republic of Iran systematically targeted the leadership of the Bahá'í community by focusing on the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) and Local Spiritual Assemblies (LSA). In November 1979, Ali Murad Davudi
Ali Murad Davudi
Dr Ali Murad Davudi was an Iranian Bahá'í who was a member of the national governing body of the Bahá'ís in Iran. He was a professor at Tehran University in the philosophy department...
, the secretary of the NSA, was kidnapped and never seen again. In August 1980 all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly were arrested while meeting at a private home. In a statement on September 10, 1980, then speaker of the House Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, stated that an order for the arrests of the Bahá'ís had been issued, but by October 9, 1980 Rafsanjani changed his statement and said that no members of the NSA were arrested. There has been no further news regarding the nine NSA members since their arrest in 1980, and their fate remains unknown, although there are reports that they were at some point held in Evin prison
Evin Prison
Evin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
; they are now presumed dead. After the disappearance of the NSA members, the Iranian Bahá'í elected a new NSA. On December 13, 1981 eight of the nine new NSA members were arrested by the Iranian authorities, and were executed on December 27, 1981 without trial.
In addition to the execution of the members of two National Spiritual Assemblies, the members of Local Spiritual Assemblies throughout the country were also killed. Between April 1979 and December 1980 at least eight prominent Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
Bahá'ís were killed. In September 1980 in Yazd
Yazd
Yazd is the capital of Yazd Province in Iran, and a centre of Zoroastrian culture. The city is located some 175 miles southeast of Isfahan. At the 2006 census, the population was 423,006, in 114,716 families....
, fifteen Bahá'ís were arrested, and after a graphic trial that was partially televised, seven of the Bahá'ís were executed; the remaining eight were released after four months. In Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
in 1979 two prominent Bahá'ís were executed and then in 1981 all nine members of the Tabriz LSA were executed. In Hamadan
Hamadan
-Culture:Hamadan is home to many poets and cultural celebrities. The city is also said to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.Handicrafts: Hamadan has always been well known for handicrafts like leather, ceramic, and beautiful carpets....
seven members of the LSA of Hamaden were executed by firing squad, and while the bodies were being prepared for the funeral it was found that six of the men were physically tortured before their death. In Shiraz
Shiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
between 1978 and 1981, the House of the Báb, a Bahá'í holy place, was destroyed, five prominent Bahá'ís were executed, and more than 85 Bahá'ís were arrested for interrogations; then in 1983 sixteen more Bahá'ís were executed.
On August 29, 1983 the government announced a legal ban on all administrative and community activities of the Bahá'í community, which required the dissolution of the third National Spiritual Assembly and about 400 Local Spiritual Assemblies. The Bahá'í community complied with the ban, but the former members of the LSAs were routinely harassed, and seven members of the third NSA were eventually arrested and executed.
Secret memorandum
In February 1991, a confidential circular issued by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council on "the Bahá'í question" and signed by Supreme Leader KhameneiAli Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
himself, signaled an increase in efforts to suffocate the Iranian Bahá'í community through a more "silent" means. The document organized the methods of oppression used to persecute the Bahá’ís, and contained specific recommendations on how to block the progress of the Bahá'í communities both inside and outside Iran. The document stated that the most excessive types of persecutions should be avoided and instead, among other things recommended, that Bahá'ís be expelled from universities, "once it becomes known that they are Bahá'ís," to "deny them employment if they identify themselves as Bahá'ís" and to "deny them any position of influence."
The existence of this so called Golpaygani Memorandum was brought to the attention of the public in a report by the then UN Human Rights Commissioner Mr Galindo Pohl (E/CM4/1993/41, 28 January 1993), and the policy recommendations of the document are still in force.
Current situation
According to a US panel, attacks on Bahá'ís in Iran have increased since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president. Currently more than 20 Baha’is are imprisoned in Iran, some deprived of any communication with others, and most without formal charges.In 2004, Iranian authorities demolished the shrine and grave site of Muhammad-Ali Barfurushi (Quddús
Quddús
Jináb-i-Quddús , is the title of Mullá Muḥammad ‘Alí-i-Bárfurúshi, who was the most prominent disciple of the Báb, a nineteenth century Prophet of the Bahá'í Faith. He was the eighteenth and final Letter of the Living....
), a Bábí leader. In late 2005, an anti-Bahá'í media campaign was launched in Iran, asserting that the religion was created by colonialist powers to subvert Islam and to subjugate the Muslim peoples of Iran. In 2006 Iranian officials arrested 54 Bahá'ís, mostly young people, in Shiraz
Shiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
. In March and May 2008 the seven "senior members" who form the leadership of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested.
Arrest of Bahá'í leaders
On May 14, 2008, members of an informal body known as the Friends (Yaran) that oversaw the needs of the Bahá'í community in Iran were arrested and taken to Evin prisonEvin Prison
Evin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
. Officers from the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran searched and raided the homes of the six people in the early hours of May 14. The arrest of the six follow the detention of another Bahá'í leader in March, who was originally taken to answer questions relating to the burial of a Bahá'i in the Bahá'í cemetery in Mashad. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has stated that they are concerned for the safety of the Bahá'ís, and that the recent events are similar to the disappearance of 25 Bahá'í leaders in the early 1980s. In May Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
also announced an Action Alert about the arrests. At year's end all seven members of the Bahá'í national leadership and a total of at least 40 Bahá'ís were imprisoned in Iran. On February 17, 2009, Iranian state run news agency, IRNA, reported that the Bahá'í leaders had been officially accused of espionage.
In June 2008 Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
volunteered to be their lawyer, and received threats against her life for defending the Baha'i community. On December 21 Ebadi's office of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights was raided and closed. On December 29, government security officers posing as tax officials raided Ebadi's private law offices, seizing office files and computers. A second lawyer, Abdolfattah Soltani
Abdolfattah Soltani
Abdolfattah Soltani is a well-known Iranian human rights lawyer, and spokesman for the Defenders of Human Rights Center, which was co-founded by the Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi. He has twice been incarcerated in the Islamic Republic of Iran for political offences in 2005 and 2009...
, reportedly taking up the case is reported to have disappeared June 16.
The court case has been postponed several times, but went ahead on January 12, 2010. Apparently no observers were allowed in the court, and the defence lawyers, who have had nearly no access to the defendants for two years, also had difficulty entering the court. The chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chairman said that it seems that the government has already predetermined the outcome of the case and violating international human rights law. Further sessions were held on February 7, 2010, April 12, 2010 and June 12, 2010. On August 11, 2010 it became known that the court sentence was 20 years imprisonment for each of the seven prisoners which was later reduced to ten years. After the sentence, they were transferred to Gohardasht prison
Gohardasht Prison
Gohardasht Prison is a prison in Gohardasht, a town in the northern outskirt of Karaj, approximately 20 km west of Tehran and is also known as "Rajai Shahr"....
. In March 2011 the sentences were reinstated to the original 20 years.
There have been widespread calls from public figures, governments and organizations to the Iranian government to release the Bahá'ís, especially after the trial was announced on February 11, 2009. Members of government across the world including from Brazil, the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia have either released statements or sponsored resolutions condemning the government of Iran for the arrest of the Bahá'í leaders. The Presidency of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(EU), with the support of the EU associated countries denounced the trial.
Human rights organizations have also released statements: Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
has released updated Action Alerts about the trial since in 2009. Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
strongly condemned the trial, and World Organisation Against Torture
World Organisation Against Torture
The World Organisation Against Torture is the world’s largest coalition of non-governmental organisations fighting against arbitrary detention, torture, summary and extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and other forms of violence...
proposed actions to secure the freedom of the leadership and others arrested. Responding to a letter from Roxana Saberi
Roxana Saberi
Roxana Saberi is an American journalist who was arrested in Iran in January 2009. On April 8, 2009, the Iranian government charged Saberi with espionage, which she denied. She was subsequently sentenced to an eight-year prison term...
, who was in contact with two of the women Bahá'í leaders while she was in prison, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate...
demanded the seven prisoners be freed rather than stand trial.
There have been groups of individuals also speaking out. On February 4, 2009 267 non-Bahá'í Iranian academics, writers, artists, journalists and activists from some 21 countries including Iran signed an open letter of apology posted to Iranian.com
Iranian.com
Iranian.com, also known as The Iranian and The Iranian Times, is an online English language magazine.Founded in July 1995 by entrepreneur/journalist Jahanshah Javid, Iranian.com has the largest online following among Iranians residing in North America, with about 68,000 visitors per month-Awards...
and stating that they believed that the Bahá'ís had been deprived of their rights in the Islamic Republic, and pledging their support of achieving the rights detailed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
for the Bahá'ís in Iran. British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
entertainers wrote an open letter printed in the The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London of those to be on trial stating their solidarity with the Bahá'ís." A prominent group of more than sixty professors and scholars who specialize in Middle Eastern and Iranian Studies have added their voices in protest as well. Others who have spoken out include Rainn Wilson
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Dietrich Wilson is an American actor and comedian. He is primarily known for his role as the egomaniacal Dwight Schrute on the American version of the television comedy The Office...
and Shohreh Aghdashloo
Shohreh Aghdashloo
Shohreh Aghdashloo is an Iranian American actress.After establishing a theatre and film career in Iran, Aghdashloo moved to England during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and subsequently became a citizen of the United States...
.
In February 2010, Iranian authorities detained five more members of the Bahá'ís, reportedly including Niki Khanjani, daughter of Jamaloddin Khanjani, one of seven Bahá'í leaders jailed since 2008.
Arrest of 54 young people in Shiraz
On May 19, 2006 Iranian officials arrested 54 Bahá'ís, mostly young people, in ShirazShiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
, according to representatives of the International Bahá'í Community. Apparently the group was arrested during its participation in a community-service project teaching classes to underprivileged children, initiated by a local non-governmental organization. The group is reported to have had in its possession a letter of permission from the Islamic Council of Shiraz to undertake this service project at the time of its arrest. The nature of the charges against the Bahá'ís is unknown at present as are the conditions under which the detainees are being held.
On the very same day, one of the 54 Bahá'ís who had been arrested earlier but who was under the age of 15 was released without having to post bail. Several other young people who had been arrested along with the Bahá'ís but who were not themselves Bahá'í were also released without posting bail.
"The arrests coincided with raids on six Bahá'í homes during which notebooks, computers, books, and other documents were confiscated," according to an article by the Bahá'í World News Service. The article further reports that since January, other than the aforementioned 54 detainees, "seven Bahá'ís have been arrested and held for periods of up to one month in Kermanshah
Kermanshah
Kermanshah is a city in and the capital of Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 784,602, in 198,117 families.The overwhelming majority of Kermanshahi people are Shi'a Muslims...
, Isfahan
Isfahan (city)
Isfahan , historically also rendered in English as Ispahan, Sepahan or Hispahan, is the capital of Isfahan Province in Iran, located about 340 km south of Tehran. It has a population of 1,583,609, Iran's third largest city after Tehran and Mashhad...
, and Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
.
On May 24, fourteen of the Bahá'ís were released, each having been required to provide deeds of property to the value of ten million tumans (approximately US$11,000). On the following day 36 Bahá'ís were released on the strength of either personal guarantees or the deposit of work licenses with the court as surety that they will appear when summoned to court.
The last three of the group of 54 Bahá'ís were released on 14 June. Although the judge originally demanded a bond equivalent to $54,000, they were released without bail on the promise that they would return for a later court appearance. No formal charges have been made against them. However, in most cases, some form of bail, such as deeds of property, were demanded before release. Currently, two Bahá'ís, arrested in Tehran and Sanandaj, remain in prison.
On January 29, 2007 Iran's judiciary sentenced the 54 Bahá'í for four years in prison for propaganda against the regime. Part of the group, 51 Bahá'ís, were given suspended one-year jail sentences conditional on their attendance of courses held by the Islamic Propaganda Organisation, which is organized by the government. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
has called for the release of the Bahá'ís stating that they are "detained solely because of their religious beliefs, or their peaceful activities teaching underprivileged children."
Monitoring of activities
A confidential letter sent on October 29, 2005 by the Chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forces in Iran states that the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah KhameneiAli Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
has instructed the Command Headquarters to identify people who adhere to the Bahá'í Faith and to monitor their activities and gather any and all information about the members of the Bahá'í Faith. The letter was addressed to the Ministry of Information
Ministry of Intelligence (Iran)
The Ministry of Intelligence and National Security of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the secret police and primary intelligence agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran...
, the Revolutionary Guard
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution , often called Revolutionary Guards, is a branch of Iran's military, founded after the Iranian revolution...
and the Police Force. The letter was brought to the attention of the international community by Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on freedom of religion or belief, in a March 20, 2006 press release.
In the press release the Special Rapporteur states that she "is highly concerned by information she has received concerning the treatment of members of the Bahá'í community in Iran." The UN's press release summarizing Ms. Jahangir's report states:
The monitoring of Bahá'ís has also been seen in other official government documents; in a letter dated 2 May 2006 from the Trades, Production, and Technical Services Society of Kermanshah to the Iranian Union of Battery Manufacturers, it was asked of the Union to provide a list of members of "the Baha'i sect” in their membership. Furthermore, in a letter dated 19 August 2006, Iran's Ministry of the Interior to the Department of Politics and Security in Offices of the Governors’ General throughout Iran ordered officials to step up the surveillance of Iranian Bahá'ís throughout the country. Among the information requested in a detailed questionnaire about the activities of local Bahá'ís is their financial status and social interactions.
The Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
has stated that the government's effort to identify and monitor Bahá'ís is similar to the what the Jews faced in the beginning of the Nazi era: they wrote the orders issued were “reminiscent of the steps taken against Jews in Europe and a dangerous step toward the institution of Nuremberg-type laws.”
Deaths
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and others report that 202 Bahá’ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution (see below). The most recent death of a Bahá’í in the custody of the Iranian government occurred on Dec, 15, 2005, in the city of Yazd
Yazd
Yazd is the capital of Yazd Province in Iran, and a centre of Zoroastrian culture. The city is located some 175 miles southeast of Isfahan. At the 2006 census, the population was 423,006, in 114,716 families....
. Zabihullah Mahrami
Dhabihu'llah Mahrami
Dhabihu'llah Mahrami was an Iranian Bahá'í who was charged with apostasy from Islam and jailed in Iran. After 10 years in prison he was found dead in his cell.-Discrimination toward Bahá'ís:...
had been sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
in 1995, but in 1999 this was commuted to life in prison
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
.
His arrest was for the crime of apostasy against Islam, but he was convicted of spying for Israel. He was approximately 59 years old. He died in his prison cell of unknown causes. The United States condemned the imprisonment and alleged persecution of Zabihullah Mahrami, and State Department Deputy Spokesman, Adam Ereli, said that Mr. Mahrami had received death threats in prison and been forced to perform arduous physical labour.
The most recent Bahá’í execution apparently occurred in 1998, when the Iranian government hanged Ruhollah Rohani in Mashad on the charge of converting a woman to the faith though she herself stated that she had been a lifelong Bahá’í. Newspaper accounts describe this as the first Bahá’í execution in six years. Death sentences had also been passed against Sirus Zabhi-Moghaddam and Hedayat Kashefi-Najabadi, which have apparently not yet been carried out and Ataollah Hamid Nazrizadeh has received a ten-year prison sentence for related offences arising from the same situation.
Barriers to higher education
Bahá’í youth are not permitted to attend institutions of higher education in Iran unless prospective students identify themselves as followers of one of the four religions recognized by the state on university entrance exams. The Iranian government has said that if Bahá’ís identify themselves as Muslims on the exams they would be allowed to enroll but Bahá’ís, as a matter of religious principle, refuse to dissimulate their beliefs. Confirming these findings, an investigation by the Committee of Concerned ScientistsCommittee of Concerned Scientists
The Committee of Concerned Scientists is an independent international organization devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom of scientists, physicians, and scholars.-History:...
also found that university officials in Iran had “received orders from above not to score the tests of Baha’i students,” or that these officials had suggested that a student would receive his test scores only if the student’s family renounced their faith. The Committee called for the complete publication of all test scores without discrimination.
In an effort which the New York Times called "an elaborate act of communal self-preservation," the Bahá'í community in 1987 established its own program of higher education to meet the educational needs of its young people, which evolved to become known as the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), whose classes were held in private homes and had an enrollment of approximately 900 students. In 1998 (29 September - 2 October), Iranian authorities broke up the underground institution invading more than 500 Bahai homes and office buildings in at least 14 cities around Iran. Hundreds were arrested. In addition to books and computer equipment confiscated, personal possessions such as silverware and refrigerators were taken in what was described as "thieve[ry] in the name of Islam."
Iranian columnist Iqbal Latif calls Iran's denial of access to university education for Bahá'ís "[i]ntellectual cleansing of their ethnic brothers by the clergy-dominated regime."
Destruction of holy sites
Quddús
Jináb-i-Quddús , is the title of Mullá Muḥammad ‘Alí-i-Bárfurúshi, who was the most prominent disciple of the Báb, a nineteenth century Prophet of the Bahá'í Faith. He was the eighteenth and final Letter of the Living....
), a Bábí leader. The following June, the Tehran house of Mírzá `Abbás-i-Núrí
Mírzá `Abbás Núrí
Mírzá `Abbás-i-Núrí more commonly known as Mírzá Buzurg was the father of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. Mírzá Buzurg was a nobleman from the Persian province of Núr, and worked for a time in the service of Fatḥ-`Alí Sháh....
(aka Mírzá Buzurg), Bahá'u'lláh's father, was destroyed. The previous such incident occurred in 1993 when a Bahá'í cemetery in Tehran was bulldozed in order to build a municipal centre.
Media attacks
In the later months of 2005, an intensive anti-Bahá'í campaign was conducted by Iranian newspapers and radio stations. The state-run and influential KayhanKayhan
Kayhan is an influential newspaper in Iran. Directly under the supervision of the Office of the Supreme Leader, it is regarded to be "the most conservative Iranian newspaper."...
newspaper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
, ran nearly three dozen articles defaming the Bahá'í Faith. The articles, which make use of fake historical documents, engage in a distortion of history to falsely describe Bahá'í moral principles in a manner that would be offensive to Muslims, thus inducing feelings of suspicion, distrust and hatred to members of the Bahá'í community in Iran.
The articles claim, in the face of all historical data, that the religion was invented and implanted by colonialist powers to subvert Islam and to subjugate the Muslim peoples of Iran. They use fake historical documents such as the memoirs of Prince Dolgorouki, a mid-nineteenth century Russian minister in Tehran, to substantiate their claims; the memoirs were however manufactured in Iran in 1937 and have long since been exposed as forgeries.
The articles also state that the Báb
Báb
Siyyid `Alí Muḥammad Shírází was the founder of Bábism, and one of three central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. He was a merchant from Shíráz, Persia, who at the age of twenty-four claimed to be the promised Qá'im . After his declaration he took the title of Báb meaning "Gate"...
, one of the Bahá'í Faith's central figures, was taught simultaneously by the Jews and the Tsarist government of Russia, even though the Tsarist government was well-known to have been unfavourable towards the Jews. The Bahá'í World Centre claims that the linking of Bahá'ís with Zionism serves to provoke suspicion and hatred towards the Bahá'ís.
An Israeli mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
about the religion called Baha'is In My Backyard was released in 2006. According to the producer, the film was pirated, professionally dubbed and streamed by an Iranian website then altered again to make serious accusations against the Bahá'ís using excerpts from the film on another Iranian website. Another attack was through national television - a "documentary" was televised called The Secret of Armageddon in the first half of 2008 which outlined a Jewish-Bahá'í conspiracy against Iranian interests.
In November 2009, the popular Iranian conservative newspaper Hamshahri
Hamshahri
Hamshahri is a major national Iranian Persian-language newspaper published by the Municipality of Tehran, and founded by Gholamhossein Karbaschi. It is the first coloured daily newspaper in Iran and has over 60 pages of classified advertisement, and is priced at 1000 Iranian rials. Currently, the...
, known to take a critical stand towards President Ahmadinejad, was closed down temporarily, only because it published in an advertisement for tourism travel to India a photograph of a temple of the Baha'i Faith. After the contested Iranian election of 2009 and the continuing unrest, the government increased its anti-Bahá'í rhetoric, blaming Bahá'ís for the demonstrations, which observers have stated is without merit. The government of Iran has historically defined the Bahá'ís as an 'other' to draw public attention away from the government.
In October 2011 the Bahá'í International community published a report titled "Inciting Hatred: Iran's Media Campaign to Demonize Baha'is", analyzing media items between late 2009 and early 2011.}}
Other events
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in Geneva, described other forms of persecution to the UN Commission on Human Rights:
Ms. Ala'i also said that in March 2005, in Tehran, Iranian intelligence agents entered the homes of several Bahá’ís and spent hours ransacking their houses before carting away their possessions and taking them into custody.
The Bahá’í's New York spokesperson, Bani Dugal, clarified some of the involved in December 2005:
Ms. Dugal said that although the majority of those Bahá’ís who have been arrested were released, nine remained in prison as of late October [2005].
In May 2008 Albert Lincoln, secretary-general of the Bahá'í International Community, stated that in recent months there have been cases of arson, threats, kidnappings and beatings:
Statements
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, UK, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
have made official statements condemning the treatment of Bahá'ís abroad, in particular, in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
has published reports on the persecution of the Bahá'ís since the Iranian Revolution in 1979; in every year since 1984, except for 2002, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has passed a resolution expressing concern about human rights violations against the Bahá'ís in Iran. The Special Representative on Iran, Professor Galindo Pohl, Canadian Jurist and UBC Law Professor, Maurice Copithorne, and the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Professor Abdu’l Fatah Amor, have all reported on the persecutions that the Bahá'ís have faced in Iran. For example, in 1995 the commission wrote that "... the Bahá'ís, whose existence as a viable religious community in the Islamic Republic of Iran is threatened ..." and in November 2005 they wrote that "... the escalation and increased frequency of discrimination and other human rights violations against the Bahá’í[sic], including cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs, the disregard of property rights, the destruction of sites of religious importance, the suspension of social, educational and community-related activities and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing and other benefits ...".
Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
has also documented the persecution of the Bahá'í community in Iran. For example in 1998 it gave statements regarding the execution of a Bahá'í prisoner: "Amnesty International unreservedly condemns the execution of Ruhullah Rouhani and fears that he was executed for the non violent expression of his beliefs. Amnesty International currently knows of seven cases of Bahá'í prisoners under the sentence of death and is calling for commutation of these and all other death sentences without delay"
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in the 2004 EU Annual Report on Human Rights wrote:
Then in a speech given at the European Parliament in October 2005 on behalf of the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, Jan Figel said:
The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor stated in the 2004 Report on International Religious Freedom that "The Government harasses the Bahá'í community by arresting Bahá'ís arbitrarily," that "the property rights of Bahá'ís are generally disregarded, ... the Government has confiscated large numbers of private and business properties belonging to Bahá'ís," and that "Public and private universities continue to deny admittance to Bahá'í students"
The Iranian government responds to these statements by saying that Bahá'ís are enemies of the state, were supporters of the former Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
's government and spies employed by imperialist governments of the West. The Ayatollah Khomeini, even before his return to Iran said in an interview that he believed that Bahá'ís were traitors — Zionists — and enemies of Islam.
The Iranian representative to the United Nations tried several times, albeit unsuccessfully, between 1982 and 1984 to convince the United Nations diplomatic community that the Bahá'í Faith is a politicized organization with a record of criminal activism against the Iranian government and not a legitimate religion like Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism which are protected under Iranian law; Iran has not acknowledged that the Bahá'í Faith is a religion. The United Nations responded to the Iranian government's accusations by stating that there has been no evidence of Iran's claims and that the Bahá'í community in Iran professes its allegiance to the state. The United Nations pointed to the Bahá'í teaching of obedience to the government of one's country and stated that any involvement in any subversive acts against the government would be antithetical to precepts of the Bahá'í religion. The United Nations also stated that if the Iranian government did acknowledge that the Bahá'í Faith is a religion, it would be an admission that freedom of religion does not apply to all in Iran and that it is not abiding by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenants on Human Rights to which it is a signatory.
There are many Iranians who have published how and why Iranians think of Bahá'ís as outsiders. Dr. Mohammad Tavakoli, a Muslim-Iranian, who is a Professor of Middle Eastern Studies
Middle Eastern studies
Middle Eastern studies is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is generally interpreted to cover a range of nations extending from North Africa in the west to the Chinese...
at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
presents in Iran-Nameh, a Persian language
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
academic journal, a study that examines the processes that led to the ghettoization and eventual "othering" of the Bahá'ís in Iran by the political and religious forces within Iranian society.
Egypt
In 1925, EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
became the first Islamic state to legally recognize the Bahá'í Faith as an independent religion apart from Islam. Despite a historically active Egyptian Bahá'í community during the early twentieth century, Bahá'í institutions and community activities have been banned since 1960 by Law 263. This law was decreed by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
, seven years after the founding of the Arab Republic of Egypt. All Bahá'í community properties, including Bahá'í centers, libraries, and cemeteries, were confiscated by the government. The current Egyptian Bahá'í community, estimated to number between several hundred and two thousand, has also had fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
s issued against it by Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Center, which charges Bahá'ís with apostasy.
In January 2001, 18 people, mostly Bahá'ís, were arrested in the city of Sohag under the pretence of having violated Article 98(F) of the Penal Code ("insulting a heavenly religion") and other possible charges, 10 of whom were held in detention for over 10 months without being formally charged.
Identification-card controversy
The Egyptian identification card controversyEgyptian identification card controversy
The Egyptian identification card controversy is a series of events, beginning in the 1990s, that created a de facto state of disenfranchisement for Egyptian Bahá'ís, atheists, agnostics, and other Egyptians who did not identify themselves as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish on government identity...
began in the 1990s when the government modernized the electronic processing of identity documents, which introduced a de facto requirement that documents must list the person's religion as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish (the only three religions officially recognized by the government). Consequently, Bahá'ís were unable to obtain government identification documents (such as national identification cards, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage or divorce certificates, or passports) necessary to exercise their rights in their country unless they lied about their religion, which conflicts with Bahá'í religious principle. Without documents, they could not be employed, educated, treated in hospitals, travel outside of the country, or vote, among other hardships.
Following a protracted legal process culminating in a court ruling favorable to the Bahá'ís, the interior minister of Egypt released a decree on April 14, 2009, amending the law to allow Egyptians who are not Muslim, Christian, or Jewish to obtain identification documents that list a dash in place of one of the three recognized religions. The first identification cards were issued to two Bahá'ís under the new decree on August 8, 2009. Under this compromise solution, the Bahá'í Faith is still unrecognized by the government — Islam, Christianity, and Judaism remain the only recognized religions.
Other countries
While the most significant persecution has happened in Iran and Egypt during this century and the last, other countries have restricted or persecuted Bahá'ís. In several countries with majority Muslim populations, they have done so on the same basis as Iran and Egypt—that since Islam does not recognize the Bahá'í Faith, neither should the government, and thus all manner of social services and identity are circumscribed. Banning orders have been made against Bahá'í activities in AlgeriaAlgeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
(1969), Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
(1970 and versions since) and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
(especially but not exclusively 1962-2000). During the late 1970s, the Bahá'í Faith was also banned in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, 1974; Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
1976; Uganda
Bahá'í Faith in Uganda
The Bahá'í Faith in Uganda started to grow in 1951 and in four years time there were 500 Bahá'ís in 80 localities, including 13 Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies, representing 30 tribes, and had dispatched 9 pioneers to other African locations...
1977; Congo
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...
, 1978; and Niger
Bahá'í Faith in Niger
The Bahá'í Faith in Niger began during a period of wide scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa near the end of its colonial period. The first Bahá'ís arrive in Niger in 1966 and the growth of the religion reached a point of electing its National Spiritual Assembly in 1975...
, 1978).
Afghanistan
Baha'is were persecuted and imprisoned in the country during the Taliban. Post-Taliban one Baha'i was arrested and the court has ruled that Baha'i Faith is not a recognized religion and therefore have no rights under the Islamic Law. See Bahá'í Faith in AfghanistanBahá'í Faith in Afghanistan
The Bahá'í Faith in Afghanistan began in 1880s with visits by Bahá'ís. However it wasn't until the 1930s that any Bahá'í traveled there. A Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1948 in Kabul and after some years was re-elected in 1969...
.
Azerbaijan
In AzerbaijanAzerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, a region that has some of the earliest connections with the Bahá'í Faith, there have been several news stories covering severe social, bureaucratic and legal limits on religious communities, including the Bahá'ís, since the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Bahá'ís are trying to recover properties that were confiscated in the 1930s. In 2004, Tavachur Aliev, a Bahá'í, claimed to have been arrested for mentioning his religion and was released when he promised not to mention his religion again. Furthermore in 2006, laws are being considered that will curtail the rights and privileges of Bahá'ís and others religious minorities. See Bahá'í Faith in Azerbaijan
Bahá'í Faith in Azerbaijan
The Bahá'í Faith in Azerbaijan crosses a complex history of regional changes. Through that series of changes the thread of the Bahá'í Faith traces its history in the region from the earliest moments of the Bábism religion, accepted by Bahá'ís as a predecessor religion, in that one of its most...
.
Indonesia
In IndonesiaIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, while the government gave Bahá'ís the freedom to organize in 2000, the national registration system continues to restrict religious freedom of persons who do not belong to the five officially recognized faiths; thus Bahá'ís cannot register their marriages or children's births. Couples prevented from registering their marriage or the birth of their child in accordance with their faiths must either convert to one of the five recognized faiths or misrepresent themselves. Those who choose not to register their marriages or births risk future difficulties; for example, many children without a birth certificate cannot enroll in school or may not qualify for scholarships and individuals without birth certificates cannot qualify for government jobs.
Muslims who converted to the Bahá'í Faith in Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
were intimidated by their neighbors and by the local government in 2007. Of seven households who converted, two returned to Islam, four refused to change, and the other ignored requests to convert again.
Morocco
In MoroccoMorocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
there were episodes of religious persecution in 1962-1963, when 15 Bahá'ís were arrested for their religious convictions; three were given death sentences and several others years of prison term at hard labour. There were months of diplomatic efforts; US Senator Kenneth B. Keating stated in the U.S. Senate on February 18, 1963, "How far religious freedom under the Moroccan Constitution really applies, will be revealed in the coming weeks when the appeal before the Supreme Court [of Morocco] is heard." On March 31, 1963 during a visit to the United States and the United Nations, King Hasan of Morocco was interviewed on television and addressed the audience saying that though the Bahá'í Faith was "against good order and also morals" that he would pardon the death sentences. Persecution of Baha'is occurred again in 1984, whose response was to seek diplomatic redress emphasizing the non-partisan and obedience to government principles of the religion. Bahá'ís have more recently been denied passports and can practice their religion only in private. See Bahá'í Faith in Morocco
Bahá'í Faith in Morocco
The Bahá'í Faith in Morocco began about 1946. In 1953 the Bahá'ís initiated a Ten Year Crusade during which a number of Bahá'ís pioneered to various parts of Morocco - many of whom came from Egypt and a few from the United States including Helen Elsie Austin. By April 1955 the first Bahá'í Local...
.
Romania
RomaniaRomania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
has had a Bahá'í community since 1926, including Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
, Queen of Romania at that time. After the fall of communism in Romania, which generally had outlawed religion, the Romanian Bahá'í community organized to form its first National Spiritual Assembly in 1991. In 2005 the Romanian Bahá'í community numbered some 7,000, but in January 2007 a law was passed that had restrictive requirements for religious communities to be recognized, which Bahá'ís and other religions could not meet. Some of the restrictions include waiting twelve years from petitioning for recognition and to have over 22,000 members.
See also
- Mona MahmudnizhadMona MahmudnizhadMona Mahmudnizhad was an Iranian Bahá'í who, in 1983, together with nine other Bahá'í women, was sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran because of her membership in the Bahá'í Faith...
- Bahá'í Faith by countryBahá'í Faith by countryThe Bahá'í Faith is a diverse and widespread religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in the 19th century in Iran. Bahá'í sources usually estimate the worldwide Bahá'í population to be above 5 million. Most encyclopedias and similar sources estimate between 5 and 6 million Bahá'ís in the world in the early...
- Bahá'í Faith in TurkmenistanBahá'í Faith in TurkmenistanThe Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan begins before Russian advances into the region when the area was under the influence of Persia. By 1887 a community of Bahá'í refugees from religious violence in Persia had made a religious center in Ashgabat. Shortly afterwards — by 1894 — Russia made...
- Bahá'í Faith in UgandaBahá'í Faith in UgandaThe Bahá'í Faith in Uganda started to grow in 1951 and in four years time there were 500 Bahá'ís in 80 localities, including 13 Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assemblies, representing 30 tribes, and had dispatched 9 pioneers to other African locations...
- Bahá'í Faith in NigerBahá'í Faith in NigerThe Bahá'í Faith in Niger began during a period of wide scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa near the end of its colonial period. The first Bahá'ís arrive in Niger in 1966 and the growth of the religion reached a point of electing its National Spiritual Assembly in 1975...
External links
- Iran Update - The Baha'i International Community's news page summarizing the current human rights conditions for Baha'is in Iran.
- Persecution of Baha'is in Iran - A timeline from the Iranian Revolution to the present.
- The Bahá'ís: The Growing Threat to Iran's Bahá'ís
- The Bahá’í Question - Cultural Cleansing in Iran
- Assimilation, Exodus, Eradication: Iraq’s minority communities since 2003, Report by Minority Rights Group InternationalMinority Rights Group InternationalMinority Rights Group International is an organisation founded with the objective of promoting respect for the human rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples around the world...
- Community Under Siege: The Ordeal of the Baha’is of Shiraz, by Iran Human Rights Documentation CenterIran Human Rights Documentation CenterThe Iran Human Rights Documentation Center is a registered non-profit organization based in New Haven, Connecticut. HRDC was founded in 2004 by a group of human rights scholars, activists, and historians to document the patterns of human rights abuse in Iran and to promote accountability, a...
- 20/20 TV show on the persecution of Iranian Baha'is, originally aired in 1983