Keivan Mohammad Hassan, a former BIHE student and teacher, believes he would have faced arrest had he remained in Iran

[CNN, 10 Nov 2011] By Tim Hume, for CNN, November 10, 2011 — Updated 1339 GMT (2139 HKT)

London (CNN) — Today, Keivan Mohammad Hassan lives a peaceful life with his family as a civil engineer in Sacramento, California. But things could easily be very different.
Hassan believes that had he not fled his homeland as a refugee, he would likely number among the Iranian Baha’is facing years behind bars simply for working to provide younger members of their community a tertiary education.
“If myself and my wife were there, we would be imprisoned,” he said.
Hassan, 31, is a member of the Baha’i Faith, Iran’s largest religious minority with an estimated 300,000 members. Considered by the ruling clergy to be apostates, Baha’is have been persecuted in Iran since the faith arose there in the mid-19th century.
Its members are systematically denied access to higher education in the Islamic republic today, says Amnesty International.
Read: For Bah’ai educators, a lesson in power from Iran
“People apply for university and their applications are turned down, even though they have strong results from secondary school,” said Elise Auerbach, Iran specialist for Amnesty International USA.
“They can’t get credentials, so they’re barred from pursuing all sorts of professions. They can’t be doctors, lawyers, university professors or scientists.”
In response, Baha’is have improvised a decentralized, semi-underground college known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE).
Since 1987, BIHE has run classes in the living rooms and kitchens of Baha’i homes, on the sweat of volunteer Baha’i professors, many of whom lost their jobs in Iranian universities over their religious beliefs.
According to David Hoffman, founder of a campaign to support Iran’s Baha’is in their quest for higher education, the college has produced about 2,000 graduates, one-in-ten of whom have gone on to postgraduate study abroad at one of 60 universities outside Iran recognizing BIHE coursework.
“It’s a creative solution to a real dilemma,” said Hoffman. “These are very resilient people.”
In May, more than 30 Baha’i homes across Iran were raided as part of a crackdown on BIHE. The institution was subsequently declared illegal, according to human rights groups, and seven professors and administrators were last month sentenced to four and five years each, for being involved in an illegal group intending to commit crimes against national security.
Among them was Hassan’s academic adviser throughout his five years at BIHE, Mahmoud Badavam.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Hassan. “These are regular people, they’re not anti-government. When the government blocks their education, they just find another way. Now they’re arresting them because they found alternatives to the rights they were denied.”
The global campaign against Iran’s persecution of Baha’is in education is gathering momentum, with the screening of Education Under Fire, a documentary film on the issue at a number of U.S. universities this month.
Nobel Peace Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta have signed an open letter calling on Iran to unconditionally drop the charges against the Baha’i educators.
“[I]t is particularly shocking when despots and dictators in the 21st century attempt to subjugate their own populations by attempting to deny education,” it reads.
The letter also calls on academics around the world to register their disapproval with their Iranian peers, and consider recognizing BIHE coursework or offering scholarships.
Read: Baha’is accuse Iran of stoking hatred in media
Iran’s persecution of Baha’is is not limited to the educational sector, according to human rights groups. Seven Baha’i religious leaders are currently imprisoned for crimes including “espionage for Israel,” “insulting religious sanctities” and “propaganda against the system,” according to Amnesty International.
The organization considers the Baha’i leaders to be prisoners of conscience, and says their convictions are politically motivated. It says Baha’is are not permitted to meet, hold religious ceremonies or practice their religion with other believers within Iran.
Nor are Baha’is the only group excluded from higher education in Iran. Human rights activists, supporters of women’s rights, members of the political opposition and student journalists have also been deliberately denied access to education, according to a recent report by the non-governmental organization International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Alireza Miryusefi, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, said that while the Baha’i Faith was not recognized as an official religion in Iran, its adherents had full civil rights. “Contrary to allegations made by supporters of the cult abroad, they have had equal access to universities and every year tens of them are graduated from Iranian universities,” he said.
Miryusefi said raids on BIHE had been conducted because those involved in the institution had “systematically controlled activities of cult members, and … interfered in their private, social and economic lives.” He said the organization also had the goal of “entrapping” non-Baha’is, with the ultimate objective of creating “an extremist cult movement.”
He said those arrested in the raids had been given a fair trial, and had exercised their right of appeal.
Hoffman, the Education Under Fire campaign’s founder, said the fact that BIHE produced “brilliant students” seemed to be viewed by the Iranian government as an affront.
Former BIHE student Pedram Roushan recently completed a PhD in physics at Princeton University, and is now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He left Iran in 2000 after completing a five-year civil engineering course at BIHE.
“By the time I was a teenager, I understood that as a Baha’i I was going to be banned from going to any college or university in the country,” he said. “The price of being a Baha’i was very high in those days.”
Two years after Roushan began his studies, Hassan enrolled in the same course. His university enrollment applications had been rejected, despite his strong grades in high school.
The university applications required him to state his religion, but only gave four options, none of which were the Baha’i Faith. With no declared religion, his applications were considered incomplete.
After graduating, Hassan struck further challenges. He was paid a lower salary because he lacked a recognized qualification, and was removed from several projects when clients objected to a Baha’i’s involvement.
When his wife, who had trained for six years as a pharmacist, encountered similar issues, they decided to leave for Turkey, and were granted asylum in the U.S. in 2006. “We couldn’t put up with it any more,” he said.
Before he left, Hassan had fulfilled the obligation expected of BIHE graduates, repaying the institution by voluntarily teaching a first-year physics class.
“You don’t just finish BIHE and go, you stay and help future generations,” he said.
He finds it astonishing that he could be arrested, like so many others in his community, for the “crime” of bringing education to young Baha’is. “My former classmates face being arrested every day — over education,” he said.
—
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/10/world/meast/iran-bans-bahai-university/index.html?hpt=imi_t2

Members of the often persecuted Bahai faith are inherently green.

The terrace of the Baha’i Shrine and Gardens in Haifa is the most stunning destination in Israel’s third largest city. From the eastern side of the city, along the popular route 4, you first catch glimpse of it rising up towards the sky on your left. An expansive swath of green lawn manicured in layers and flanked by date trees span the height of the northern end of the Carmel mountainside. Year round and from a distance, the vision quite literally draws your gaze towards the impressive site, “a geometric cascade of hanging gardens and terraces down to Ben Gurion Boulevard -a gift of visual pleasure to the city that gave the Baha’i religion its home and headquarters.” [see http://www.ganbahai.org.il/en/ for pictures of the Terraces]

[...]

Baha’i Prosecutions

Though they do not describe themselves as an Abrahamic religion, in many Islamic countries Baha’i believers are often considered as apostates of the Muslim Faith, and several hundred have been executed. Baha’i experience continued persecution in parts of the Middle East including Egypt and Iran, where this modern independent religion, the second fastest growing in the world by percentage, was birthed in the 1800s.  Religious restrictions continue in places like Afghanistan, Algeria, Indonesia and sub-Saharan Africa, though India is home to the largest segment. 2.2 of the 6-7 million worldwide live in India, with followers in over 200 countries.

Recently, Israeli Baha’i followers were charged as Zionist spies by the Iranian government, their story making the front page of international news agencies.

The relationship to Israel goes back to the time of the Ottoman rule, when the religious leader and co-founder of the faith, Bahá’u’lláh (1817 – 1892), was banished to Akko by the Turks. His spiritual predecessor, Siyyid `Alí-Muhammad, who took the title, Báb (which means gate in Arabic), had been executive in their native Persia in 1850.  Despite over 20 years of banishment in Israel, Bahá’u’lláh and his followers established a flourishing spiritual community. Today their presence in Israel is obvious to residence and visitors to northern Israel, particularly during the springtime, which coincides with the Baha’i celebration of their calendar New Year (March 21, the Spring equinox).

—

Source: read full article here: http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/09/bahai-israel-environmentalism/

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8469/feed 0 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8160 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8160#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:18:56 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=8160 Time World, 14 July, 2011, By Karl Vick / Haifa

Stepping into the gardens of the Shrine of the Bab is like entering a hallucination. They rise in steps all the way up the mountainside above Haifa’s downtown, and at the midway point, at midmorning, the clear light off the Mediterranean combines with the precise efforts of 150 gardeners to achieve a combination of lucid depth and dazzling color. The glittering dome of the shrine hangs suspended above an immaculate park like the sun rising over an infinity pool. It radiates a sense of permanence. “It’s kind of like a theme park, where they’re keeping everything ‘just so,’ ” says Jonas Mejer, 20, a student visiting from Copenhagen. “But it’s a holy place.”

And it has just reopened after a reverential restoration that cost about $6 million — a goodly portion of it going to the dome’s 11,970 gold-flecked tiles — and took three years to complete. Resplendent again, the shrine stands as a testament to the survival of the Baha’i faith, which started in Iran in the early 1800s and ended up with its spiritual locus, by an accident of empire, in modern Israel.

(See the top 10 religion stories of 2010.)

The shrine marks the resting place of the “Bab,” or “Gate,” the title given to Siyyid Ali-Muhammad in his role as prophet. Born in southwestern Iran, he announced that a greater messenger was coming after him and laid down some of the precepts of the new faith, such as equality for women and the renunciation of violence. He was executed as a heretic, his remains recovered by followers and moved covertly from place to place for decades. Their final resting place was decided by the messenger he heralded, Mizra Hussein Ali, known as Baha’u'llah, or “Glory of God.” Sent into exile, he was taken to an Ottoman prison in Acre, across the bay from Haifa. He picked out the hillside where the Bab’s remains are buried, though his own grave in Acre (which Israelis call Akko) is the one the world’s over 5 million Baha’is face during prayers.

“When you explain the Baha’i faith, people say, ‘Well, that’s just common sense,’ ” says Rob Weinberg, communications director at the Baha’i World Centre, as the Haifa complex is known. It’s a monotheism that embraces all major religions, positing that God enlightened humankind over the ages by sending prophets — Abraham, Zoroaster, Krishna, the Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad. The Bab and Baha’u'llah were the latest in the chain. Baha’is revere marriage, family, public service and both science and religion, since both seek truth.

(See pictures of spiritual healing around the world.)

As noncontroversial as that may seem, it hasn’t prevented Baha’is from being persecuted, mostly in Iran, where they are regarded as apostates. The problem is with the idea that the Creator sent a messenger after Muhammad, whom Muslims regard as the final word — “the seal of the prophets.” The 300,000 believers who remain in the Islamic Republic routinely face discrimination and even arrest. Baha’i youth who want to attend university must hide their faith because adherents are barred from higher education.

(See pictures of Christians under siege in the Muslim world.)

Believers seeking solace from oppression can find it in the becalming brilliance of the Shrine of the Bab. Not that Haifa exactly teems with the faithful: last year the 760,000 tourists outnumbered Baha’is at the shrine by 100 to 1. (The largest concentration of Baha’is is in India.) Still, Haifa is a good fit for the Baha’is. Its Jewish and Arab populations seem at ease with each other, and glad to have a third faith in their midst. “The shrine,” said Mayor Yona Yahav at the reopening, “is the core and symbol of this tolerant and multicultural city.” And indeed, from halfway up this exquisitely landscaped hill, there seems no safer haven.

—
Source: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2081789,00.html#ixzz1SrqvMYem

In recent months, in Rafsanjan, Iran, a wave of arson attacks was unleashed against Iranian Baha’is for making “friends” with Muslims. After more than a dozen Baha’i-owned shops were burned, a warning letter arrived at Baha’i homes and businesses demanding that the Baha’is “refrain from forming contacts or friendships with Muslims.” This follows arson attacks last year against Baha’i homes in Ivel, Iran — the same village where a decree was once passed forbidding Baha’i- and Muslim-owned cows from grazing together.

This week, four U.S.-based Iranian Baha’is will come to Washington, D.C. to advocate for the release of their innocent relatives, who have been jailed solely due to their religious beliefs. Three of the prisoners they represent are serving 10-year sentences for being part of a national administrative group known as “The Friends,” or Yaran in Farsi, while another prisoner is a young woman serving a four-year sentence for engaging in a project to teach underprivileged youth how to read and write. In efforts to shine light onto a dark and deplorable human rights situation, these relatives will meet with the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; Senator Mark Kirk; Congressman Frank Wolf; as well as officials at the State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and members of the press.

For a climate of oppression to thrive — Nazi Germany comes immediately to mind — public scrutiny must be diverted from the central authority and projected onto an “other,” usually a minority population that serves as a scapegoat. In Iran, every opportunity has been taken to separate Baha’is, and even their cows, from the rest of the Iranian population by labeling them mohareb, or “enemies of God.” But the Baha’is are not enemies of any kind, refraining from conflict and dissension as a matter of religious principle. With 300,000 members, they are Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. The injustices meted out to them are a reflection of the terrible oppression that has now engulfed that entire country.

Despite many efforts, Iran is not a nation where friendship has flourished over the past three decades. The frozen diplomatic relations between our two countries and the arbitrary imprisonment of journalists, hikers, scholars, human rights activists and minorities bear ample evidence of this. But this cannot and will not last forever. The surest way to ultimately overcome a force of hatred is with an even stronger force of friendship.

Let us therefore resolve to utilize our freedom to speak out for freedom in Iran. Let us also use our freedom to make new and deeper friendships here in compensation for those who are banned in Iran and other repressive countries. Whether you happen to be a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Baha’i or atheist, take someone of a different belief out to lunch or visit his or her place of worship. Surely the news that many new friendships are being formed as a result of their sacrifices will be a comfort to the imprisoned “Friends,” or Yaran, in Iran, who are currently serving a decade of harsh imprisonment because of their belief in strengthening bonds of affection and unity among all members of the human race.

—
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-vance/iran-where-friendship-is-_b_819614.html

Iran’s human rights crisis deepened as the government sought to consolidate its power following 2009’s disputed presidential election. Public demonstrations waned after security forces used live ammunition to suppress protesters in late 2009, resulting in the death of at least seven protesters. Authorities announced that security forces had arrested more than 6,000 individuals after June 2009. Hundreds-including lawyers, rights defenders, journalists, civil society activists, and opposition leaders-remain in detention without charge. Since the election crackdown last year, well over a thousand people have fled Iran to seek asylum in neighboring countries. Interrogators used torture to extract confessions, on which the judiciary relied on to sentence people to long prison terms and even death. Restrictions on freedom of expression and association, as well as religious and gender-based discrimination, continued unabated.

The seven Baha'i prisoners, photographed several months before their arrest, are, front row, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie, and, standing, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, and Mahvash Sabet. © 2010 Bahá’í World Centre

Torture and Ill-Treatment

Authorities systematically used torture to coerce confessions. Student activist Abdullah Momeni wrote to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in September describing the torture he suffered at the hands of jailers. At this writing no high-level official has been prosecuted for the torture, ill-treatment, and deaths of three detainees held at Kahrizak detention center after June 2009.

On August 2, 2010, 17 political prisoners issued a statement demanding the rights guaranteed to prisoners by law, including an end to their solitary confinement and access to medical facilities. They also complained of severely overcrowded conditions. Reports by international human rights groups indicate that prison authorities are systematically denying needed medical care to political prisoners at Tehran’s Evin Prison and other facilities.

Freedom of Expression

Dozens of journalists and bloggers are currently behind bars or free on short-term furloughs. On September 28 blogger Hossein Derakhshan received a nineteen-and-a-half year prison sentence for espionage, “propaganda against the regime,” and “insulting sanctities.” The judiciary sentenced numerous other journalists, including Isa Saharkhiz and Hengameh Shahidi who were sentenced to three and six years respectively, for crimes such as “insulting” government officials. On June 8 a revolutionary court sentenced Jila Baniyaghoub to a year in prison and barred her from working as a journalist for 30 years.

The Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance continued shutting down newspapers and in August directed the press not to publish items about opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Mohammad Khatami, the former president.

State universities prevented some politically active students from registering for graduate programs despite undergraduate test scores that should have guaranteed them access. The government initiated an aggressive campaign to “Islamicize” universities, in part by forcibly retiring professors in the social sciences.

The government relied on plainclothes security forces and the Basij, a state-sponsored paramilitary force, to target Shia clerics critical of the government, such as Grand Ayatollah Yusef Sanei, Mehdi Karroubi, and Ayatollah Seyed Ali Mohammad Dastgheib. Ayatollah Kazemini Boroujerdi-whose understanding of Islam calls for the separation of religion and government-entered his fourth year in prison following a Special Court for the Clergy conviction on unknown charges. After years under house arrest and government monitoring, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri died in December 2009. Security forces arrested scores of mourners who attended his funeral.

The government systematically blocks websites that carry political news and analysis, slows down internet speeds, jams foreign satellite broadcasts, and employs the Revolutionary Guards to target dissident websites.

Freedom of Assembly and Association

Authorities continued a blanket policy of denying permits for opposition demonstrations. Security forces prevented the Mourning Mothers, whose sons and daughters were killed by security forces during the 2009 unrest, from gathering at Laleh Park in Tehran. Authorities also prevented women’s rights activists from publicly petitioning against existing laws or legislation that discriminate against women.

The government increased restrictions on civil society organizations. On September 27 the general prosecutor and judiciary spokesman announced a court order dissolving two pro-reform political parties, the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution.

Repression of student groups was particularly harsh. Security forces detained scores of members belonging to the Office for Consolidating Unity, including Ali Qolizadeh, Alireza Kiani, Mohammad Heydarzadeh, and Mohsen Barzegar, who were arrested in early November 2010. The Office for Consolidating Unity is a national independent student association that authorities declared illegal in January 2009. In 2010, revolutionary courts convicted Bahareh Hedayat, Majid Tavakoli, and Milad Asadi, members of Tahkim’s alumni group, to prison terms ranging from six to eight-and-a-half years on charges that include insulting government authorities.

Death Penalty

In 2009, the last year for which figures are available, authorities executed 388 prisoners, more than any other nation except China. Iranian human rights defenders believe that many more executions, especially of individuals convicted of drug trafficking, are taking place in Iran’s prisons today.

Crimes punishable by death include murder, rape, drug trafficking, armed robbery, espionage, sodomy, and adultery. Under intense international pressure, officials suspended the stoning-to-death sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani who was convicted of adultery in 2006. However, they alleged that Ashtiani helped murder her husband. She remains on death row at this writing.

Iran leads the world in the execution of juvenile offenders. Iranian law allows death sentences for persons who have reached puberty, defined as nine years old for girls and fifteen for boys. According to a human rights lawyer who defended many juvenile offenders on death row, authorities executed a juvenile offender named Mohammad on July 10, 2010. There are currently more than a hundred juvenile offenders on death row, including Ebrahim Hamidi, whom a local court sentenced to death for the alleged rape of another boy in 2010. Hamidi was 16 at the time of the alleged crime.

Authorities have executed at least nine political dissidents since November 2009, all of them convicted of moharebeh (”enmity against God”) for their alleged ties to armed groups. On January 28 the government hanged Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour. Although both were arrested prior to the June 2009 presidential election, they were tried as part of the August 2009 mass trials, where they reportedly confessed to planning a deadly 2008 bombing in Shiraz, southwest Iran.

Authorities executed Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam Holi, and Mehdi Eslamian by hanging on the morning of May 9 in Evin prison without informing their lawyers or families. Another 16 Kurds presently face execution for their alleged support of armed groups.

Human Rights Defenders

Efforts to intimidate human rights lawyers and prevent them from effectively representing political detainees continued. In September authorities arrested Nasrin Sotoudeh, who represented numerous political prisoners. In November Sotoudeh went on a “dry” hunger strike, refusing to eat or drink anything to protest being held in solitary confinement since her arrest. Mohammad Mostafaei was forced to flee Iran after authorities repeatedly summoned him for questioning and detained his wife, father-in-law, and brother-in-law. Mostafaei represented high-profile defendants such as Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by stoning, and numerous juvenile detainees on death row. In October 2010, a revolutionary court sentenced Mohammad Seifzadeh, a colleague of Nobel-prize winner Shirin Ebadi and co-founder of the banned Center for Defenders of Human Rights, to nine years imprisonment and banned him from practicing law for 10 years.

Security forces routinely harassed and arrested human rights activists, often without charge. Others were swept up in raids and face charges of attempting to overthrow the government via “cyber-warfare.” On September 21 a revolutionary court sentenced Emad Baghi to six years in prison for an interview he conducted with dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Montazeri several years earlier. Another revolutionary court sentenced Shiva Nazar Ahari and Koohyar Goodarzi, both members of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, to six years and one year respectively after months of “temporary detention” for alleged national security offenses.

Treatment of Minorities

The government denies adherents of the Baha’i faith-Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority-freedom of religion. In August the judiciary convicted seven leaders of the national Baha’i organization to 20 years each in prison; their sentences were later reduced to 10 years each. The government accused them of espionage without providing evidence and denied their lawyers’ requests to conduct a prompt and fair trial.

Iranian laws continue to discriminate against religious minorities, including Sunni Muslims, in employment and education. Sunni Muslims, about 10 percent of the population, cannot construct mosques in major cities. In 2010, security forces detained several members of Iran’s largest Sufi sect, the Nematollahi Gonabadi order, and attacked their houses of worship. They similarly targeted converts to Christianity for questioning and arrest.

The government restricts cultural and political activities among the country’s Azeri, Kurdish, and Arab minorities, including the organizations that focus on social issues.

Sexual minorities also face a precarious situation. Law enforcement and judiciary officials discriminate, both in law and in practice, against Iran’s vulnerable lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Iran’s penal code criminalizes consensual same-sex acts, some of which are punishable by death. During the past few years, a steady stream of LGBT Iranians has sought refugee status in Turkey and are awaiting resettlement in third countries.

Key International Actors

Iran’s nuclear program continued to be the center of attention for much of 2010, overshadowing serious concerns regarding the deepening human rights crisis in the country. In June 2010 the United Nations Security Council passed a new round of sanctions against Iran for its failure to comply with previous resolutions on transparency regarding its nuclear program.

During Iran’s Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in March, Iran rejected 45 recommendations of member states, including allowing the special rapporteur on torture to visit the country; prosecuting security officials involved in torturing, raping, or killing; implementing policies to end gender based violence; and halting the execution of political prisoners.

In October 2010 the UN secretary-general’s office released its report on the situation of human rights in Iran, pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 64/176. The report noted “further negative developments in the human rights situation” in Iran, including “excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests, and detentions, unfair trials, and possible torture and ill-treatment of opposition activists” following the June 2009 election.

In April Iran withdrew its bid to gain a seat on the HRC after strong international opposition. However, it did gain a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women. During the June session of the HRC, 56 states joined a statement expressing concern over “the lack of progress in the protection of human rights in Iran, particularly since the events surrounding the elections in Iran last June.” In December 2009 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution criticizing Iran’s human rights record.

On September 29, 2010, the Obama administration announced “human rights sanctions” against eight high-level Iranian officials, including individuals from the ministries of intelligence and interior, the police, the Basij, the Revolutionary Guards, and the judiciary, who were responsible for systematic and serious human rights violations.

—
Source: http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/iran

Michael J. Totten

December 9, 2010 – by Michael J. Totten

Iran’s most repressed religious minority is also its largest. Members of the community are routinely imprisoned, frequently executed, banned from universities, and ruthlessly repressed economically. Tens of thousands have been murdered by one regime after another. The current government—the Khomeinist “Islamic Republic”—goes farther than any other by vowing to crush these people wherever they live and erase them from the face of the earth.

There are only six or seven million in the entire world, and their spiritual home is in Israel. I am not, however, referring here to the Jews, but to the Bahais.

The Bahai gardens in Haifa, Israel

[In the picture used on the right, the Shrine of the Bab is coverd for maintenance work. please see this picture for the Baha'i Gardens with the golden dome of the Shrine of the Bab]

Their world headquarters is in Israel, and they came during Ottoman times from Persian lands. The nation-state of one of the world’s oldest religions now hosts the holiest site of one of the newest, and the nation where the Bahai Faith was born vows to destroy the nation where the Bahai Faith had to migrate.

The strikingly different treatments of these people by Iran and by Israel infuses the looming showdown between the Middle East’s two most powerful countries with even more moral clarity than it already had.

The U.S. State Department rates Iran one of the worst violators of religious freedom in the world, particularly for its repression against the Bahais. “Bahai religious groups reported arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention,” says its most recent annual report, “expulsions from universities, and confiscation of property. During the reporting period government-controlled broadcast and print media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Bahais.” Even the United National General Assembly recently condemned the Iranian government on similar grounds.

Around 300,000 Bahais are still in Iran, ten times the number of Christians and Jews there. Two million or so live in India. There are many more in South America and Africa. Only 150,000 or so live in the U.S., but the faith has been growing in Eastern Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Most worship in their houses, but there are community centers in places where enough Bahais are concentrated. There’s a house of worship on each continent. North America’s is in Chicago. South America’s is in Chile. Asia’s is in Delhi.

The Bahai house of worship in Chicago, Illinois

But the world spiritual center for the Bahai faith–its “Jerusalem,” so to speak–is in Israel on the slope of Mount Carmel in Haifa. Rob Weinberg gave me a tour. He’s a Bahai from the UK and has been serving there since late fall in 2009. And he told me the story of how his faith began in Persia in the middle of the 19th century.

“It was a time of great expectation,” he said, “when the Muslims were awaiting the coming of a promised great teacher. Also, in the Christian world, in the West, there were expectations about the return of Christ. There was a great deal of ferment.”

Rob Weinberg

In 1844 a young man named Mirza Ali Muhammad, a merchant in the city of the Iranian city of Shiraz, said he was the herald of a new revelation from God. He announced the coming of the new great teacher.

“He called himself the Báb,” Weinberg said, “which means ‘the gate’ in Arabic, and his teachings began to spread throughout Persia. Thousands upon thousands of people responded and were very attracted to the teaching. He said a new day had come, a day when religions would become united, when people would recognize their oneness, when the equality of men and women would be established.”

One of his first followers was a poet who removed her veil in public, something unheard of in that day, though it was perfectly normal before the Khomeinists took over in 1979. “There were reports of a man cutting his throat,” Weinberg said, “because he was so shocked at the audacity of this act.”

This new religion alarmed the authorities as it spread. Shia Muslims were abandoning Islam and becoming Bábis, followers of the Báb. Pogroms followed, and 20,000 were executed, many in horrible ways. They were executed not because they were criminals, nor for political reasons. They were executed because they were heretics. The Báb himself was publicly executed in 1850 in Tabriz.

Tabriz is an Azeri city. In Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan—the now-sovereign Azeri land detached long ago from the Persian Empire by Czarist Russia—is a statue of a liberated woman discarding her veil. It was erected almost a century ago, and the liberation has held.

The statue of the liberated woman, Baku, Azerbaijan

I spent a week in Azerbaijan and saw only three or four veiled women during my entire stay. Hardly any man there finds unveiled women shocking or scandalous, certainly not enough to cut his own throat over it. There are no more veiled women in Azerbaijan than there are in Seattle. The government, though, isn’t run by totalitarian mullahs. The local Bahais, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians are left alone.

“The main message from the Báb,” Weinberg said, “was that there was about to be a great teacher. Among the Báb’s most prominent followers was a nobleman whose name was Mirza Hussein Ali. His was the son of a courtier in the Shah’s court, and in 1852 he was imprisoned for being a follower of the Báb. He was in an underground dungeon in Tehran, the place where the worst criminals were thrown and left to die. And there he had an extraordinary revelation where he realized he was the one that the Báb had foretold. And for the next forty years, the Báb’s teachings came through him. He was channeling all these ideas about world order, global civilization, equality, the unity of mankind, how to organize human affairs–things to do with personal spirituality, but also justice, social organization, and so on.”

He took the name Bahaullah, which means glory of God. And because of his high rank in the Shah’s court, he was banished rather than executed. He lived in Baghdad for ten years before moving on to Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria. And in 1868 he was banished to Acre, the now-Israeli city of Akko, and imprisoned there.

“]

[Baha'u'llah was exiled by the Persian and Ottoman empires

Haifa, Israel, with Akko (Acre) in the background

“They kept him in the citadel for two and a half years,” Weinberg said, “but as people started to realize that the Bahai were good, honest, peace-loving people, restrictions on them were lifted and they were free to travel in the area. Bahaullah passed away in 1892.”

Acre, or Akko, is just north of Haifa. The cities are within each others’ sight lines. Bahaullah could see Haifa and Mount Carmel across the bay from the prison, and he traveled there after he was released.

Ottoman-era prison in Akko (Acre), Israel

He wanted Mount Carmel to become the spiritual seat and administrative center for the Bahai Faith, and he wanted the Báb’s remains secretly smuggled out of Persia and buried in a shrine on the side of the mountain. That’s exactly what happened sixty years later, and Mount Carmel has been the center of the Bahai world ever since.

The first building constructed there was for the archives. “It’s a copy of the Parthenon in Athens,” Weinberg said. “The idea was to find an architectural style that would be beautiful for thousands of years. They assumed that since the Parthenon has been considered beautiful for thousands of years, it would likely be considered beautiful for thousands more.”

The Bahai archive building

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The Bahai archive building

The Bahai Faith is a modern religion with neither clergy nor rituals. It is administered by officials elected every five years. They believe in non-violence and the brotherhood of mankind. You’d have to be a real bastard to be seriously offended by them, and some kind of a fascist to think they deserve to be persecuted.

“The fundamental teaching of the Bahai Faith is that there is one god and that he is completely unknowable,” Weinberg said. “We are limited in our understanding, so throughout our history humanity has been guided by it’s a succession of great teachers. When we look through history we have, every thousand years or so, extraordinary figures like Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, Krishna, and so on. They bring a message, they bring teachings, and their teachings become universal and give rise to new civilizations. So there is essentially one religion. There aren’t all these religions in competition with each other for everyone’s soul. There is one religion, and it has been progressively revealed to humanity throughout history through these great teachers.”

If you want to convert, it isn’t difficult.

“If you want to become a Bahai,” he said, “all you’re doing in a sense is making an internal recognition that there is one god, there is one human race, there is really only one religion that has been taught through the ages by different teachers, and that Bahaullah is the latest of these great teachers. There’s no ritual or baptism or anything like that.”

“]

[Interior of the Office of Public Information, Baha'i World Centre, Haifa

“Ever since the time of the Báb,” he said, “the Bahais in Iran have been persecuted.”

“Even under the secular shahs?” I said.

“Less so then, but, yes,” he said. “At different points in history the shahs wanted to appease the mullahs, so from time to time he would allow them to do stuff to the Bahais.”

“‘Stuff’ meaning what, exactly?” I said.

“Their cemeteries were demolished. Gangs were let loose on Bahais in the streets. People were killed. Bahais have always been slandered. Bahai school kids have been told they’re unclean.’

“It sounds like Bahais have been treated worse than Jews in Iran,” I said.

“In Iran,” he said, “I would say so, yes.”

“Is that because Christians and Jews are considered People of the Book by Muslims while Bahais are not?”

“Bahais are also People of the Book,” he said, “because we consider the Bahai revelation following the same line as the Abrahamic faiths.”

“But Bahais aren’t named by Islam as People of the Book,” I said.

“Because we came after the Koran,” he said. “We came after Mohammad. The traditional interpretation says he was the last prophet, that there can’t be any after him. So when the Báb and Bahaullah come along and say they’re being divinely inspired and guided it becomes a big theological issue. Since 1979 it has been the official government policy to blacklist and persecute the Bahais. Over 200 Bahais were executed under Khomeini in the early years after the revolution.”

Iran’s Khomeinists treat everyone badly, even liberal and moderate Shia clerics who refuse to toe the regime line, but only Jews and Bahais are singled out for destruction outside Iran.

“In 1991 the Supreme Leader Khamenei,” Weinberg said, “who is still the supreme leader, commissioned a memorandum which deals with the Bahai question. It says Bahais must be blocked from progressing in careers and social life. Employees who reveal that they’re Bahais should be dismissed from their jobs. School children should be dismissed from schools. Bahais should be banned from universities. They should be kept at the lowest levels of subsistence and earning. And more ominously, it also says Bahais should be rooted out around the world, that their culture should be destroyed. It’s a formal government policy to eliminate every trace of the Bahai Faith and the Bahai community everywhere in the world.”

“Not just in Iran,” I said.

“Not just in Iran,” he said. “This document says the Bahai community should be destroyed around the world. They’ve been trying to enact this policy, and in the early days of the revolution they were executing Bahais and imprisoning them. Bahais were disappearing, never to be seen again. There was a huge outcry. The Bahai Faith has spread all over the world. There are Bahais in every country, and various governments around the world will stand up and speak out for the human rights of the Bahais. There was such an outcry that Iran realized it couldn’t get away with it. So instead they’ve been applying a slow strangulation which is still going on today. Cemeteries are still being destroyed. People are still losing their jobs. Students still are not allowed to study. Bahais are picked up, arrested, and imprisoned, and only released on bail if they put up the deeds to their properties.”

Israel’s relationship with the Bahais could not be more different. Few Bahais live there, but that’s not because of pogroms, state-sponsored repression, or bigoted attitudes from Israelis or Arabs. The Bahais just decided–before the modern Israeli state even existed–not to promote themselves there.

Haifa's German Colony from the Bahai gardens. The shrine of the Báb (lower right) was covered when I was there.

“This goes back to the time of Bahaullah himself,” Weinberg said. “He said the faith shouldn’t be taught in this area.”

“Why is that?” I said.

“I think there’s wisdom in it,” he said and laughed.

“It was a political decision?” I said.

“I can’t speak for Bahaullah,” he said and laughed again.

“You have a lot better sense of what he was thinking than I do,” I said.

Here's a public domain photograph of the Báb's shrine

“He was probably aware of the sensitivity of this land,” he said, “the political factions, religious tensions, and all the rest of it. I think that out of respect and out of safety it was considered the wisest thing to just have our holy places and world center here without making any attempt to teach or promote the faith here. If people want to know about it they can come here. They can see the gardens. They can go on the Internet. They can read books. They can go to the library. But there is no Bahai community as such in Israel. We do, however, have a relationship with the city of Haifa, the municipality. All our buildings and developments are done properly and legally with the city.”

The Bahai center

“Is there any tension?” I said.

“Not that I’m aware of,” he said and laughed a third time. The idea of tension between Bahais and Israelis is a little ridiculous, but I had to ask just to be sure.

“Was there any tension with the British or Ottoman authorities after this place was established?” I said.

“The Bahais were initially prisoners, of course, under the Ottoman authorities,” he said. “Bahaullah’s son was still a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire until the Young Turks revolution set political and religious prisoners free in 1908. Between 1914 and 1918 their lives were in danger because the Ottoman pasha in Palestine threatened to have Bahaullah’s son executed, but the Ottomans were driven out by the British. After the First World War during the British Mandate, Bahaullah’s son knew there was going to be a famine, so he encouraged Bahai landowners around the Galilee to store grain. He fed a lot of people in this area during the First World War, and when the British came in they gave him a knighthood for his service to the people of Palestine. So the Bahai’s relationship with the British was fine. And the Bahai’s relationship with the State of Israel is fine, as well.”

We walked the grounds of the gardens. It’s an extraordinary place, and I said so.

The Bahai gardens from below

“It is very beautiful,” he said. “People ask questions about what’s symbolic, but it’s really just about beauty. It’s about creating a beautiful environment so that the pilgrims who come can prepare themselves for the shrine. The number nine is repeated in some of the designs. In the original Arabic numerology, Baha equals nine, and it means glory.”

The Bahai gardens

I was tempted to ask him what he thought his Israeli hosts should do about the Iranian regime that threatens them both, but it did not seem appropriate.

“We’re not political,” he said. “We don’t get involved with political discussions or disputes. Bahais everywhere in the world obey the laws of the land in which they live, so naturally we’ve never had any problems with the British or the Israelis.”

The Iranian government’s stated goal of destroying the Bahai Faith everywhere in the world is, of course, impossible, but an apocalyptic war with Israel would, conveniently from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s point of view, destroy the holiest sites of both the Jews and the Bahais. I don’t expect anything of the sort will ever actually happen, but it would be a mistake, I believe, to assume that it can’t. A repressive regime with eliminationist ambitions toward even one, let alone two, religious communities would be ferociously dangerous indeed if it possessed the weapons of genocide.

“All of these things are intertwined,” said Shastri Purushotma, the human rights representative for the U.S. Bahai community. “You can’t separate out human rights and the nuclear issue, because the way a country treats his own people is an indication of how they will treat their neighbors.”

******

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During the reporting period, government respect for religious freedom in the country continued to deteriorate. Government rhetoric and actions created a threatening atmosphere for nearly all non-Shi’a religious groups, most notably for Baha’is, as well as Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, members of the Jewish community, and Shi’a groups that do not share the government’s official religious views. Reports of government imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on religious beliefs continued during the reporting period. Baha’i religious groups reported arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention, expulsions from universities, and confiscation of property. During the reporting period government-controlled broadcast and print media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Baha’is. All non-Shi’a religious minorities suffered varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment, education, and housing.

Although the constitution gives Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians the status of “protected” religious minorities (as long as they do not proselytize), in practice non-Shi’a Muslims faced substantial societal discrimination, and government actions continued to support elements of society that created a threatening atmosphere for some religious minorities.

The U.S. government makes clear its strong objections to the government’s harsh and oppressive treatment of religious minorities through public statements, support for relevant UN and nongovernmental organization (NGO) efforts, as well as diplomatic initiatives. Every year since 1999, the U.S. Secretary of State has designated the country a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act for its particularly egregious violations of religious freedom.

Section I. Religious Demography

The country has an area of 636,000 square miles and a population of 67 million. The population is 98 percent Muslim–89 percent is Shi’a and 9 percent Sunni (mostly Turkmen and Arabs, Baluchs, and Kurds living in the southwest, southeast, and northwest respectively). There were no official statistics available on the size of the Sufi Muslim population; however, some reports estimated between two and five million persons practice Sufism in the country.

Unofficial estimates from religious organizations claimed that Baha’is, Jews, Christians, Sabean-Mandaeans, and Zoroastrians constitute 2 percent of the population. The largest non-Muslim minority is the Baha’is, who number 300,000 to 350,000. Unofficial estimates of the Jewish community’s size varied from 20,000 to 30,000.

According to UN figures, 300,000 Christians live in the country, the majority of whom are ethnic Armenians. Unofficial estimates for the Assyrian Christian population ranged between 10,000 and 20,000. There are also Protestant denominations, including evangelical religious groups. Christian groups outside the country estimated the size of the Protestant Christian community to be less than 10,000, although many Protestant Christians reportedly practice in secret. Sabean-Mandaeans number 5,000 to 10,000 persons. The government regarded the Sabean-Mandaeans as Christians, and they were included among the three recognized religious minorities; however, Sabean-Mandaeans do not consider themselves Christians. The government estimated there are 30,000 to 35,000 Zoroastrians, a primarily ethnic Persian minority; however, Zoroastrian groups claimed to have 60,000 adherents. There were indications that members of all religious minorities emigrated, although it was unclear if the reasons for emigration were religious or related to overall poor economic conditions.

Section II. Status of Government Respect for Religious Freedom

Legal/Policy Framework

The constitution declares the “official religion of Iran is Islam and the doctrine followed is that of Ja’afari (Twelver) Shi’ism.” All laws and regulations must be consistent with the official interpretation of Shari’a (Islamic law). The constitution provides Sunni Muslims a degree of religious freedom; however, the government severely restricted overall religious freedom. The constitution states that “within the limits of the law,” Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are the only recognized religious minorities guaranteed freedom to practice their religious beliefs; however, members of these recognized minority religious groups reported government imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on their religious beliefs.

The supreme leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, heads a three-branch structure of government (legislative, executive, and judicial branches). The supreme leader is not directly elected, but chosen by a group of 86 Islamic scholars (the Assembly of Experts), who are directly elected. All acts of the majles (parliament) must be reviewed for strict conformity with Islamic law and the constitution, and all candidates for any elected office must be vetted by the unelected Council of Guardians. The council is composed of six clerics appointed by the supreme leader and six Muslim jurists (legal scholars) nominated by the head of the judiciary and approved by the majles.

The government observes the following religious holidays as national holidays: Eid-e-Ghadir, Tassoua, Ashura, Arbaeen, Demise of the Prophet Muhammad, Martyrdom of Imam Reza, Birthday of Imam Ali, Ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, Birthday of Imam Mahdi, Eid-e-Fitr, Martyrdom of Imam Ali, Martyrdom of Imam Jafar Sadegh, Eid-e-Ghorban, and the Islamic New Year.

The government did not respect the right of Muslim citizens to change or renounce their religious faith. A child born to a Muslim father automatically is considered a Muslim by the government.

Non-Muslims may not engage in public religious expression, persuasion, and conversion among Muslims, and there were restrictions on published religious material. In February 2008 a revision to the penal code was drafted for approval by the legislature whereby apostasy, specifically conversion from Islam, would be punishable by death. This revision passed in the majles in September 2008 and reportedly was implemented on a one-year trial basis. On June 23, 2009, the Legal and Judicial Committee of the majles recommended removing the revision from the penal code, but no further information was available at the end of the reporting period. Previously, death sentences for apostasy have been issued under judicial interpretations of Shari’a; however, there were no reported cases of the death penalty being applied for apostasy during the reporting period.

Proselytizing of Muslims by non-Muslims is illegal. Evangelical church leaders were subjected to pressure from authorities to sign pledges that they would not evangelize Muslims or allow Muslims to attend church services. Members of religious minorities, excluding Sunni Muslims, were prevented from serving in the judiciary and security services and from becoming public school principals.

Applicants for public sector employment were screened for their adherence to and knowledge of Islam, although members of religious minorities, with the exception of Baha’is, could serve in lower ranks of government employment. Government workers who did not observe Islam’s principles and rules were subject to penalties.

The constitution states that the army must be Islamic and must recruit individuals who are committed to the objectives of the Islamic Revolution. In practice, however, no religious minorities were exempt from military service. The law forbids non-Muslims from holding officer positions over Muslims in the armed forces. Members of religious minorities with a college education can serve as officers during their mandatory military service but cannot be career military officers.

By law religious minorities are not allowed to be elected to a representative body or to hold senior government or military positions, with the exception that five of a total 290 seats in the majles are reserved for religious minorities. Three of these seats are reserved for members of Christian religious groups, including two seats for Armenian Christians and one for Assyrian Christians. There is also one seat to represent Jews and one to represent Zoroastrians. While Sunnis do not have reserved seats in the majles, they were allowed to serve in the body. Sunni majles deputies tended to be elected from among the larger Sunni communities. Members of religious minorities were allowed to vote; however, no member of a religious minority, including Sunni Muslims, is eligible to be president.

The legal system discriminates against religious minorities. Article 297 of the amended 1991 Islamic Punishments Act authorizes collection of equal diyeh (blood money) as restitution to families for the death of both Muslims and non-Muslims. According to law Baha’i blood is considered mobah, meaning it can be spilled with impunity.

Adherents of religious groups not recognized by the constitution, such as the Baha’is, did not have freedom to practice their beliefs. The government prohibited Baha’is from teaching and practicing their faith. Baha’is were barred from all leadership positions in the government and military.

The government considered Baha’is to be apostates and defined the Baha’i faith as a political “sect.” The Ministry of Justice stated that Baha’is were permitted to enroll in schools only if they did not identify themselves as such, and Baha’is preferably should be enrolled in schools with a strong and imposing religious ideology. There were reports that Baha’i children in public schools faced attempts to convert them to Islam.

In 2008 the government reverted to its previous practice of requiring Baha’i students to identify themselves as a religion other than Baha’i to register for the entrance examination. The government had briefly rescinded this requirement in 2007. This action precluded Baha’i enrollment in state-run universities, since a tenet of the Baha’i faith is not to deny one’s faith. The Ministry of Justice stated that Baha’is must be excluded or expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, if their religious affiliation became known. University applicants were required to pass an examination in Islamic, Christian, or Jewish theology, but there was no test for the Baha’i theology.

Baha’is were banned from the social pension system. In addition Baha’is were regularly denied compensation for injury or criminal victimization and the right to inherit property. Baha’i marriages and divorces were not officially recognized, although the government allowed a civil attestation of marriage to serve as a marriage certificate.

The government allowed recognized religious minorities to establish community centers and certain self-financed cultural, social, athletic, or charitable associations. However, the government prohibited the Baha’i community from assembling officially and from maintaining administrative institutions by closing any such institutions.

The government propagated a legal interpretation of Islam that effectively deprived women of many rights granted to men. Gender segregation was enforced generally throughout the country without regard to religious affiliation. Women of all religious groups were expected to adhere to Islamic dress in public. Although enforcement of rules for conservative Islamic dress eased at times, the government periodically repressed “un-Islamic dress.” The government’s 12-point contract model for marriage and divorce limited the rights accorded to women by custom and traditional interpretations of Islamic law.

Restrictions on Religious Freedom

During the reporting period, respect for religious freedom in the country continued to deteriorate. Government rhetoric and actions created a threatening atmosphere for nearly all non-Shi’a religious groups, most notably for Baha’is, as well as Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, members of the Jewish community, and Shi’a groups who do not share the government’s sanctioned religious views. Reports of government imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on religious beliefs continued during the reporting period. Baha’i religious groups reported arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention, expulsions from universities, and confiscation of property. Government-controlled broadcast and print media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, particularly the Baha’is, during the reporting period. All non-Shi’a religious minorities suffered varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment, education, and housing.

Particularly since the June 2009 elections, the government intensified its campaign against non-Muslim religious minorities.

The Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance (Ershad) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) monitored religious activity closely. Members of recognized religious minorities were not required to register with the government; however, their communal, religious, and cultural events and organizations, including schools, were monitored closely. Registration of Baha’is was a police function during the reporting period. The government also required evangelical Christian groups to compile and submit membership lists for their congregations.

The government generally allowed recognized religious minority groups to conduct religious education for their adherents in separate schools, although it restricted this right considerably in some cases. The Ministry of Education, which imposed certain curriculum requirements, supervised these schools. With few exceptions, the directors of such private schools must be Muslim. Attendance at the schools was not mandatory for recognized religious minorities. The Ministry of Education must approve all textbooks used in coursework, including religious texts. Recognized religious minorities could provide religious instruction in non-Persian languages, but such texts required approval by the authorities. This approval requirement sometimes imposed significant translation expenses on minority communities. Assyrian Christians reported that their community was permitted to write its own textbooks which, following government authorization, were then printed at government expense and distributed to the Assyrian community.

In October 2009 the government threatened the pastor of the largest church that holds public services to stop Friday worship services or face the consequence of shutting down the entire Central Assemblies of God Church in Tehran.

Broad restrictions on Baha’is severely undermined their ability to practice their faith freely and function as a community. Baha’i groups reported that the government often denied applications for new or renewed business and trade licenses to Baha’is. The government repeatedly pressured Baha’is to accept relief from mistreatment in exchange for recanting their religious beliefs. The government prevented many Baha’is from leaving the country.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, more than 200 Baha’is have been killed, and many have faced regular raids and confiscation of property. Cemeteries and holy places have been vandalized, and students in primary and secondary schools have been denigrated and abused by school authorities in at least 10 cities.

In January 2010 chief prosecutor of Tehran Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi publicly stated that the Baha’is arrested during the December 2009 demonstrations had played a role in organizing the Ashura riots, and that their arrest was due to sending pictures of the protest abroad. He also claimed that arms and ammunitions were discovered in and confiscated from some of their homes.

Baha’is could not teach or practice their religious beliefs or maintain links with coreligionists abroad. Baha’is were often officially charged with “espionage on behalf of Zionism,” in part due to the fact that the Baha’i world headquarters is located in Israel. These charges were more acute when Baha’is were caught communicating with or sending monetary contributions to the Baha’i headquarters.

During the reporting period, Baha’is continued to face an increasing number of public attacks, including a series of negative and defamatory articles in Kayhan, a government-affiliated newspaper whose managing editor was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene’i. The national daily newspaper Etemad and several provincial newspapers also published defamatory articles against Baha’is. The articles often accused Baha’i and Sunni Salafist groups of working together to undermine national security and to commit espionage on behalf of foreign governments.

Public and private universities continued to deny admittance to or expel Baha’i students. Although in 2007 the government briefly allowed Baha’i matriculation into universities, in 2008 the government reverted to its earlier policy of denying university admittance to Baha’i students; this policy remained in effect throughout the reporting period. Although the government maintained publicly that Baha’is were free to attend university, reports indicated that the implicit policy of preventing Baha’is from obtaining higher education remained in effect during the reporting period. Of the few Baha’is enrolled in universities, several were expelled during the reporting period once their religious beliefs became known. Furthermore, during the past few years, young Baha’i schoolchildren in primary and high schools increasingly have been vilified, pressured to convert to Islam, and in many cases expelled on account of their religion.

There were reports that the government compiled a list of Baha’is and their trades and employment using information from the Association of Chambers of Commerce and related organizations, which are nominally independent heavily influenced by the government.

Many Sunnis claimed the government discriminated against them; however, it is difficult to distinguish whether the cause of discrimination was religious or ethnic, since most Sunnis are also members of ethnic minorities. Sunnis cited the absence of a Sunni mosque in Tehran, despite the presence of more than one million adherents there, as a prominent example. Sunni leaders reported bans on Sunni religious literature and teachings in public schools, even in predominantly Sunni areas. Sunnis also noted the underrepresentation of Sunnis in government-appointed positions in the provinces where they form a majority, such as Kurdistan and Khuzestan Provinces, as well as their inability to obtain senior government positions.

While the government recognizes Judaism as an official religious minority, the Jewish community experienced official discrimination. The government continued to sanction anti-Semitic propaganda involving official statements, media outlets, publications, and books. The government’s anti-Semitic rhetoric, along with a perception among radical Muslims that all Jewish citizens of the country support Zionism and the state of Israel, continued to create a hostile atmosphere for Jews. The rhetorical attacks also further blurred the line between Zionism, Judaism, and Israel and contributed to increased concerns about the future security of the Jewish community.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued a virulent anti-Semitic campaign. During the reporting period, the president publically called for the destruction of Israel.

President Ahmadinejad continued to regularly question the existence and the scope of the Holocaust, which created a more hostile environment for the Jewish community. In a September 18, 2009, speech at the annual Al Quds Day rally in Tehran, the president stated the West created the myth of the Holocaust as a pretext for the creation of the “Zionist” regime.

The government promoted and condoned anti-Semitism in state media; however, with some exceptions, there was little government restriction of, or interference with, Jewish religious practice. The government reportedly allowed Hebrew instruction but limited the distribution of Hebrew texts, particularly nonreligious texts, making it difficult to teach the language. Moreover, the government required that in conformity with the schedule of other schools, Jewish schools must remain open on Saturdays, which violated Jewish law.

Jewish citizens were free to travel out of the country but were subject to the general restriction against travel by the country’s citizens to Israel. This restriction, however, was not enforced.

The Sabean-Mandaean religious community reportedly faced harassment and repression by authorities similar to that faced by other religious minorities. The government often denied members of the Sabean-Mandaean community access to higher education.

Sufis within the country, Sufi organizations outside the country, as well as numerous human rights organizations, remained extremely concerned about growing government repression of Sufi communities and religious practices, including increased harassment and intimidation of prominent Sufi leaders by the intelligence and security services. Government restrictions on Sufi groups and husseiniya (houses of worship) became more pronounced in recent reporting periods. There were numerous reports of Shi’a clerics and prayer leaders denouncing Sufism and the activities of Sufis in the country in both sermons and public statements.

The government carefully monitored the statements and views of senior Shi’a religious leaders. The Special Clerical Courts, established to investigate offenses and crimes committed by clerics, which the supreme leader oversees directly, were not provided for in the constitution and operated outside the judiciary. In particular critics alleged that the clerical courts were used to prosecute certain clerics for expressing controversial political ideas and for participating in nonreligious activities, including journalism.

Iranian Shiite Ayatollah Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi, along with 17 of his followers, has been imprisoned for espousing religious views that are incongruent with the official religious views of the government. He is serving an 11-year prison term and is reportedly in poor health. According to available reports, Boroujerdi is being denied hospitalization despite his serious health condition.

In early 2010 the government started convicting and executing reformers and peaceful protestors on the charge of moharebeh (understood as enmity against God). Reportedly, more than 10 individuals have been charged, convicted, and sentenced to death for moharebeh. At least three are known to have been executed during the past year.

Non-Shi’a religious leaders reported abuse and widespread restrictions on their ability to practice their faith. They also reported bans on Sunni teachings in public schools and Sunni religious literature. Residents of provinces with large Sunni populations, including Kurdistan, Khuzestan, and Sistan-va-Baluchestan, reported discrimination and lack of resources, but it is difficult to determine if this discrimination was based on religion, ethnicity, or both.

Laws based on religious affiliation continued to be used to stifle freedom of expression. Independent newspapers and magazines have been closed, and leading publishers and journalists have been imprisoned on vague charges of “insulting Islam” or “calling into question the Islamic foundation of the Republic.” According to domestic press reports, on June 9, 2009, singer Mohsen Namju was sentenced in her absence to a five-year prison term for “insulting Islamic sanctities, reciting verses of the Holy Qur’an ridiculously, and insulting the world Muslims’ sacred book.”

In October 2008 authorities in Qom arrested online journalist and cleric Mojtaba Lotfi for posting on the Internet a sermon by Ayatollah Montazaeri, a well-known opponent of the system of clerical rule. The sermon criticized President Ahmadinejad for saying the country is the freest in the world. On November 29, 2008, a special court for the clergy sentenced Lotfi to four years in prison and five years of banishment from Qom. Lotfi remained imprisoned at the end of the reporting period.

Abuses of Religious Freedom

Authorities regularly detained and harassed bloggers who wrote anything critical of the Islamic revolution. The government requires bloggers to register their Web sites with the Ministry of Art and Culture. In November 2008 well-known Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan was arrested in Tehran while visiting the country and remained in Evin prison in the northwestern part of the country. According to human rights groups, Derakhshan has been physically and psychologically abused while in prison. Although no formal charges have been filed, some groups have reported that Derkhshan may be charged with “insulting religion.” On June 23, 2010, Tehran Revolutionary Court held the first hearing of Derakhshan’s case.

According to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and other leading human rights organizations, more than 200 Baha’is have been killed since 1979, and 15 have disappeared and were presumed dead.

Since January 1, 2010, at least 50 Bahai’s have been arbitrarily arrested. At least 14 Baha’is were arrested in March in several different cities throughout the country, including Marvdasht, Mashhad, Semnan, Isfahan, Shiraz, Kermanshah, and Sari. Approximately 13 Baha’is were detained in February 2010, several of whom remained in jail. According to human rights groups, between October 2009 and mid-February 2010, there were 47 new cases of arbitrary detention of Baha’is.

Baha’i groups outside the country reported that government authorities increased their harassment and intimidation of the members of the Baha’i community during the reporting period.

The government continued to imprison and detain Baha’is based on their religious beliefs. The government arbitrarily arrested Baha’is and charged them with violating Islamic penal code articles 500 and 698, relating to activities against the state and spreading falsehoods, respectively. Often the charges were not dropped upon release, and those with charges pending against them reportedly feared arrest at any time. Most were released only after paying large fines or posting high bails. For some, bail was in the form of deeds of property; others gained their release in exchange for personal guarantees or work licenses.

At the end of the reporting period, at least 45 Baha’is remained in detention because of their religious beliefs. The government never formally charged many of the others but released them only after they posted bail.

In mid-March intelligence agents in Sari reportedly arrested Shirin Foroughian Samimi, a Baha’i. In 2008 authorities closed her husband’s store, arrested him, and charged him with endangering national security. He was released after nine days.

In March 2009 security forces reportedly arrested Baha’i Pooya Tebyanian in his home in Semnan. Authorities reduced his sentence from two and a half years to two years. Charges include propaganda against the regime, activities against national security, and teaching the Baha’i religion.

In January 2009 security forces in Ghaemshahr in Mazandaran Province detained four Baha’is after raiding their homes. Previously, on January 10 authorities in Ghaemshahr arrested another Baha’i, Pegah Sanaie; she was released on bail on January 17.

In January 2009 several Baha’i women were reportedly arrested for performing missionary work on Kish Island and later released.

In January 2009 security forces in Tehran arrested five Baha’is and took them to Evin prison. At least one Baha’i, a woman from Shiraz named Negin Rezaei, was released from Evin prison by the end of the reporting period.

In January 2009 three Baha’i community leaders–Adel Fanaian, Abbas Nourani, and Zaher Eskandarian–were arrested in their homes in Semnan Province but later released.

In November 2008 authorities arrested two Baha’is in Sari, Mazandaran Province, after searching their homes and confiscating Baha’i materials.

In November 2008 a Baha’i was arrested in Ghaemshahr.

Two officials of the Baha’i community in Isfahan and one other member of the Baha’i community was arrested in May 2008. Reportedly, they were charged with burying their dead at a site they had used for the past 15 years. They remained in Isfahan prison at the end of the reporting period.

The seven leaders of the Baha’i community–Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Saeid Rezaie, Vahid Tizfahm, and Mahvash Sabet–arrested between March and May 2008 remained in detention. In February 2009 the judiciary spokesman announced that the seven were accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” In May 2009 state-run media reported the government also charged them with “spreading corruption on earth,” a crime punishable by death. None had been allowed access to their attorney, Abdolfattah Soltani. On June 16, 2009, security agents arrested Soltani without a warrant and took him to an unknown location. On June 14, 2010, the trial concluded after four hearings, and on June 30 the court issued a 20-year prison sentence for each.

Mohammad Ismael Forouzan, a Baha’i arrested in March 2008 on unknown charges, was informed that his appeal had been denied; he served a one-year sentence.

Aziz Pourhamzeh, Kamran Aghdasi, and Fathollah Khatbjavan,were detained in January 2008 and were released by the end of the reporting period.

Pouriya Habibi and Simin Mokhtari, arrested in January 2008 and detained on charges of teaching the Baha’i Faith, reportedly remained in Evin prison at the end of the reporting period.

The government continued to hold many Baha’i properties, including cemeteries, holy places, historical sites, and administrative centers, that were seized following the 1979 revolution. Many of the properties have been destroyed. Baha’is were generally prevented from burying and honoring their dead in accordance with their religious tradition.

In the past year, Baha’i cemeteries in various parts of the country, including Tehran, Ghaemshahr, Marvdasht, Semnan, Sari, and Isfahan have been desecrated, defaced, or in some way had access blocked to the Baha’i community.

In January 2009 the Baha’i cemetery of Ghaemshahr was attacked for the fourth time in eight months and almost completely destroyed. According to witnesses, municipality officials razed the cemetery with a bulldozer at night.

In January 2009 government workers entered a Tehran cemetery and demolished an entire section known as the burial ground of “infidels,” an area where the government interred people executed in the early years of the Islamic revolution. Among the graves destroyed were those of Baha’is who had been members of national or local Baha’i governing councils in 1980, 1981, or 1984, years when the government arrested the members of these councils and executed them.

The property rights of Baha’is were generally disregarded, and they suffered frequent government harassment and persecution. The government raided Baha’i homes and businesses and confiscated large numbers of private and commercial properties, as well as religious materials, belonging to Baha’is. The government reportedly seized numerous Baha’i homes and transferred them to an agency of Supreme Leader Khamene’i. The government also seized private homes in which Baha’i youth classes were held, despite the owners’ having proper ownership documents. The Baha’i community reported that the government’s seizure of Baha’i personal property and its denial of Baha’i access to education and employment was eroding the economic base of the community and threatening its survival.

In March 2009 the University of Semnan expelled Minoo Shahriari, an economics student, on the grounds that she was Baha’i.

According to domestic press reports, the University of Kerman expelled nine Baha’i students in January 2009.

In December 2008 there were reports of protests by Muslim students at Goldshat College in Kelardasht, Mazandaran Province, over the expulsion of a Baha’i classmate.

In November 2008 two Baha’i students were expelled from Shaheed Beheshti University on the basis of their religion.

There were reports of authorities forcing Baha’i businesses to close, placing restrictions on their businesses, and asking managers of private companies to dismiss their Baha’i employees.

On October 31, 2009, Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) officers searched the home of Baha’i member Ali Bakhsh Bazrafkan, confiscated items linked to his faith, and arrested him. Bazrafkan was a member of the former Baha’i administrative group (Khademin) in Yasouj. Bazrafkan received a 30-month prison sentence followed by five years in exile in a remote area in the province of Kohkiloyeh va Boyerahmad.

On October 12, 2009, MOIS officers arrested Behnam Rouhanifard, brother of Soheil Rouhanifard, for producing and distributing Baha’i music. Two days later authorities summoned his wife to appear at the local MOIS office, where authorities interrogated her for two hours. At the end of the reporting period, Rouhanifard’s family had not heard from him since October 17, when he was permitted to call home; his whereabouts remained unknown.

On September 27, 2009, MOIS officers in Yazd searched the home of Soheil Rouhanifard and confiscated belongings and materials related to the Baha’i faith. The next day, Soheil Rouhanifard appeared at the local MOIS office in response to a summons. Authorities interrogated and released him. He was summoned again on October 19 and arrested without charge. At the end of the reporting period, he remained in prison and was not permitted family visits.

On July 23, 2009, riot police and security forces arrested 20 Sufi practitioners in the northeastern city of Gonabad. They were among more than 200 Sufi dervishes who gathered to protest the arrest of Hossein Zareya, a local leader. Several dervishes were injured as riot police used force and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Most received sentences of flogging or imprisonment in May 2010.

In March 2009 a representative of the Gonabadi dervishes, a Sufi mystical sect, reported that authorities were holding 41 dervishes in Evin prison for practicing their religion. No updates were available at the end of the reporting period.

In February 2009 at least 40 Sufis in the central city of Isfahan were arrested after protesting the destruction of a Sufi place of worship; all were released within days.

In February 2009 authorities razed the house of worship of Gonabadi dervishes at Takht-e Foulad, in Isfahan, with bulldozers. All Sufis present were arrested and had their mobile phones confiscated. Sufi books and publications were destroyed.

In January 2009 Jamshid Lak, a Sufi of the Gonabadi Dervish order, was flogged 74 times. He was charged in 2006 with “slander” against the Ministry of Intelligence after reportedly publicly complaining of the ill treatment he received at the hands of the ministry.

In late December 2008, authorities arrested six members of the Gonabadi Dervishes on Kish Island. Their books, other materials, and computers were confiscated.

In late December 2008, after the closure of a Sufi Muslim place of worship, authorities arrested without charge at least six members of the Gonabadi Dervishes on Kish Island and confiscated their books and computer equipment. Their status was unknown.

In November 2008 Amir Ali Mohammad Labaf of the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi order was sentenced to 74 lashes, five years in prison, and internal exile to the town of Babak for “spreading lies.”

In October 2008 at least seven Sufi Muslims in Isfahan and five Sufis in Karaj were arrested because of their affiliation with the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi order.

Christians, particularly evangelicals, continued to be subject to harassment and close surveillance. During the reporting period, the government enforced its prohibition on proselytizing by closely monitoring the activities of evangelical Christians, discouraging Muslims from entering church premises, closing churches, and arresting Christian converts. Members of evangelical congregations were required to carry membership cards, photocopies of which must be provided to the authorities. Worshippers were subject to identity checks by authorities posted outside congregation centers. The government restricted meetings for evangelical services to Sundays, and church officials were ordered to inform the Ministry of Information and Islamic Guidance before admitting new members.

On April 14, 2010, government agents raided Christian Pastor Behnam Irani’s home in Karaj and confiscated personal belongings such as cameras, computers, and Bibles. He was released on June 30, 2010, on bail.

On April 11, 2010, government agents arrested 19-year old Daniel Shahri, a Christian, on the basis of insulting Islam. Shahri was able to contact his parents on April 14, 2010, while being held in a prison in Isfahan. He was released on April 24, 2010 on bail and awaits a trial date.

On March 7, 2010, government officials imprisoned a Christian convert on charges of starting a home-based fellowship and promoting Christian doctrine. He was released on March 16 after posting bail.

On February 28, 2010, Hamid Shafiee, a Christian priest, and his wife, Reyhaneh Aghajari, were arrested in the central city of Isfahan. Security agents seized their personal belongings, including Persian Bibles. Their whereabouts and the charges against them were unknown at the end of the reporting period.

On February 20, 2010, plainclothes security agents in Tehran arrested an Armenian Christian pastor, Vahik Abrahamian; reportedly, he was being held in Evin prison.

On February 2, 2010, state security agents arrested Reverend Wilson Issavi, the pastor of the Evangelical Church of Kermanshah in Isfahan, on charges of “converting Muslims.” Issavi’s wife was able to visit him once and reported he had been tortured. On March 29 he was released from prison on bail.

On January 8, 2010, the Fars Provincial Ministry of Intelligence detained an unknown number of persons who were reportedly Christians. Under interrogation the detainees gave the names of those leading Christian groups in the area leading to further arrests.

On December 24, 2009, Pakdasht security forces raided a home-church gathering and arrested the 15 members who were in attendance. All 15 were released in early January with orders to return to sign documents. Upon returning three were rearrested and held until March 17 when they were released.

On December 17, 2009, security officers raided a Christian worship gathering in Karaj and arrested the two leaders, Kambiz Saghaee and Ali Keshvar-Doost. The security officers also confiscated Bibles and Christian books. No updates were available at the end of the reporting period.

On December 16, 2009, security officers on orders from the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad searched the home of and arrested Hamideh Najafi, a Christian woman residing in Mashhad. They said that she would be charged with “contacting foreign Christian television networks.” The three security officers seized religious items. Najafi was released in early January and sentenced to three months of house arrest and threatened with losing custody of her 10-year-old daughter if she spoke about Christianity.

Between June and August 2009, there were at least 30 cases of Christians arrested and detained across the country, mostly during church gatherings. All were released by September 2009.

In May 2009 security officials arrested five Christian converts in Karaj who had gathered in a home for Bible study and worship. The house where they were meeting was searched, and several Bibles were confiscated. The five were being held at an unknown location, and no updates were available at the end of the reporting period.

In May 2009 authorities arrested Abdul Zahra Vashahi in Bandar Manshahr, father of a prominent Christian-Iranian human rights activist in the United Kingdom, after warning him that he would be held accountable for his son’s activities. He was released six days later.

In May 2009 a court in Ouroumieh reportedly denied pension benefits to Fatemeh Pauki, a retired Christian school teacher from West Azerbaijan Province. Pauki had been repeatedly detained and forced by authorities to promise to end her contact with Christian groups. Her husband, who had been detained and harassed by authorities over the years as well, was mysteriously killed in 2005.

In late March 2009, according to domestic human rights groups, a revolutionary court closed the Pentecostal church of Shahr Ara in Tehran, which belonged to Assyrian Christians. According to reports, the stated reason for the closure was the “illegal activities” of converting Muslims to Christianity and “accepting converts” to worship as members of the congregation.

In March 2009 a Shiraz court sentenced three Christian converts–Seyed Allaedin Hussein, Homayoon Shokouhi, and Seyed Amir Hussein Bob-Annari–to 8-month prison terms with 5 years’ probation. The judge warned the men to discontinue their Christian activities or risk being tried as apostates.

On May 23, 2010, charges were dropped against two members of the Christian community, Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, who had been arrested in March 2009. The women were held in Evin Prison under reported psychological abuse and lack of adequate medical care. The two converts were released in November 2009 without bail. They were charged with apostasy and called back for trial in early April 2010 when charges were dropped the following month.

In January 2009 authorities arrested three Christians –Hamik Khachikian (an Armenian Christian), Jamal Ghalishorani, and Nadereh Jamali (both Christian converts) –in Tehran. Their homes were searched and their computers and books were confiscated. Khachikian was released without charges on January 28, while Ghalishorani and Nadereh were later released on bail.

In October 2008 Ramtin Soodmand, a Christian, was released on bail. Soodmand had been arrested on August 21, 2008, on charges of spreading antigovernment propaganda.

In July 2008 plain clothes security officers raided the home of Isfahan Iranian Christians Abbas Amiri and his wife, Sakineh Rahnama, during a meeting. Both Amiri and Rahnama died of injuries suffered during the raid. Authorities denied permission for the local Christian community to hold a memorial service for the couple.

In June 2008 a Christian convert couple, Makan Arya and Tin Rad, reportedly were seized from their home in Tehran. Authorities accused Arya of “activities against national security” and Rad of “activities against the holy religion of Islam.” Officials threatened to charge the two with apostasy. After being forced to sign statements swearing that they had not converted from Islam, Arya and Rad were released on bail. The two were forced to leave their church, and Arya was pressured to display pictures of Muslim leaders in his storefront window to ward off continued attacks on his shop.

According to a September 2008 report, Christian converts Mahmoud Matin-Azad and Arash Basirat were released after a tribunal ruled that the charges of apostasy brought against the men were invalid. The two were arrested in Shiraz in May 2008.

Christian convert Mojataba Hussein, arrested in May 2008, remained in detention. His family did not know where he was being held, and requests for a visit were denied.

There were no developments in the 2007 killings of three senior Sunni clerics.

Forced Religious Conversions

There were no reports of forced religious conversion.

Government officials reportedly offered Baha’is relief from mistreatment in exchange for recanting their religious affiliation, and if incarcerated, recanting their religious affiliation as a precondition for releasing them.

Section III. Status of Societal Respect for Religious Freedom

Although the constitution gives Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians the status of “protected” religious minorities, in practice non-Shi’a Muslims faced substantial societal discrimination, and government actions continued to support elements of society who create a threatening atmosphere for some religious minorities. President Ahmadinejad’s agenda stressed the importance of Islam in enhancing “national solidarity” and mandated that government-controlled media emphasize Islamic culture in order to “cause subcultures to adapt themselves to public culture.”

After President Ahmadinejad took office in August 2005, conservative media intensified a campaign against non-Muslim religious minorities, and political and religious leaders issued a continual stream of inflammatory statements. The campaigns against non-Muslims contributed to a significantly worse situation for non-Muslim society throughout the reporting period.

Sunni Muslims and Christians encountered societal and religious discrimination and harassment at the local, provincial, and national levels.

Baha’is faced government-sanctioned discrimination in the workplace. Baha’i graveyards in Abadeh and other cities were desecrated, and the government did not seek to identify or punish the perpetrators.

Throughout 2009 Baha’is in several cities across the country were targets of arson attacks; in all cases, police said nothing could be done to find the perpetrators. Dozens of Baha’is are awaiting trial while others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 90 days to several years in 2009 and 2010. All those convicted are reportedly in the process of appealing the verdicts. In March 2010 at least 50 young Baha’is, some of whom received prison sentences ranging from one to four years for teaching underprivileged children in southeastern Iran in 2006, were banned from travel outside the country.

Baha’i groups outside the country reported vandalism of Baha’i cemeteries, the desecration of a body exhumed from a Baha’i grave in Abadeh, and attacks against a Baha’i cemetery in Najafabad.

In February 2009 a Baha’i cemetery in Semnan in northern Iran was desecrated, and in January, another Baha’i cemetery was destroyed in Ghaemshahr.

There were reported problems for Baha’is in different trades around the country. Baha’is experienced an escalation of personal harassment, including receiving threatening notes, compact discs, text messages, and tracts. There were reported cases of Baha’i children being harassed in school and subjected to Islamic indoctrination. Baha’i girls were especially targeted by students and educators, with the intention of creating tension between parents and children.

There was serious concern from several religious and human rights groups about the resurgence of the once banned Hojjatiyeh Society, a secretive religious-economic group that was founded in 1953 to rid the country of the Baha’i Faith in order to hasten the return of the 12th Imam (the Mahdi). Although not a government organization, it was believed that many members of the administration were Hojjatiyeh members and used their offices to advance the society’s goals; however, it was unknown what role, if any, the group played in the arrests of numerous Baha’is during the reporting period. Many Baha’i human rights groups and news agencies described the goals of the Hojjatiyeh Society as the eradication of the Baha’is, not just the Baha’i Faith. The group’s anti-Baha’i orientation reportedly widened to encompass anti-Sunni and anti-Sufi activities as well.

Many Jews sought to limit their contact with or support for the state of Israel out of fear of reprisal. Anti-American and anti-Israeli demonstrations included the denunciation of Jews, as opposed to the past practice of denouncing only “Israel” and “Zionism.”

There were reports during the reporting period that members of the Sabean-Mandaean community experienced societal discrimination and pressure to convert to Islam.

Section IV. U.S. Government Policy

Iran was first designated a CPC in 1999 and was most recently redesignated on January 16, 2009. As the action under the IRF Act, the secretary designated the existing ongoing restrictions on United States security assistance in accordance with section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, pursuant to section 402(c)(5) of the act. The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran, and thus it does not raise directly with the government the restrictions that the government places on religious freedom and other abuses the government commits against adherents of minority religious groups.

The U.S. government makes its position clear in public statements and reports, support for relevant UN and nongovernmental organization efforts, and diplomatic initiatives to press for an end to government abuses. The U.S. government calls on other countries that have bilateral relations with Iran to use those ties to press the government on religious freedom and human rights matters.

On numerous occasions, the U.S. Department of State spokesman has addressed the situation of the Baha’i and Jewish communities in the country. The U.S. government has publicly condemned the treatment of the Baha’is in UN resolutions. The U.S. government encourages other governments to make similar statements.

In February 2010 the United States and the European Union condemned ongoing human rights violations in Iran and called on the Iranian government to fulfill its international human rights obligations. Also in February, the U.S. government sent its top human rights official, Assistant Secretary Michael Posner, as the head of delegation to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Iran.

In the February 2010 UPR of Iran as a member of the Human Rights Council, the U.S. government expressed concern about the status of religious freedom and recommended the government uphold its constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of worship. In its response to the UPR, Iran denied any discrimination against the Baha’is.

In December 2009, for the seventh year in a row, the U.S. government co-sponsored and supported a successful UN General Assembly resolution- which passed 74-48, with 59 abstentions–condemning Iran’s ongoing and severe human rights abuses.

—
Source: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2010/148819.htm

I want to tell the world that if being a Baha’i is a crime, then I am guilty of the same crime. So why not imprison me too?

I want to ask: if being a teacher (coach) is a crime in this world, then why does everyone try to be a teacher?

I want to ask: if being a moral character development teacher is a crime, then why is it that at school we learn and repeat “To teach and to learn is worship”?

Have you ever opened your eyes in the morning and noticed that your mother has been taken away?

Have you ever experienced leaving school, only to discover that no one has come to pick you up?

Have you ever entered a home in which you know that the sweet fragrance of motherly love is no longer wafted in its air?

Have you ever witnessed the crying of your little sister who has followed her mother to the door, only to see her let go of her hand to be taken away by guards to prison?

Have you ever hidden under the blanket so that your cries of anguish may not be heard at night?

Have you heard the little voice of the young one who, with cracking voice, asks her mother over the phone, “Mommy, why were you not at my Birthday?” or who when visiting her mother in prison, peering at her through the glass with one hand clutching the handset, begs her, “Mommy, why don’t you come out from behind the glass?”… all the while, you can hear her heartbeat as she waits to see the face of her mother!

Is there anyone who can answer me?

Why is it that in the middle of the night, we are awakened by the horrible sound of fire burning down our home, a fire so loud that it wakes up the whole neighborhood?

Why are we prevented from going to my Mother’s store? Why should we endure graffiti and insults written all over her store? Why did they burn my Dad’s store?

Is there anyone who can answer me?

In every corner of our town, all around my country and in the entire world, I am looking for justice. Where can I find this “justice”?

Can anyone hear me?

Why is it that this society, rather than immersing us in kindliness, love, affection and honesty, has chosen to immerse us in a sea of oppression, injustice, and prejudice?

Dearest Mommy, if they have imprisoned you because you are a Baha’i, then I am a Baha’i too. So come, O ye oppressors, and take me away too.

—
Translation by Iran Press Watch
Source: http://www.iranian.com/main/member/mona-19

RASA news service has uncovered factors affecting the tendency to join Baha’ism!
Any rational mind, after reading the article, would wonder whether people who write this kind of news spend any time to ponder what they are disseminating.

As an example, note what the first paragraph of this new item contains:

“A gentle disposition, helping others, visiting the sick, sending gifts, selling items at discounted prices, visiting neighbors and helping the dispossessed are among the methods used by Baha’is in their practical teaching.”

At first glance, as a neutral reader, what would you think? Wouldn’t you think that this was part of a report or a book written by Baha’is? The opponents of the Baha’i are apparently so desperate that they do not realize that all the characteristics listed are among praiseworthy qualities that everyone should aspire to have. So, if you lack them and Baha’is have them, is it fair and just to put them down for having these attainments?

Furthermore, Hojjat’ul-Islam Ahmad Haj-Gholi, the Baha’i researcher — for which, read Baha’i antagonist — has said in an interview with a RASA reporter: misguided Baha’ism uses the two methods of direct and indirect approaches for its teaching work.

Dear Hojjat’ul-Islam, there are now three approaches! The third approach is using news agencies like RASA, where although no Baha’i works there and they think that by disseminating such news they are sending a blow to the Baha’is, in fact they have unwittingly become one of the best teachers for Baha’is — which of course is much appreciated.

But the point to be noted, which is of great importance, is this agency’s insult against Islam! One can derive from the first paragraph, which lists all the praiseworthy characteristics, that Baha’is possess these qualities and that this agency and Hojjat’ul-Islam are against the Baha’is; so therefore these characteristics must be condemned in their sight.

Now the conclusion of this line of thought would be that the opposite of these characteristics would be acceptable. Since he is a Shi’ite Muslim cleric, the logical extension would be that by condemning those qualities which are heretical Baha’i qualities, he is in a way pointing to the character that a Muslim should have. Let us look at what qualities which, according to these authorities, a good Muslim should have:

“Ill manners and bad habits, no help to others, not visiting the sick, not giving gifts to friends or acquaintances, price gouging, inattention to neighbors, and of no help to the dispossessed.”

Dear Muslim friends, I hope you are not offended by me and I hereby apologize to all Muslim friends for this piece of writing. But the true guilt belongs to the RASA site that has openly insulted Islam and Muslims. Well, naturally, when they see Baha’is as being bad and do not favour their work, anything that Baha’is do is seen as bad. Well, if those things are bad, then what do they consider to be good?

These people are so lost in their fight against Baha’is that without any thought or reflection they say and write whatever comes into their minds; the result is an insult to Islam and to Muslims.

Dear honorable Haj, is it possible to consider visiting friends and acquaintances to be a bad act if done by Baha’is, but a tradition of the Prophet and praiseworthy if done by you? Telling a lie is always bad, whether uttered by a Baha’i or a Muslim. This kind of interpretation has caused you to feel authorized to commit the biggest sins in the name of religion.

Mr. Ahmad Haj Gholi, how can it be that “Invite people to what is good with other than your tongues…” [a Shi'ite hadith from the Imam Sadiq; see wikipedia.org] means that we teach the Evident Faith of Islam by our deeds and words, but if Baha’is do the same, they are being arrogant?

To teach the faith of Islam, do you not send millions of dollars to Lebanon,
Iraq, Afghanistan and even farther to Communists? What problem is there that Baha’is have translated and distributed their books into 800 languages and dialects, and use television, radio, satellites, and the internet? Is there a problem or there is something illogical and suspicious in what you have said? O! for a refuge from imaginary enemies and suspicious imaginations!

—
Source: http://freedomofpen.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post.html,

http://www.iranpresswatch.org/fa/post/1507

http://www.iranpressnews.com/source/086042.htm

The Iran Human Rights Review is a new Foreign Policy Centre project that seeks to be an important resource for policymakers and activists that combines information and analysis with recommendations for action.

This inaugural edition of the review focuses on the critical issue of religion in relation to human rights in Iran. It contains short essays from some of the world’s leading experts on Iranian human rights: Dr Shirin Ebadi, Dr Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Dr Shireen Hunter, Dr Abdol-Karim Lahidji, Hamid Hamidi, Dr Hossein Ladjevardi, Dr Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, and John Weston MP. Cherie Blair has kindly provided a preface.

—

Source: http://fpc.org.uk/publications/ihrrreligion

download the pdf from FPC, or here: Iran Human Rights Review: Religion

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