Haleh Houshmandi, Kavous Zargham, Keivan Karami, Farham Masoumi, Vahdat Dana and Afshin Ahsanian are the Shiraz Baha’i citizens who were arrested in 2009 and were later released on bail after being held in the detention center of Shiraz Intelligence Ministry.

According to the Human Rights House of Iran, the lower court sentenced them to 10 months in prison.

Recently, their lawyers were informed that the lower court’s verdict has been upheld by the appeals court.  The summons order states that they have to appear at Shiraz Revolutionary Court in order to serve their sentence in the next 20 days.

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Source: http://www.rahana.org/en/?p=11754

Persian Article: http://www.rahana.org/archives/43529

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8306/feed 0 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8181 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8181#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:55:32 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=8181 (YouTube, angelsofiran, 6 May 2011)

Sina Sabet, a Baha’i youth living in Dallas shares the injustices faced by his cousin, Raha Sabet. Raha is serving a four year prison term in Shiraz, Iran, for teaching children’s classes together with several Baha’i and Muslim youth. All of the Muslims and most of the Baha’is have been released. As of May 2011, Raha remains in prison. Inspired by his cousin’s courageous example, Sina works with youth groups he helped establish in the Dallas metropolitan area.

See YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/angelsofiran#p/c/DA59939590786929/2/3Q9G588usKo

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Source:   http://www.youtube.com/angelsofiran#p/c/DA59939590786929/2/3Q9G588usKo

There is no information about his whereabouts.

In recent months, the city of Shiraz has been turned into a major government opposition stronghold. In early March 2011, five people were arrested for participating in anti-government demonstrations. The five arrested, who are not Baha’is, are: Ms. Sara Pour-Kazemi, Mr. Ali Farahmand, Mr. Reza Mansouri, Mr. Farzad Behzadi and Ms. Mina Kazemi.

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Translation by Iran Press Watch

Source: http://www.iranpresswatch.org/fa/post/2633, http://www.rahana.org/archives/37904

RAHANA: Intelligence Ministry agents went to the house of Shiraz Baha’i citizen Adib Hagh-Pajouh and arrested him on December 30^th.

According to RAHANA, he was arrested after searching his house and transferred to prison.

Baha’i citizens have continuously been harassed by the Intelligence Ministry agents since the Revolution. Currently, 7 Baha’i leaders and many Baha’i citizens are imprisoned and banned from education and deprived of civil rights.

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Source: http://www.rahana.org/en/?p=8943

According to the RAHANA reporter, the security forces searched his house and confiscated his computer, CDS, books and personal belongings on November 9th. They transferred him to an unknown location after arresting him.

Three other Baha’i Shiraz residents are serving the 4th year of their prison sentence and several other residents are awaiting their sentences.

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Source: http://www.rahana.org/en/?p=8143

The two women, Haleh Rouhi and Raha Sabet – and Mr. Sasan Taqva – were arrested in May 2006, along with some 51 other Baha’is and a number of Muslim friends, for their participation in an education program for underprivileged children in and around the city of Shiraz.

While their 10 Muslim co-workers and one Baha’i with learning difficulties were released immediately, the remaining Baha’is were convicted of “indirect teaching of the Baha’i Faith.” Ms. Rouhi, Ms. Sabet and Mr. Taqva received four year jail terms. The other 50 were given one year sentences, suspended pending their attendance at mandatory Islamic classes.

It is believed that today, after three years, they continue to be held under the harshest of conditions in a temporary detention center.

“Under Iranian law, the Intelligence Ministry cannot imprison citizens in such centers, only detain them for interrogation,” says Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations. “We understand that conditions have been totally unacceptable for the long-term imprisonment these three have suffered.”

The trial and detention have violated both Iranian and international law, says Ms. Dugal. “And every piece of evidence – including a report commissioned from an Iranian official – has pointed to their innocence.”

Authorities refused to take notice of that investigator’s conclusion. When the report became public, he subsequently wrote another account, rejecting the findings of his original report.

“The Iranian government has utterly failed to address such an obvious miscarriage of justice,” says Ms. Dugal. “This is yet another case of religious persecution, pure and simple.”

“Why else would three individuals, whose main ‘crime’ was their engagement in humanitarian projects aimed at helping their fellow citizens, continue to be locked up in this way?” she says.

Jailed for helping the poor [see IPW]

The idea of specifically working with the young people of Shiraz began in a study group organized by Ms. Sabet, who had been involved in aid efforts after the 2003 Iranian earthquake.

Initially, she and her friends worked in Katsbas, a suburb with a reputation for drug abuse and criminal activity. There, the group tutored children preparing for their end-of-term exams. With the full blessing of local parents, efforts extended to include assisting the children to develop social skills and moral values.

As their project grew to serve more than 200 children in Katsbas, the group was successful in receiving a permit from the city council to operate. Another effort started up in Sahlabad, also facilitated by both Baha’is and Muslims. A further initiative – carried out by 14 tutors – involved 100 young people at an educational center.

The group also organized weekly art classes for young cancer patients – an activity that was enthusiastically received by the head of a local hospital. Additionally, regular visits were also made to orphanages and facilities for disabled children.

Arrests and conviction

On 19 May 2006, police simultaneously arrested tutors and project leaders in six locations.

Following the release of their Muslim co-workers, the remaining Baha’is were let go after the course of the following few days and weeks. Ms. Rouhi, Ms. Sabet, and Mr. Taqva were held for nearly a month.

A brief, formal trial was held more than one year later. The Baha’is were accused of, among other things, “indirect teaching of the Baha’i Faith” – based on their use of an educational textbook called Breezes of Confirmation. The text, however, makes no mention of the Baha’i Faith, only presenting moral lessons that are explored through a series of stories. Despite the fact that the city’s Cultural Council had approved the use of the book, the verdict declared that permission had been obtained through deceit.

“The charges against them were baseless and unacceptable under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, an international treaty which Iran has signed, that protects the right to manifest belief in ‘worship, observance, practice and teaching,’” says Bani Dugal.

“For a start, it was clear that their activities were strictly humanitarian in nature. Secondly, the court even acknowledged that the text they were teaching from had no explicit reference whatsoever to the Baha’i Faith. Even some of their Muslim co-workers said they were unaware that their co-workers were Baha’is or that any ‘teaching’ was going on,” she says.

Most of the Baha’is, because of their young age, received suspended one year sentences, pending their attendance at mandatory classes organized by the Islamic Propaganda Organization. At these classes, Baha’i beliefs and history were ridiculed, insulted and distorted.

But Ms. Sabet, Ms. Rouhi, and Mr. Taqva, were sentenced to four years imprisonment: three years for “organizing illegal groups” and one year “for teaching for the benefit of groups that are against the Islamic regime.”

Temporary detention center

On 19 November 2007, Ms. Sabet, Ms. Rouhi, and Mr. Taqva were called to the local office of the Ministry of Intelligence, ostensibly to retrieve belongings that had been seized earlier. This proved to be a deception. When they arrived, they were immediately locked in holding cells.

Three years on, it is believed that they continue to be detained in the same conditions. Mr Taqva has been kept alone for the whole time in a claustrophobic cell. The women were originally incarcerated together in another small cell, normally used for short-term detainees. Today they are all being held apart from each other. They have no windows, beds or chairs, and have only recently been given mattresses. It is reported that all three detainees have developed chronic back pain.

From time to time, they have been granted “temporary releases” but have always had to return to the detention centre to serve out their four-year terms.

For much of the imprisonment, Mr. Taqva has additionally been suffering severe pain from a leg injury, once sustained in a car accident, and sciatic and muscle weakness caused by the lack of all basic facilities. Although he has twice been briefly released for surgery, he remains for the most part without adequate medical attention. Daily exercise and access to fresh air is limited to 30 minutes each day when he is taken, not outside, but to a room that has no roof. Every time he leaves his cell, he is blindfolded.

The continuing detention of Mr. Taqva and his two co-workers is in violation of international standards and legal norms, says Bani Dugal. “Under Iranian law, people convicted of crimes have the right to incarceration in a prison designed for long-term confinement, where there is access to adequate medical facilities, food, and hygiene. The continued detention of these three innocent people in cells designed for short-term stays violates not only common decency but national law.”

Confidential report ignored

In June 2008, Vali Rustami – inspector and legal advisor of the Office of the Representative of the Supreme Leader for the province of Fars – submitted a confidential report, made at the request of the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in the province.

Mr. Rustami confirmed that not only was there no mention of religion in the activities of the prisoners, but that the young people who attended the classes told him they wanted to continue. “They stated ‘We … truthfully learned a lot from this group and would like them to come back to us again,’” Mr. Rustami reported.

When his account became public, he wrote another version which distorted his original findings.

Far from posing any threat to their society, says Ms. Dugal, it is clear that the three were trying their best to serve their society. “In winning the gratitude of those they served, the Baha’is provoked the ire of their government. Only unbridled animosity and hatred could be at the heart of such a perversion of justice as is witnessed in this case.”

“After three years of imprisonment, the refusal of the authorities to put an immediate halt to the cruel treatment of these people defies reason. We continue to call on the international community to raise their voices in defense of these individuals – as well as the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders and the thousands of others in Iran today who are being deprived of their human rights,” she says.

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Source: http://news.bahai.org/story/799

Alluhuabha

Kindly some dearest friends have already asked me for several times to write them how I spend time in prison. At first, I would like to mention that my imprisonment assigned for 4 years that 3 years of it have been expired so for in isolation cell (individually prison).

in this 3 years, I have been in the house of detention of security office center of Fars province (shiraz), where there is any public prison and all who stay there are of security or politics accuser and live in isolation cell.

The isolation cell is just a small chamber where its ironic door is been closed all the time and there is not any window or trap- door to out side area and a lavatory set has been installed in this small room.

Every prisoner has been let to go out side for fresh air around 30 minutes every day. There is no tree, no grass; what you can see is only concrete floor (as wide as a volleyball field) and large wall which beyond them the beautiful blue sky can be seen.

When the weather is so hot or cold or it is rainy you can not go for open air. One time every week, I can call to my family and talk to them for 5 minutes and also once every week I can meet them behind a thick glass just for 5 minutes.

Every day some dedicated jailers are responsible for bringing breakfast, lunch and dinner and also to lead prisoner to open air. All of them are men and I can not hide this fact that their behavior against me is quite respectful and polite and up to now they have not tormented or hurt me.

In my cell there are a heater, a cooler, a TV set and also there are 3 blankets that one of them is used as a carpet and 2 of them for sleeping. Another facilities that I have on my cell are consists of: a soap, a shampoo, a tooth brush , a tooth paste , a box of handkerchief, a nail trimmer, a box of detergent, a towel , a comb and one added clothes and nothing else. I should mention that once every 2 or 3 weeks, the jailers ask a list of shopping from each prisoner for buying him/her the necessary hygienic facilities or some fruits. So as there is any refrigerator in our cells, the prisoners can buy only 1 or 2 kind of fruit like apple or orange.

Some of you may think that living with some simple facilities is very difficult, but the important fact is that every body, after passing some times, can learn how to live with such facilities without any problem; it means no problem if you do not have a mirror, and so even if you do not have comfort bed or furniture or refrigerator.

There is very important that how you train your spirit and thought for thinking about the values of humanity and spirituality freedom of all belonging just for divine goals. In this way you are glad and thankful and enjoy the opportunity.

It took one week for me that learnt how should I managed myself and my time for praying, reading the books, exercising, walking in the cell and watching TV without falling in the routine life.

Little by little, I learned while I am reading books, I took notes and starting to write searching articles. Also for the time of praying I make a schedule. For example, I memorized prayers and also began to practicing and learning an art that is called “illumination”. It is an Iranian noble art.

A bulk of my time is spent for reading and writing them. By helping BIHE (Bahai Institute for Higher Education), I started to study the political sciences (politics). Another field of my study is Islamic Gnosticism, Iranian social history, sociology and literature. (I’ve been given permission to have a book for each week.) In addition to study, some of my time is spending for writing articles and remembrance of prison and stories for children and youth. (Up to now, I succeed to write 60 stories that they are the profits of my practical experiences with children and youths and my studies.)

So, my daily schedule consists: at 6:30 am the jailer brings me breakfast, at 8 am I walk around my cell for 30 minutes and at the same time I chant “is there remover…”after breakfast, I start to study, at 10 am, the jailer take me to open air for 30 minutes and contemporaneous, I chant by myself “is there remover..”. When I got back to my cell, again I study or write something, at 12, the jailer brings lunch and up to 2:30 pm I watch TV and then rest fore a while. After that, again I study or write something, at 5 pm, I exercise for 30 minutes and after that I walk around my cell for 2 hour and at the same time again chant “is there remover…” (I chant more than 1000 times this verse every day).

After prayer I take a bath then listen to news and have dinner the jailer brought me before, after that I practice illumination for 2 hours, about 10:30 pm, I watch a film and finally sleep at 11 or 12 pm.

Every 3 months I have been allowed to have a vacation for one or two weeks. This is a nice opportunity for meeting my family and friends and going to a short trip and also can go to library and get some books in trust (about 12 books for 3 months next). Most of all, I can meet my illumination professor and he corrects my practices and teaches me new lessons.

When I am out, I have a golden opportunity to type my writings and articles by helping my friends. Also I can call all Bahai prisoners’ families in other cities and seeking after them and their prisoners. Some times, I meet some of the authorities of the state or some of high ranking lawyers in the country and consult them about the human rights of the Bahai community in Iran.

Maybe you think that being in the prison is so hard but if you believe that patience and perseverance in misfortunes is the cause of spiritual progress and elevation of individual and community, it gives you pleasure. In spite of the fact that some days being in prison was hard for me, but whenever I think about the 3 years that have been passed so far, it gives me the feeling of spiritual joys. The days of prison has given me many important lessons and it has made me ready for giving more services to the human world.

For ever, I am very thankful for this grace and talent that is given to me without worthy of it by Bahaullah, and I pray from bottom of my heart for my dearest and more devoted father and mother that have given me the present of the opportunity of living and asking mercy, forgiveness and success for them in the sight of God.

I have written of all my experiences and memoires during my imprisonment. Maybe I changed it to a book when I will be released. But I pay respect for those who asking me to do this job  until then this brief comment may be suffice, and I hope for the day  that can steps with all of you for sending the message of peace and unity of Bahaullah to all mankind especially my dear Iranian fellow countryman until disappearing all of prejudices  and ignorance from the world s face.

Your honor and happiness is all my wish.

Assuring you of my highest esteem

Raha sabet

(This letter is written on 8th Oct. 2010 in prison)

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=167889753240857

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6991/feed 14 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6726 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6726#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:41:03 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=6726 by Fariba Amini
04-Sep-2010

In 1952, an emissary went to Ayatollah Boroujerdi (the highest ranking Shi’a cleric) to ask him to tell members of the Fedayeen-e Islam not to engage in disruptive and violent acts. Boroujerdi did not relent. After all, he and Ayatollah Kashani were the spiritual leaders of the Fedayeen. Since long before and during the 1950’s, members of the cult were engaged in acts of violence including the murder of historian Ahmad Kasravi, journalist Mohammad Masoud, PM Razmara, and members of the Bahai faith. That emissary was my father who had been given the task by Mohammad Mosaddeq.

Even though many Bahais had supported Reza Shah [1], he had chosen to close down their main schools, Tarbyiat. Historians interpret this move differently, some arguing that in his decision to close the Bahai schools the Shah was motivated less by anti-Bahai sentiments than by a suspicion of anything beyond his control. Bahais at times suffered discrimination, but they also grew in number under his rule, encountering less violence than under the Qajars.

Nearly four decades later, a General, who had broken down Mosaddeq’s house door and was involved in the coup against his government, was given clemency by the newly established Islamic regime. Under Mohammad Reza Shah, he was given the task of desecrating Hazirat ol -Qods, the main shrine [2] of the Bahais. The General’s name was Nader Batmanglidj. After the fall of the Shah, as a number of generals were executed, his life was spared because of his role in the destruction of the shrine.

Recently I came across an informative but disturbing article , “The stabbing of Dr. Berjis,” from the hand of Nasser Mohajer, published in Baran, Spring/Summer 1387/2008, regarding the killing of a Bahai doctor in Kashan. This happened in 1942. Dr. Sulayman Berjis, whose ancestors had come from Hamadan, had moved to the city of Kashan with his family. He was a physician doing good deeds for the community and saving lives in his practice. He had a pharmacy where poor people could get free medicine and treatment. He was also the head of the Bahai community in a city where Bahais once thrived. He had acquired a good name because of his compassionate work. One day, a few young men entered his practice, asking him to come and help a sick person. He left his patients and went with them to a location where he was met by another man. They threatened him that if he didn’t abandon his faith, they would kill him. Realizing that he was trapped, he tried to escape to a nearby house. But the four killers went after him with knives. They caught him, threw him down and viciously stabbed him to death. Rasoul Zadeh, their leader, (In June 1988, Kayhan published Haj Rasoul Zadeh’s obituary as having been a devout Muslim and a true follower of Navab Safavi, who had engaged in the heroic act of killing a Zionist element in Kashan!) then cut his throat. Blood was everywhere. Dr. Berjis had done nothing wrong. In fact, he was an exemplary citizen and a dedicated doctor in a place where his services were much needed. He had saved lives and was in the prime of his life (he was only 54 when he died) but he lost his own life because he was a Bahai.

The murderers went to the police and confessed to the killing. They were proud of their action and had no remorse. After all, the killing was done according to a Fatwa (religious decree) issued by Ayatollah Gharavi , the local Grand Mojtahed ( highest cleric in town). A trial took place and after 8 months of investigation, upon the orders from Tehran, all four (and an additional four more who were co-conspirators in the crime) were acquitted. All the young men, ages 17 and 18, barely having grown a beard, had been members of the Fedayeen-e Islam. Kashani and Boroujerdi (the latter being a staunch anti-Bahai ) had intervened on their behalf and had asked that they be set free. Their request had been granted. The killers went free while an innocent doctor had been given the death sentence. His family never got any form of justice. They had quietly buried him in a cemetery designated for Bahais. (See article that details the entire episode and the trial).

In 1979, shortly after the Iranian Revolution, the Bahai cemetery in Shiraz, one of the largest in Iran, was desecrated by extreme elements. Bahais were rounded up and beaten. Many were arrested. Families were dispersed. Many were not able to attend universities as a few students who were working at a grocery store in the Washington area and had left Iran through Turkey told me. They said they had wanted to stay and continue with their education in their hometown of Shiraz if they had been allowed. But they were denied their basic right as citizens to get an education. “Compared to other religious minorities in Iran, the Bahais lived under much harsher conditions, for they were the only religious minority that was neither officially recognized nor given freedom of worship.” (The Forgotten Schools: The Baha’is and Modern Education in Iran, 1899-1934, Soli Shahvar).

The Islamic Republic is merciless when it comes to members of the Bahai faith. It is the greatest sin to be a Bahai because in the eyes of Islam the idea of divine revelation after the death of the Prophet Mohammad—the Seal of the Prophets— is unacceptable. The regime’s Shi’a leaders consider the Bahai faith dangerous; to them it is the highest form of apostasy. The Bahais are also branded as Zionists. One reason for this is that Mirza Hossein Ali Nouri, aka Bahaollah, who was forced to leave Iran, ended up in Ottoman Iraq and by way of Istanbul went to Palestine where he died in 1892 in the city of Akko, now in Israel. Following an anachronistic reading of history, the clergy see him and the Bahais as brothers –in- arms of the Jewish state and its potential ally.

According to a brochure published in 2009 by the International Federation of Human Rights Communities (FIDH) on the history of execution in Iran, there are about 300,000 Bahais in Iran( It is inherently difficult to establish an accurate number). “Not only they are denied their civil rights but the number of executions has been higher than any other religious minority.” The same report states that between 1979-1980, more than 200 Bahais had been executed or murdered. Fifteen others had disappeared most likely killed. In 1984, in Shiraz alone, 10 Bahai women were executed after disobeying orders giving up their faith for Islam. One was Mona Mahmoud Nejad, who at the time of her arrest was 16 years old. She was seventeen when she was executed in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz. Another 15 year old boy, Peyman Sobhany, was beaten and then stoned to death.

In recent times, a number of Bahai leaders and community members have been arrested and incarcerated. It is now a repeat of what took place almost three decades ago. Bahais are not just targeted by extreme elements of the Islamic regime. The sad part is that even a Khatami official told me once that Bahais are not to be supported even if they are imprisoned. I shook my head in disbelief and my reply was (I know I am not alone in this respect as many Iranians and Iranian Americans have expressed their outrage): “They are no different from you and I.” They should not be singled out for their faith or way of life, especially if they have committed no crime, are honorable citizens and love and worry about Iran as much as the next person.

I remember talking with those young men while they were packing bags of grocery. They were two brothers and their cousin. I saw sadness in their eyes. They had lost a few years waiting in Turkey for their papers in order to travel to the US. One of them said to me, I wish I could go back and live again in the city of Shiraz where I grew up and had my roots. “I loved Shiraz,” he said.

Hafez and Sa’adi of Shiraz, who wrote about beauty, wine and their love for mankind, are now turning in their graves at the thought of what is happening to Iran. Wouldn’t you?

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Editor’s note:

[1] The Baha’is, in accordance with direct teaching of the Baha’i Faith, obey the ruling government of the land in which they live. As much as this practice can be interpreted as “supporting” the ruling government, that is not case. In a worldview of dichotomies where people “have positions” or “take sides” or “support” or “reject”, are “pro” or “anti” one thing or another in the frenzy of debates and clashes, it is very difficult to fully understand this particular aspect of the Baha’i teachings.

[2] “Hazirat ol -Qods” (Haziratu’l-Quds), is an Arabic term that is used to refer to Baha’i Centres. The structure that the author refers to here was a Baha’i Centre for gatherings and meetings of the Baha’i community in Tehran.

Source: http://www.iranian.com/main/2010/sep/greatest-sin

[Source: Baha’i World News Services in Persian; Translated by Iran Press Watch ]

[Source: Baha’i World News Services in Persian; Translated by Iran Press Watch]