Rights for Baha'is and other citizens in Iran
The Baha'i International Community's open letter to Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, head of Iran's judiciary, is wonderfully direct.
Having highlighted the utter injustice that has been meted out to Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm, the seven individuals who before their arrest were responsible, as the members of the group known as the Yaran, for administering the social and spiritual affairs of the Bahá’í community in Iran, and having highlighted their great suffering as they continue to languish in jail, the letter says this:
The Bahá’ís are not “others” in your country: they are an inseparable part of the Iranian nation. The injustices meted out to them are a reflection of the terrible oppression that has engulfed the nation. Your respect now for the rights of the Iranian Bahá’ís would signal a willingness to respect the rights of all the citizens of your country. Redressing the wrongs suffered by the Bahá’ís would bring hope to the hearts of all Iranians that you are ready to ensure justice for everyone. Our call, then, is in reality a call for respect of the rights of all the Iranian people.
Anyone who follows reports of the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran will have noted the increasingly arbitrary and cruel behaviour of the judges in Iran's Revolutionary Courts. These judges no longer seem to consider the law as passed by the Majlis (the Iranian parliament) and set down in print as binding on them. They give verdicts and hand down sentences according to their own prejudices.
Constructive resistance to persecution
I was struck by this passage from the Baha'i International Community's letter:
Consider how the members of the Bahá’í community are continually forced to withstand the slander of their beliefs and the distortion of their history in government-supported mass media; to endure provocations in the streets, from the pulpits, and with the support of certain officials, that incite hatred against them; to suffer illegal imprisonment; to see themselves denied access to higher education and to the means of earning a livelihood; to have their children suffer abuse and vilification in schools; and to witness their properties destroyed and their cemeteries desecrated with the support and approval of government authorities. Yet, what results have such efforts yielded? The response of the Bahá’ís of Iran to the persecution they have suffered in recent decades has made them, in the eyes of the Iranian population, embodiments of unyielding attachment to spiritual principle and of constructive resistance to oppression. What is more, it has brought about a heightened desire among that population to become acquainted with the verities of their Faith.
The experience of the Baha'is throughout a century and a half of persecution demonstrates beyond a peradventure that it is possible for a persecuted community (and its individual members) to stick to its foundational principles, to hold its head up while constructively resisting oppression. No violence, no demonstrations, just "unyielding attachment to spiritual principles" and a determination to continue to be of service to their fellow Iranians, despite the worst that can be thrown at them.
It was precisely this that Roxana Saberi, the Iranian American journalist who was imprisoned in Iran last year, found when she shared a cell in Evin prison with Mrs Kamalabadi and Mrs Sabet, two members of the Yaran. Roxana told the story in the Washington Post on 28 August:
For several weeks last year, I shared a cell in Tehran's notorious Evin prison with Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, two leaders of Iran's minority Bahai faith. I came to see them as my sisters, women whose only crimes were to peacefully practice their religion and resist pressure from their captors to compromise their principles. For this, apparently, they and five male colleagues were sentenced this month to 20 years in prison.
I had heard about Mahvash and Fariba before I met them. Other prisoners spoke of the two middle-aged mothers whose high spirits lifted the morale of fellow inmates.
...my cellmates' spirits would not be broken, and they boosted mine. They taught me to, as they put it, turn challenges into opportunities -- to make the most of difficult situations and to grow from adversity. We kept a daily routine, reading the books we were eventually allowed and discussing them; exercising in our small cell; and praying -- they in their way, I in mine. They asked me to teach them English and were eager to learn vocabulary for shopping, cooking and traveling. They would use the new words one day, they told me, when they journeyed abroad. But the two women also said they never wanted to live overseas. They felt it their duty to serve not only Bahais but all Iranians.
Later, when I went on a hunger strike, Mahvash and Fariba washed my clothes by hand after I lost my energy and told me stories to keep my mind off my stomach. Their kindness and love gave me sustenance.
Roxana closes her article by quoting what these women told her:
We believe in love and compassion for humanity, they said, even for those who wrong us.
This is unyielding attachment to spiritual principle and demonstrates constructive resistance to persecution.
Litmus test
For historical reasons, the treatment of the Baha'is in Iran is truly a litmus test of the the Iranian authorities' regard for human rights, for freedom of religion, for freedom of speech, and for the rule of law for all Iranian citizens. The Baha'is will probably be the last group to have their rights recognised - if the Baha'is are emancipated, everyone else will have been emancipated.
As things stand, the litmus paper has turned red.
Reciprocity
I'd just like to highlight one other point. In the final paragraph of its letter, the Baha'i International Community points out the need for reciprocity:
We likewise request that the Bahá’ís in that country be granted their full rights of citizenship, in order that they may be able to fulfill their heartfelt aspiration to contribute, alongside their fellow citizens, to the advancement of their nation. This, indeed, is no more than what you rightfully ask for Muslim minorities who reside in other lands. Bahá’ís merely seek the same treatment from you.
Islamic governments are never backward in calling for rights of Muslim minorities in the West. Well, that call cuts both ways. Islamic governments must reciprocate by ensuring that the rights of Baha'is, Christians and other minorities in their countries are protected.
