Bahá’í school children in Iran are being subjected to cruel and harsh treatment as part of a government-sponsored campaign against the Bahá’í community. Reports indicate that Baha’i pupils are secretly monitored and reported upon by school officials, are subjected to vilification by their teachers and school administrators, and are forced to listen to vile and outrageous tales about the teachings of their Faith and the moral behavior of Baha’is.

I had flashbacks to my life before we escaped (over the border into Pakistan) when I was 9 and my baby brother was 4. We would have to hide the prayer books when strangers were in the house; we would have to walk to other Bahá’í homes, arriving separately so that no one could get suspicious. I remember the night a member of my extended family was released from prison (where he had been for years, because he was a Bahá’í) and the conversation I had with my father, about why the “uncle” didn’t just lie and say he was no longer a Bahá’í so that he could have been freed. I remember how upset my childishly simple logic made my father, who explained to me the importance of faith and certitude and steadfastness, even in the face of adversity.

My father knew what he was talking about: my grandmother had been in labour with him while the townspeople were attacking and burning down the door of my grandparents’ house. He had to walk to school, facing the taunts of ignorant children, who were taught that it is a blessing to revile and attack Bahá’ís. He was denied educational and job opportunities because of his faith. And until his last breath, my father was steadfast in his beliefs and filled with a love for humanity that transcended all the hardships he had endured.

My family’s story is unfortunately not unique. A very good summary is available on this site, along with supporting documentation and testimonials:

The persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran has been taking place since the religion began there in the mid-nineteenth century. More than 200 Bahá’ís were killed in Iran between 1978 and 1998, the majority by execution, and thousands more were imprisoned…Bahá’ís in Iran are systematically denied jobs, pensions and the right to inherit property. More than 10,000 Bahá’ís have been dismissed from government and university posts since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

It has been years since I had a nightmare about being taken away from my parents in the middle of the night, something I was convinced was possible even in the seemingly safe Zimbabwean suburb we finally settled in. But for so many of my Bahá’í brothers and sisters, my childhood nightmare is their heartbreaking reality.

The explosion ripped through the mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers late Saturday as a cleric delivered his weekly speech against extremist Wahabi beliefs and the outlawed Baha’i faith, the semiofficial Fars news agency said.

In a similar vein, Reuters recently reported on death threats made to Noble Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. One of the things she is accused in one of the threats is “un-Islamic behaviour which coincides with Baha’i manners.”

On a less puzzling, and more optimistic note, the Manitou Messenger reports on a resolution passed by the student senate of St. Olaf College:

At last week’s student senate meeting, a resolution voicing support of Iranian Baha’i Students was passed. The resolution was a proclamation of support in protest against the Iranian government denying access to higher education for Baha’i students.

And finally, the lyrics to a song I heard for the first time last week, by Solomon Burke, called “None of Us Are Free”:

Well you better listen my sister’s and brothers,
’cause if you do you can hear
there are voices still calling across the years.
And they’re all crying across the ocean,
and they’re cryin across the land,
and they will till we all come to understand.

None of us are free.
None of us are free.
None of us are free, one of us are chained.
None of us are free.

June 18 marks the 25th anniversary of the day 10 Bahá’í women were hanged in Shiraz, Iran, for teaching religious classes to Bahá’í youth — the equivalent of being Sunday School teachers in the West…

All of the women had been interrogated and tortured in the months leading up to their execution. Some bore still-visible wounds. The youngest of the martyrs was Muna Mahmudnizhad, a 17-year-old schoolgirl who, because of her youth and conspicuous innocence, became a symbol of the group. In prison, she was lashed on the soles of her feet with a cable and forced to walk on bleeding feet… Read More

What precisely could these heroic women have been teaching children in their classes? Well, the topics on Baha’i Perspectives may give us a clue, so let’s take a closer look at what has been discussed thus far. Maybe they were teaching about love and unity. Or education. Or eliminating prejudice. Or the lives of the Prophets of God, including that of his Holiness the Prophet Muhammad. Or even the commandment in the Baha’i Faith to show obedience to the government of the land.

And for all of this, like their predecessors before them, they were branded as traitors and heretics, lashed, beaten and eventually executed. “Traitors” because they understood the text of the Holy Quran in a way that didn’t suit the self-serving interests of the ruling clergy. “Heretics” because they declared their belief in Baha’u'llah, the Glory of God, and chose to follow a world-embracing Cause that addresses present-day concerns and challenges, and not those of a thousand years ago.

Yet to present some sense of legitimacy to their actions, the Iranian Government tells the outside world that they are “spies” and “threats to state security”, allegations which the world has come to realize are utter nonsense.

25 years later and the pattern repeats itself, with the arrest and imprisonment of these 7 Baha’i leaders under the same false pretenses:

In a letter to the Baha’is of Iran, dated 3 June 2008, the governing council of the Baha’i Faith encourages the Baha’is not to take up arms and fight back, but to continue demonstrating through their steadfastness, patience and rectitude of conduct, the true Baha’i way of life:

Despite the current crisis, pay no heed to oppression and cruelty and, inspired by the Divine Teachings, act in the opposite manner. Focus your thoughts on being a source of good to those around you. Exert every endeavour to serve your fellow citizens–heirs to a culture rich and humane–who themselves suffer from many an injustice. Avoid all divisiveness and conflict, consort with everyone with kindliness and sincerity, and engage with your compatriots in the discussion of ideas and the exchange of thoughts on matters with which they are anxiously concerned. Ignite in their hearts the flame of hope, faith, and assurance in Iran’s glorious future and in the bright destiny of humankind which you well know is sure to come to pass.

As we go about our daily lives, our thoughts and prayers are constantly with them.

• Iran Press Watch: The Baha’i Community is an initiative of scholar Ahang Rabbani, in which he translates articles about the situation of the Baha’is in Iran, as and when they appear in the Persian-language press. This site will certainly contribute to the growing awareness worldwide of the plight of Baha’is in the Faith’s country of origin.
• Baha’i Tributes, according to the About section, “is a blog which aims to share appreciations made about the Bahá’í Faith by outstanding figures from the worlds of politics, literature and religion and other fields of human endeavour.” Here is a snippet from one of the entries, the immortal words of Helen Keller:

The philosophy of Bahá’u’lláh deserves the best thought we can give it. I am returning the book so that other blind people who have more leisure than myself may be “shown a ray of Divinity” and their hearts be “bathed in an inundation of eternal love.”

I take this opportunity to thank you for your kind thought of me, and for the inspiration which even the most cursory reading of Bahá’u’lláh’s life cannot fail to impart…

Thousands of miles to the east and to the west, the cold of tribulation is a stark reality. To the east, the sham trial behind closed doors of the seven members of the Baha’i Administrative Committee of Iran, arrested and imprisoned by the Islamic government in 2008, merely for their religious beliefs. To the west, the heart-wrenching devastation caused by the Haiti disaster and the scramble to save as many lives as possible before it becomes too late.

Although outwardly cataclysms are hard to understand and to endure, yet there lies a great wisdom behind them which appears later. All the visible material events are inter-related with invisible spiritual forces. The infinite phenomena of creation are as interdependent as the links of a chain.

When certain links become rusty, they are broken by unseen forces, to be replaced by newer and better ones. There are certain colossal events which transpire in the world of humanity which are required by the nature of the times. For example, the requirements of winter are cold, snow, hail and rain – but the birds and animals who live for six months, enjoying a short span of life, not realizing the wisdom of winter, chide and make lament and are discontent, saying, “Why this awful frost? Why this hail and storm? Why not the balmy weather? Why not the eternal springtime? Why this injustice on the part of the creator? Why this suffering? What have we done to be meted out with this catastrophe?”

However, those souls who have lived many years and have acquired much experience and have weathered many severe winters realize that in order to enjoy the coming spring they must pass through the cold of winter.

(Abdu’l-Baha : Divine Philosophy)

Video at: http://www.vimeo.com/4604825

On May 14, 2008, six of the seven members of the ad-hoc governing body of the Bahá’ís of Iran were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin Prison. Last week marked the one-year anniversary of their arrests (the seventh had been arrested on March 5, 2008). Since then, they have been held without access to their legal counsel, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi.

They have been charged on the baseless accusations of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and, most recently, “spreading corruption on earth.”

They are men and women, mothers and fathers, some of whom have a history of persecution in their families. Among them are: a developmental psychologist, an agricultural engineer, an educator and school principal, a social worker, an optometrist, an industrialist, and a factory owner.

In a letter written on September 9, 2007 to Bahá’í students deprived of access to higher education in Iran, the Universal House of Justice wrote:

Service to others is the way. Let it be your watchword, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá being your exemplar. Like Him, you can find practical ways of serving your fellow citizens. Strive to work hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder, with your fellow citizens in your efforts to promote the common good.

As we keep them in our thoughts and prayers, and as we work, in whatever way we can, to speak out against this injustice, let us remember the poignant words of the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís in Iran, in a letter written on November 26, 2003:

Your long night will end, and you will have the joy of witnessing with your own eyes the mighty structures your sacrifices have raised.

(For those in the U.S., find out how you can write to your representatives and senators regarding co-sponsoring House Res. 175 and Senate Res. 71: http://iran.bahai.us).

This tremendous composition exposes the absurdity of the charges against Baha’is, and states in a factual, clearly presented manner, the reality of the persecutions that Baha’is have experienced in Iran over recent decades. It is an appeal to mind and heart of every human being following the situation, be they perpetrators, journalists, well-wishers or simply spectators — and in particular to the governing authorities of Iran — to take stock of what is happening and to accord the freedom and dignity due to every citizen of that land. 

Read it here.

The history of the persecution if the Baha’is in Iran goes back to the early days of the Faith in the mid-19th century — a history that I strongly recommend all of you to study. The core of the Baha’i Faith and its ultimate purpose is the unity and wellbeing of mankind. In spite of this peaceful Message, the Founder, Baha’u'llah, and the early believers were met with exile, torture and suffering.

Although unique in many ways, the stories of heroism, faith and sacrifice remind us of other similar phenomena in the history of mankind. The phenomena I have in mind in particular are the appearances of all the former Manifestations of God, the Spiritual Educators of every age, who during their own lifetimes were met with opposition and torture by the contemporary leadership.

Not one single Manifestation of Holiness hath appeared but He was afflicted by the denials, the repudiation and the vehement opposition of the people around Him.

- Baha’u'llah 

This opposition, however, never stopped these illumined Beings from proclaiming their Message of love and unity; nor was it able to stop their tremendous influence from spreading far and wide.

A well-known story that testifies to this is the story of Jesus Christ, who, when He appeared among the people of Israel, was met with protests and false accusations. They were so mislead and blinded by their own pride and selfish interests that they failed to recognize the greatness of His Message – a Message of love and harmony. Again, their opposition didn’t stop the religion from spreading and influencing people in all corners of the earth, up to this day.  

…consider the hardships and the bitterness of the lives of those Revealers of the divine Beauty. Reflect, how single-handed and alone they faced the world and all its peoples and promulgated the Law of God! No matter how severe the persecutions inflicted upon those holy, those precious, and tender Souls, they still remained, in the plenitude of their power, patient, and, despite their ascendancy, they suffered and endured.

- Baha’u'llah 

That same injustice has struck many religious and other well-wishing groups throughout the history of mankind, and has now struck the members of the Baha’i Faith in Iran. A question that is difficult to understand is why people that promote peace, harmony and unity can be met with such harsh hostility? Can the reason be other than pride, ignorance and injustice?  

In praying for the safety of the Baha’is in Iran, Baha’is are urged to stay firm and try even harder to live up to those principles that their fellow members are sacrificing their lives for:  

Associate, O My friends, with all the people of religions with joy and fragrance. Beware that ye make not the Word of God the cause of oppositions or contrast, or for the purpose of causing hatred among you. Say: be sincerely pious toward God, O people of the earth, and be not found among the negligent ones.