Barnabas quotidianus

Baha’is in Iran - latest update Posted: 04 Jul 2008 05:31 AM CDT The Bahá’í World News Service’s Iran Update has just been updated. I’m both angry and deeply concerned to learn that: The seven members of the committee that sees to the minimum needs of the 300,000-member Baha’i community of Iran are still being held by the government. No formal charges have been filed against them, and none of them have been allowed contact with an attorney. The Baha’i International Community learned several weeks ago that the seven were each allowed one brief phone call to their families. Since then, however, there has been no contact with them, nor has there been any news regarding their health or well-being. Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm (all arrested on 14 May) and Mrs. Mahvash Sabet (detained in Mashad on 5 March) are believed to be held in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran. The update makes it clear that these faithful and dedicated Bahá’ís were arrested purely because they are Bahá’ís and not for any alleged risk to Iran’s national security. The statement of support from the six women Nobel Peace Prize laureates is also mentioned and there’s a round-up of some of the other significant statements of support we have received. Read the update here. Oh, and please note that the URL for the Bahá’í World News Service is http://www.news.bahai.org/. Apparently some people are still using outdated versions of this address. Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, human rights, Evin, Nobel Peace Prize, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli Vahid Tizfahm, Mahvash Sabet hi-swis-beStart Slide Show with PicLens Lite ShareThis

Disgraceful denial for Baha’i children in Egypt Posted: 03 Jul 2008 02:56 PM CDT Bilo’s blog, Baha’i Faith in Egypt and Iran, reports that Bahá’í children in Egypt are being turned away from school, even though Egypt’s administrative court recognized the right of Bahá’ís to have ID cards back in January. According to this story in Daily News Egypt: Adel Ramadan, a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) — which brought the case that was ruled on in January — says that schools are refusing to accept personal identity documents printed on paper… According to a report published in Arabic-language daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, school officials claim that they cannot accept identity papers in which the religious affiliation field is left blank. Ramadan says that the decision was taken in pursuance of the state’s policy of forcing people to issue the new computerized identity papers, but has the effect of discriminating against Bahais who either hold the old paper identity documents or have not been issued new documents following the Interior Ministry’s failure to implement the Administrative Court’s decision. I very strongly agree with Bilo’s closing comment about this outrage: This sad development must be seen by all Egyptians as a disgrace. Identity cards or not, these children belong in the schools, not the streets. How can a civil society tolerate such atrocities directed at innocent children? Unfortunately this is the exact same strategy that has been pursued in Iran against its children. Is this what Egypt–a nation endowed with so much great heritage–wants to be remembered for? One would certainly doubt that! Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Egypt, human rights, education, ID cards hi-swis-beStart Slide Show with PicLens Lite ShareThis

Scary development in Iran’s apostasy law Posted: 03 Jul 2008 02:42 PM CDT The Khaleej Times reports that the Iranian parliament is about to debate a draft bill which would make certain blogging activities punishable by death. MPs on Wednesday voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill which seeks to “toughen punishment for harming mental security in society,” the ISNA news agency said. The text lists a wide range of crimes such rape and armed robbery for which the death penalty is already applicable. The crime of apostasy (the act of leaving a religion, in this case Islam) is also already punishable by death. However, the draft bill also includes “establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy”, which is a new addition to crimes punishable by death. Those convicted of these crimes “should be punished as “mohareb’ (enemy of God) and “corrupt on the earth’,” the text says. Under Iranian law the standard punishments for these two crimes are “hanging, amputation of the right hand and then the left foot as well as exile.” The bill — which is yet to be debated by lawmakers — also stipulates that the punishment handed out in these cases “cannot be commuted, suspended or changed”. I certainly don’t approve of promoting corruption or prostitution, but a great deal turns on how the Iranian judiciary interpret “corruption”. And our old friend “apostasy” - already featuring in a draft penal code under consideration by the Iranian parliament - would attract a mandatory death sentence. Now what the law says and how judges make use of the law are not always straightforwardly related in Iran, and laws worded in this way would almost certainly be used against Iranian Bahá’ís, since any attempt to inform people about the Bahá’í Faith can be interpreted as promoting “apostasy”. Hat tip: Mideast Youth for blogging this story.