New reports of human rights violations highlight situation of Iran's Baha'is


GENEVA, 23 August 2011 (BWNS) – Iran's treatment of its Baha'i citizens has been identified as a major area of concern in three important new surveys carried out by international human rights organizations.

The reports have recently been issued by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and Amnesty International.

The highlighting of the situation of Iranian Baha'is within the broader framework of international human rights violations has been welcomed by the Baha'i International Community.

"Each of these reports surveys a major issue area – minorities, women prisoners, or the Middle East in general – and each accordingly places the ongoing persecution of Baha'is in that context, demonstrating the interconnected and interrelated nature of rights violations," said Diane Ala'i, the representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

"We likewise express our grave concern about human rights violations directed at other groups in Iran, such as women, journalists, and human rights defenders, as well as ordinary citizens seeking the right to freedom of expression," said Ms. Ala'i.


"Release all women prisoners of conscience"

In its report on women prisoners, Paris-based FIDH called on Iran to "release all women prisoners of conscience unconditionally and immediately."

Iran is currently unjustly holding at least 47 such women prisoners, wrote FIDH on 13 August.

Six Baha'i women are listed by FIDH, including Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, both serving 20 year sentences for their membership of a national-level ad hoc group that helped attend to the needs of Iran's 300,000-strong Baha'i community. Last year, they were unjustly convicted of espionage and other trumped-up charges that were wholly related to their practice of the Baha'i Faith.

Also included in the report is Nasrin Sotoudeh, the lawyer who has represented numerous victims of human rights abuses including Baha'is and prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were minors. In January this year, authorities sentenced Ms. Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison for charges that include "activities against national security" and "propaganda against the regime." Additionally, she has been barred from practicing law and from leaving Iran for 20 years.

Other cases highlighted by FIDH include those of women's rights supporter Mahboubeh Karami, serving a three-year prison term; journalist Hengameh Shahidi, jailed for six years; student activist Bahareh Hedayat, sentenced to nine and a half years; and film actress Marzieh Vafammehr, who is being arbitrarily detained.

"The international community should express full support for the Iranian women's movement and its fight for the establishment of basic freedoms, equal rights and respect for human rights in Iran," said Karim Lahidji, vice-president of FIDH and President of the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI).


Situation for Baha'is "remained dire"

In MRG's annual survey of minority populations around the world, published in London last month, the spotlight falls upon problems facing women from minority and indigenous communities.

They are often targeted for rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and killings – specifically because of their ethnic, religious or indigenous identity.

"The situation for Baha'is in Iran remained dire in 2010," said the report's section on Iran, highlighting that the trial and sentencing of Iran's seven Baha'i leaders took place without "independent observers."

It also reported that Iranian Baha'is face restrictions on access to education and employment and the "arbitrary destruction of their homes, arrests, and confiscation and destruction of property."

Amnesty International – in a special supplement to its Wire magazine on the theme "50 Years of Defending Rights in the Middle East and North Africa" – observed that Baha'is are among the many religious minorities that populate the Middle East "sometimes regarded with deep-seated suspicion and hostility that make them vulnerable to abuses of their human rights."





To read the article online and access links, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/846

For the Baha'i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/

In new affront, authorities say they will bury an Iranian Baha'i as a Muslim

GENEVA, 10 August 2011 (BWNS) – In an outrageous new incident of religious discrimination, authorities in the city of Tabriz, Iran, have refused to allow Baha'is to bury a relative in accordance with Baha'i law – and instead have promised to entomb the deceased woman without a coffin under Muslim rites. 

"To anyone who understands the culture of the Middle East, the idea that the government would force a family to bury their loved one according to the rites of another religion is beyond the pale," said Diane Ala'i, the representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

She noted that according to Baha'i rites of burial, the deceased must be interred in a coffin, whereas under Muslim law, no coffin is used. 

"This incident demonstrates the almost unbelievable length to which Iranian authorities are willing to go to express their prejudice and animosity against Baha'is," she said.

The incident began on Monday when authorities in Tabriz told the family of Mrs. Fatemeh-Soltan Zaeri that they would be unable to bury her in the local cemetery according to Baha'i law. Instead, they said, she would have to be interred according to Muslim customs.

The family objected, noting that the cemetery has always been accessible to members of all religions in the area to bury their dead as they wished.

In response to this protest, authorities demanded that Mrs. Zaeri be buried without a coffin – and they withheld her body for 48 hours, preventing them from taking her body somewhere else. 

Yesterday, when the family member contacted cemetery authorities again, pleading that her body be released so they could bury her elsewhere, they were advised that she would be buried on Thursday anyway, without a coffin, in a Muslim ceremony – and that only her husband would be allowed to be present.

This is but the most recent incident in a long history of problems facing Baha'is over the proper burial of their dead. In many cities in Iran, Baha'is have long been blocked from using Muslim cemeteries – but have instead been allowed to create their own.

However, these Baha'i cemeteries have been frequently vandalized and desecrated. 

In the past year or so, Baha'i cemeteries in Tehran, Ghaemshahr, Marvdasht, Semnan, Sari, and Isfahan have been defaced, bulldozed, or in some way blocked to the Baha'i community. In late April, a small Baha'i cemetery in Gilavand with only four graves was desecrated by intruders using a tractor; all four tombs were destroyed. Earlier, in March, a Baha'i family in Najafabad was prevented from burying a loved one in the Baha'i cemetery there, despite their having secured a permit to do so.

"Iranian officials repeatedly deny that their government persecutes Baha'is on account of their religion. Harassment over Baha'i burials and the desecration of cemeteries are clear indications that the persecution is based solely on religion and not the result of any threat posed by Baha'is," said Ms. Ala'i.

To read the article online, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/845

For the Baha'i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/