Sunday, May 27, 2012


Iran Press Watch: The Baha'i Community


Posted: 26 May 2012 11:35 AM PDT
Foreign Affairs and International Trade CanadaMay 14, 2012 – Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:
“Canada remains deeply concerned by Iran’s ongoing, persistent and pervasive persecution of religious minorities.
“Today, on the fourth anniversary of the arbitrary arrest and detention of seven Iranian Bahá’í community leaders, we are again reminded of the troubling state of human rights in Iran.
“Iranian authorities continually undermine the right to freedom of religion by tolerating and even encouraging persecution of Baha’is, Christians and members of other minority religious communities. Freedom of religion is a universal human right.
“Canada is a vigorous defender of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law around the world.
“We urge Iran to uphold its international obligations and allow for freedom of religion, and to respect the fundamental rights of its people.”
Tonight, May 14, 2012, members of Parliament from all parties will participate in a debate in the House of Commons on Iran’s horrific human-rights record.
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Posted: 25 May 2012 10:18 PM PDT
http://www.courier-journal.com [19 May 2012] From a laptop computer in his Louisville home, Behrooz Sabet instructs university students in courses on research techniques, educational theory, curriculum development and the like.
But these students live half a world away in Sabet’s native Iran, and they are risking their freedom and safety every time they log in, or when they gather in cramped apartment kitchens or basements in Iran for secret classes with professors there.
Behrooz Sabet looks at the website of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education. / peter smith/the c-j
Behrooz Sabet looks at the website of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education. / peter smith/the c-j
Sabet is among a fleet of volunteer scholars worldwide helping a semiunderground university, the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education — now at the heart of an international human-rights campaign.
The students are barred from Iranian universities, many jobs and other basic rights because they belong to the Baha’i faith, the largest non-Muslim minority in Iran and one that has come under fierce persecution since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Sabet, 58, a Baha’i who came to the United States as a student in 1979 just before the revolution, speaks in soft yet passionate tones about students barely out of their teens navigating a rigorous curriculum in harrowing circumstances.
“This is their only source for becoming somebody,” Sabet said. “They are really taking it seriously.”
Persecuted minority
The Iranian government considers the Baha’i faith, with about 300,000 adherents in Iran and about 5 million worldwide, to be a dangerous cult in part because it recognizes a messenger of divine revelation who lived after Muhammad, whom Muslims consider the final prophet. Iran has alternated between ignoring the Baha’i Institute and intimidating those involved in it, according to human-rights groups.
In May 2011, dozens of homes associated with the institute were raided by government agents. Six professors and other organizers of the institute are serving multiyear prison sentences as a result.
The U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the group Human Rights Watch also have denounced the raids and arrests as well as other repression of Iranian Baha’is.
Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and Jose Ramos-Horta co-signed a letter calling for the release of the prisoners, academic freedom in Iran and recognition by Western universities of the Baha’i Institute graduates’ academic credits. Graduates have gone on to study at dozens of foreign universities, including Indiana University and the University of Kentucky.
A new documentary, “Education Under Fire” — produced by Florida-based Single Arrow Productions and co-sponsored by Amnesty International — has sought to raise awareness of the issue. The film was screened at the University of Louisville in April and is scheduled to be shown today at the Louisville Free Public Library’s Iroquois branch.
A rigorous curriculum
The Baha’i Institute teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in fields ranging from music to accounting to education to engineering.
Sabet emphasizes that the institute does not get involved in political controversies in Iran, and the only teaching about religion comes when it uses Baha’i, Islamic, Christian and other sacred texts as part of a larger Great Books course, along with works by the likes of William Faulkner, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Persian writers.
“We teach Darwin,” Sabet added. “It’s not in any sense a seminary.”
But the persecution stems not so much from the content as the result, said Nancy Harris, a member of the local Baha’i community, with about 225 adherents in Kentuckiana.
“Without education,” she said, “people don’t have power.”
Iran’s constitution declares the nation an Islamic state, and it is ruled by Shia clerics. The constitution grants limited protections for the historic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism — although such groups and minority Muslim sects also have faced persecution, according to the U.S. Commission on International Freedom.
Baha’is, whose faith was founded by the Persian Baha’u’llah in the 19th century and persecuted periodically ever since, have come under particularly fierce oppression since the Islamic revolution.
At least 200 Baha’i leaders have been executed since 1979, and many more have been imprisoned or lost jobs.
A ‘near-miraculous’ achievement
Mina Yazdani — now a history professor at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond — was in the first wave of Iranian Baha’i students to face repression after the revolution.
Yazdani was expelled from a university in Shiraz, Iran, in 1981 after finishing more than half of a seven-year medical studies program.
At first, Yazdani said she felt guilty for feeling sad about her situation.
“People around us, other Baha’is, were being arrested, were being persecuted, so who has time to think about a young man or woman who has been dismissed at university?” Yazdani recalled.
But in the long run, she said, Baha’is realized the enormity of the ban on higher education.
“What are you going to do with a community that has no graduates from universities, no specialists in any field?” she said.
The Baha’i institute was founded in 1987. At first, students took correspondence courses that required laborious waits for mail or courier. Now they use state-of-the-art Internet software for distance learning.
Sabet, 58, who also works as a faculty member and doctoral adviser for the online Capella University, came to the United States in 1979 just before the Islamic revolution.
About 2,000 students have completed undergraduate or graduate-level courses from the institute, including about 200 who have gone on to study in North America, according to Sabet, who moved to Louisville in 2003.
“The institute’s educational successes strike me as near-miraculous,” wrote Sohrab Ahmari, an Iranian-American journalist, in a May 13 article for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
From expulsion to professorship
Some of the coursework is in English, preparing students for work or study abroad or work with international colleagues. Some students have left Iran, but many want to stay and help build their country, Sabet said.
The university “exemplifies a constructive response to oppression,” Sabet said. “Instead of resorting to conflict or tension or violence, they started a university. I have a feeling this institution will play a greater role in the reconstruction of Iran.”
The Bahai Institute uses encrypted software and other controls, but as last year’s raid and a similar one in 1998 showed, the Iranian government can penetrate the school when it chooses.
“It’s not risk free, but you know, most of these students and faculty in Iran have reached a point where you have taken everything from us, this is the last thing we have, so what?” Sabet said. “Is it a problem that we are studying epistemology?”
Before the institute arose, Yazdani was able to earn a bachelor’s in general studies from Indiana University through a correspondence course while she was in Iran. IU provided similar opportunities to several other Baha’is in the 1980s.
Yazdani left Iran in 2004 on a student visa to study in Canada, where she earned master’s and doctoral degrees. She was appointed to EKU’s faculty in 2011.
She said her expulsion from school in Iran, while painful, ended up strengthening her faith.
Posted: 25 May 2012 10:04 PM PDT
Minister Baird meets with (L to R) Corinne Box, Susanne Tamás and Gerald Filson of the Canadian Baha'i Community. © Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada
Minister Baird meets with (L to R) Corinne Box, Susanne Tamás and Gerald Filson of the Canadian Baha'i Community. © Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada
[bahainews.ca, 15 May 2012] Ottawa, Ontario, 15 May 2012 (CBNS) — As seven Baha’i leaders begin their fifth year of incarceration, arrested and sentenced solely because of their religious faith, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, and the Canadian House of Commons marked the anniversary with strong condemnation of the Iranian regime. The seven leaders face another 16 years of imprisonment.
Minister John Baird issued his statement on 14 May, saying that “Canada remains deeply concerned by Iran’s ongoing, persistent and pervasive persecution of religious minorities.”
“Today, on the fourth anniversary of the arbitrary arrest and detention of seven Iranian Baha’i community leaders, we are again reminded of the troubling state of human rights in Iran.”
Representatives of the Baha’i Community of Canada met with Minister Baird in early May. Baha’i communities across Canada are holding public meetings and offering prayers, recalling the intense persecutions, the arrest of the Baha’i leaders, and marking on 22 May the first anniversary of Iranian government attacks on an informal initiative of Baha’is to provide higher education to Baha’i students who are denied access to Iranian universities. One year ago, 40 Baha’i homes across Iran were raided with many subsequent arrests. Nine of those arrested have now been sentenced, including a few graduates of Canadian universities.
The oppression of Baha’is reflects a wide range of human rights violations affecting many Iranians who are united in their desire to see freedom and progress in their country. Illustrative of the kind of brutality that confronts many Iranians are recent stories of Baha’i school children being harassed by teachers and school authorities. A Baha’i child’s hand was burned and beaten by a teacher, other Baha’i children have been expelled from school because of their faith, and a Baha’i mother was abducted by government officials in front of her children.
Minister Baird’s statement went on to say, “Iranian authorities continually undermine the right to freedom of religion by tolerating and even encouraging persecution of Baha’is, Christians and members of other minority religious communities. Freedom of religion is a universal human right.”
On the date of the anniversary, the House of Commons also held an all–party debate commenting on Iran’s horrific human-rights record. Eleven MPs from three political parties – Conservative, Liberal and NDP – expressed their concern for the Baha’is in Iran in this debate. All were equally forceful in their remarks. Mr. James Bezan, a Conservative Member of Parliament, began the debate with the following remarks:
“Mr. Speaker, four years ago today, seven Baha’i leaders in Iran were abruptly taken out of their homes and arrested. In a flagrant violation of international law, the prisoners were held for 20 months without any charges being laid. Some were placed in solitary confinement for months. They were finally given an inhumane sentence of 20 years in prison for espionage.
However, we all know that these seven innocent Iranians were arrested for nothing else than for being members of the Baha’i faith.
Baha’is in Iran have suffered a systematic relentless campaign of persecution. Over 200 Baha’is have been killed, hundreds more imprisoned and the Baha’is in Iran face social, economic and cultural restrictions. Iranian authorities continue to undermine the rights of freedom of religion through the persistent and pervasive persecution of religious minorities, such as Baha’is, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims.
Members from all sides of the House will come together this evening to participate in an important and timely debate on the human rights situation in Iran. We continue to urge Iran to uphold its international obligations to allow for freedom of religion and to respect the fundamental rights for all of its people.”
For complete speeches please click here or see the attached document.
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Posted: 25 May 2012 09:52 PM PDT
[educationunderfire.com] The story of Roxana Saberi’s time in prison with Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, two, of The Yaran (“the Friends”), sentenced to 20 years in prison simply for helping administer the needs of the Baha’i community in Iran. Featuring journalist Roxana Saberi and Elise Auerbach, Iran Specialist for Amnesty International USA. Roxana, “I think the lessons that Mahvash and Fariba taught me in prison are universal. And they can apply to anybody, anywhere in the world. You don’t have to be in prison. We have our own prisons, are own adversities, and we can try to turn those adversities into opportunities.”
Click here to view the embedded video.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: David Hoffman
PRODUCER / DIRECTOR: Jeff Kaufman
EDITOR / FIELD AUDIO: Daniel Kaufman
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Emett Casey
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Colin Trenbeath
A Single Arrow Productions film
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Posted: 25 May 2012 09:45 PM PDT
http://iranianstudies.com/ First Name:
Mehrdad
Last Name:
Amanat
Institutional Affiliation :
Independent Scholar
Academic Bio:
Born in Tehran, Mehrdad Amanat completed an engineering degree from UCLA (1976), a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies from UCLA (1979), and a Ph.D. in history from UCLA (2006). His book *Jewish Identities: Resistance and Conversion to Islam and the Baha’i faith * will be published in 2010 by I.B. Taurus. He is presently living in Los Angeles.
Abstract:
Iran’s complex and elusive picture of interfaith relations is indicative of larger patterns which persist up to this day. Elements of religious intolerance as reflected in an obsession with an ancient belief in “impurity” of “non-believers” coexist with a deep rooted tradition of cultural exchange and relative tolerance, as manifested in the Judeo-Iranian interface in religion and science,  and in the interfaith interaction of Jews with Sufis and others.
This paper traces aspects of Iran’s interfaith relations to explore some of the roots of intolerance towards nonconformists through a study of burial rites. Beginning with the ulama’s dominance of Iran’s society during the 19th century, local outbreaks of anti-minority violence and discriminatory practices led to significant economic hardship for non-Muslims. This picture grows increasingly complex when a range of multi-layered religious identities–stemming from religious conversions to Islam, Christianity and the Baha’i faith—challenged the  imagined neat boundaries of the religious divide.
Threatened by the challenges of conversion, many rabbis sought to enforce community control through control of burial rites. The cemetery became the arena for drawing the lines of communal boundaries. Complications relating to the burial of subaltern social outcasts with ambiguous identities, led to the advent of homeless corpses. However, at times influential Jewish converts with multiple identities could not be easily excluded from the Jewish cemetery. In their case, class and power relations helped open up space for negotiating unconventional identities. Yet even conversion to Islam did not guarantee full assimilation in the Muslim community, and could in fact cause greater isolation. Jewish converts to Islam, even those with influence, were rejected by Jewish and Muslim clerics alike, and had to establish their own “private” cemetery. The graveyard was often the scene of settling family or inheritance disputes. Postmortem reversed conversion from Islam or the Baha’i faith back to Judaism was used to exclude the women in the family from their share of the family estate. Defilement of the “other” by attacking the copses were a familiar sight in the urban scene, and had especially powerful impact in a society where the relationship with the departed was a close and enduring part of family life.

Today, graveyard politics continues to play a part in Iran’s fragile civil society, as seen in the Khavaranmakeshift cemetery, where mass graves of the regime’s opponents rest next to graves of other nonconformists and Baha’is.
Academic Discipline :
Social Studies
Posted: 25 May 2012 09:40 PM PDT
The seven Baha'i prisoners, photographed several months before their arrest, are, in front, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie, and, standing, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, and Mahvash Sabet. Ms. Sabet was detained on 5 March 2008. Her six colleagues were arrested in raids on their homes on 14 May 2008.
The seven Baha'i prisoners, photographed several months before their arrest, are, in front, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie, and, standing, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, and Mahvash Sabet. Ms. Sabet was detained on 5 March 2008. Her six colleagues were arrested in raids on their homes on 14 May 2008.
[BWNS, 14 May 2012] GENEVA — Iran’s former Baha’i leaders begin their fifth year in prison today amid an intensification of the persecution of their co-religionists.
The seven prisoners each face the bleak prospect of 16 more years in jail for crimes they did not commit. Next week also marks the first anniversary of raids on homes of Baha’is associated with an informal initiative offering higher education to community members barred from university. Nine educators later received harsh prison sentences.
The detention and conviction of these and other Baha’is is a reflection of the oppression facing all Iranians who desire freedom and the progress of their country, said the Universal House of Justice in a letter dated 11 May 2012 sent to the Baha’is of Iran.
In its message, the Universal House of Justice noted how the intensifying cruelty towards the Iranian Baha’i community is now also engulfing children. Among recent attacks, the letter highlighted the confinement in prison for a few days of a two-year old boy with his mother, the beating and burning of the hand of a school pupil by her teacher after the girl did not take part in congregational prayers, and the violent abduction by officials of a mother before the eyes of her two young children.
“From schoolchildren to the elderly, from the seven former leaders to ordinary villagers, no Baha’i in Iran is spared the cruel and calculated persecution which the Iranian government and its agents are constantly devising,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
On 18 September 2011, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil – an example of the activities taken by ordinary people around the world in defense of the Baha'is of Iran and the principle of religious freedom.
On 18 September 2011, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil – an example of the activities taken by ordinary people around the world in defense of the Baha'is of Iran and the principle of religious freedom.
The seven former leaders have been given the longest sentences – 20 years each – of any of the prisoners of conscience currently held in Iranian jails, Ms. Ala’i added. “Conditions are harsh with poor food and bad sanitation and most of them have experienced significant health problems. Yet during these four years, not one of them has been granted any type of furlough – something to which a prisoner is entitled under Iranian law.”
Global support
The Universal House of Justice observed in its letter that, over the past year, governments and organizations have continued to defend the rights of Baha’is and other oppressed Iranians. Among such supporters, statesmen and officials – including some Muslim politicians in both the East and the West – civil agencies, universities and prominent personalities have declared the persecution of Baha’is to be unjust and have called for it to cease.
Recent action has included the unanimous passing of a resolution in the United States Senate – on 29 March – calling for the release of the seven former leaders. Three days later, the plight of the prisoners captured the public’s attention in 12 of the world’s major cities, when widespread publicity marked the combined total of 10,000 days that the seven had spent behind bars.
Fair-minded Iranians, including artists, are also defending the rights of their oppressed Baha’i compatriots and demanding their freedom, noted the Universal House of Justice.
“Blind prejudice and superstition pervades Iran today and irreparable damage has been done to the name and reputation of Islam,” said Diane Ala’i. “We welcome and join with every effort made by people of good will – both in Iran and around the world – to condemn the extent and violence of the oppressions faced by the people of Iran.”
The former Baha’i leaders are Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Vahid Tizfahm. Ms. Sabet was detained on 5 March 2008. Her six colleagues were arrested in raids on their homes on 14 May 2008.
Prior to their arrests, the seven served on an ad hoc national-level group which attended to the spiritual and social needs of Iran’s Baha’i community. During six brief court sessions, devoid of due legal process, the seven faced trumped-up charges that were all rejected completely and categorically by the defendants.
They were each sentenced to 20-years imprisonment. The five men are currently being held at Gohardasht prison, some 50 kilometers west of Tehran. The two women are in Evin prison in the capital.
Some 39 homes of Baha’is associated with the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) were raided in a coordinated attack in May 2011. Educator Kamran Mortezaie is now serving a five-year jail term. Mahmoud Badavam, Noushin Khadem, Farhad Sedghi, Riaz Sobhani and Ramin Zibaie are each serving four year prison sentences. The judgments against them cast their activities in support of BIHE as crimes and as “evidence” of their purported aim to subvert the State. Two psychology teachers – Faran Hesami and her husband Kamran Rahimian – were also sentenced to four years in prison. Another BIHE administrator Vahid Mahmoudi was released on 8 January 2012 after his five-year sentence was reportedly suspended.
Since August 2004, some 556 Baha’is have been arrested in Iran. There are about 109 Iranian Baha’is currently in prison because of their religion. To date, the cases of some 451 Baha’is are still active with authorities.
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Posted: 25 May 2012 08:48 PM PDT
Canada's House of Commons debate on Iran’s human rights violations coincided with the fourth anniversary of the arrest of six of the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued a statement marking the anniversary. Pictured (left to right): Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs; John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Scott Reid; and Irwin Cotler.
Canada's House of Commons debate on Iran’s human rights violations coincided with the fourth anniversary of the arrest of six of the seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued a statement marking the anniversary. Pictured (left to right): Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs; John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Scott Reid; and Irwin Cotler.
[BWNS, 16 May 2012] OTTAWA — In a wide-ranging debate that took place on the fourth anniversary of the arrest of imprisoned Iranian Baha’i leaders, members of the Canadian Parliament voiced their grave concern about worsening violations of human rights in Iran.
Earlier on Monday 14 May, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs – John Baird – marked the anniversary by issuing astatement which said, “Iranian authorities continually undermine the right to freedom of religion by tolerating and even encouraging persecution of Baha’is, Christians and members of other minority religious communities. Freedom of religion is a universal human right.”
“We urge Iran to uphold its international obligations and allow for freedom of religion, and to respect the fundamental rights of its people,” said Minister Baird.
Opening the debate in the House of Commons, Deepak Obhrai – Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs – said that Iran’s refusal to respect human rights obligations is a “violation not just of universally recognized norms and standards but of those enshrined within its own constitution.”
Mr. Obhrai and other speakers highlighted, among other things, the Iranian authorities’ suppression of women’s rights, attacks on journalists, artists, independent trade unionists, and civil society, and the persecution of minorities.
“With respect to religious minorities, Iran remains a dangerous place for members of numerous communities, including the Baha’i,” said Mr. Obhrai, a Conservative MP from Alberta.
“For years, this peaceful community has been targeted by the Iranian authorities and subjected to discrimination and detention. Baha’i leaders have been arrested and imprisoned for practicing their faith.
“Iranian officials have also made statements to try to link the Baha’i to the political unrest in that country. These are trumped-up accusations and a cause of concern for the safety and well-being of those unjustly detained in Iran.”
Irwin Cotler, a Liberal MP from Montreal, told the debate that the plight of Iran’s Baha’is offers a looking glass into the situation of human rights in Iran in general, and the “criminalization of innocence.”
“Simply put, the persecution and prosecution of these Baha’i is a case study of the systematic if not systemic character of Iranian injustice as a whole,” said Mr. Cotler, “including arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention, false and trumped-up charges.”
Scott Reid, a Conservative from Ontario, added “Baha’is face what really amounts to a systematic effort to exterminate the religion,” calling Iran’s persecution of Baha’is “one of the great tragedies of modern times.”
Welcoming the debate, Susanne Tamas – director of government relations for the Canadian Baha’i community – said it was significant that representatives from all of Canada’s major parties spoke and were unanimous in expressing their concerns.
“The debate was very heartfelt and very much appreciated,” said Ms. Tamas.
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