http://www.iranpresswatch.org/
Discrimination Of Minorities In Iran
There are at least 28 Baha’is in jail in different parts of Iran who are imprisoned because of their religion. At any given moment, there may actually be more than this number, but sometimes Baha’is are detained overnight and released, or they may be allowed out on bail after depositing with the court a sum in cash or surrendering business licenses or titles to property.
Among those in prison are all seven members of the Baha’i coordinating committee, and three young adults in Shiraz whose case was the subject of an internal investigation — the results of which completely vindicated the prisoners.
INTERNATIONAL: A brief look at Iran’s Bahá’í religious minority
By James Gilman
Since 1979 revolution, persecution of progressive faith has intensified
The Bahá’í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded in mid-nineteenth century Persia (present-day Iran) by Mirza Hoseyn Ali Nuri, also known as Bahá’u'alláh (Glory of God), and is one of the youngest independent religions in the world. The Bahá’í Faith grew out of the Babi movement, which split from Shia Islam earlier in the nineteenth century.
Bahá’u'alláh was believed to be a new messenger of God, following in a line of divine prophets that included Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad. Bahá’u'alláh’s teachings stress the unity of religions and mankind, as well as a progressive vision of God. The Bahá’í Faith places emphasis on social equity, including the equality of genders. It has no clergy, and its administrative institutions are all democratically elected.
In 1852, Bahá’u'alláh was arrested by Iran’s ruling Qajar dynasty and imprisoned after a government crackdown on the Babi movement. While incarcerated in Tehran, Bahá’u'alláh first came to believe he was the next prophet. A year later he was exiled to Baghdad, where he spent the next decade, before being further exiled to Constantinople. He was later exiled for a final time by the Ottoman Empire to the penal colony of Acre, in the then-Ottoman province of Palestine, where he died in 1892. It was there, near modern-day Haifa, Israel, that the Bahá’í’s supreme governing institution, the Universal House of Justice, was established.
Iranian press targets Nobel Prize winner Ebadi
By James Gilman
McGill University has been at the centre of a number of allegations made by the official media of the Islamic Republic of Iran this year.
The Islamic Republic News Agency, the Iranian government’s official state media outlet, published a pair of articles earlier this year attacking Nobel Prize-winning lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi.
The IRNA also targeted Ebadi’s daughter, who is a former McGill LL.M. student, McGill law professor Payam Akhavan, and the McGill Association for Bahá’í Studies, a Students` Society club. Ebadi, her daughter, and Akhavan have all been the targets of threats for their opposition to certain policies of the Iranian government.
Brazilian Congressman on Baha’is in Iran
The following is a speech provided by Congressman Geraldo Resende at the October 16th, 2008 Session of Congress in Brazil. Translated by Sam Cyrous.
BAHÁ’ÍS: MORE THAN A RELIGIOUS QUESTION — A QUESTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress: Iran astonishes the world with its Nuclear Program and, above all, with the intransigence of its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in not allowing members of the United Nations Organization — the UN — to inspect its nuclear facilities, but what I wish to bring up here is another issue regarding Iran which has not received the attention that it deserves from the rest of the world — the persecution of the followers of the Bahá’í religion and the imprisonment of its believers who have been falsely charged with espionage.
Since May 14th, seven Iranian Bahá’ís have been kept in captivity, without access to lawyers and without any communication with their families. They are people of goodwill who have committed the “crime” of belonging to a religion unrecognized by the Iranian State. These seven Bahá’ís, who make up a group that took care of the interests of more than 300 thousand Iranian Bahá’ís, were arrested arbitrarily and taken from their homes and commercial establishments by the Iranian police. This group’s work consisted of providing help to the Baha’i community through the establishment of regular prayer meetings, children activities, funerals, weddings, and a few other community activities. And what is even more worrisome, Mr. Chairman, is that after four months, these Bahá’ís continue to be incarcerated in a completely arbitrary way, and have now been accused of espionage and of belonging to an anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian group. More recently the situation of the Bahá’ís has worsened. This June, three Bahá’ís of Iranian origin, all with successful businesses and families established in Yemen, had their houses attacked and their documents, CDs, photographs and even computers confiscated.
Letter of Mrs. Moslemi to Iran’s Judiciary
Translated by Ahang Rabbani
The wife of Anvar Moslemi, who is a member of the Baha’i community of the province of Mazandaran, has written a letter to the Court that has jurisdiction over her husband’s case, outlining the injustices inflicted upon Mr. Moslemi and the violation of the legal rights of their family.
At the beginning of her letter, she states:
http://www.iranpresswatch.org/Respectfully I submit that I am Farzaneh Shahbahrami, the wife of Mr. Anvar Moslemi. I have been confronted with a serious problem which not only has caused complications for me, but has brought to question the principles of justice and jurisprudence in our society.
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