Voices from Iran

A little while back, we spoke about the misery that the Bahá'ís in Iran are facing and have been facing for the past 160 years. Due to their beliefs, they are thought to be at the lowest tier in the Muslim world-they are infidels, vermin. Bahá'ís are unable to hold government posts, their shops are shut down, university is not an option, schools are difficult to enroll in, at any moment, the Basij may come in and destroy their entire livelihood. Places considered Holy to the Bahá'ís (even if they are historically significant to Iran) have been desecrated. Imprisoned, tortured and killed, their voices are a shadowed cry heard around the world. It is muffled by government secrecy and censorship.

Despite all of this, the Bahá'í Faith still maintains the status of the largest minority religion in Iran. Why is this? It is because the Bahá'ís are steadfast in their Faith and they know that if they give in to the pressure of the Iranian regime, what they are fighting for will be lost. For 165 years, hundreds and thousands of people in Iran alone have lost their lives fighting for this one cause. This cause is the unity of humanity. The Iranian government, backed by the Mullahs and other religious leaders, claim that the Bahá'í Faith desires to spread corruption in the world. If corruption means working together for the betterment of the global society, then yes-it is true.

For now I will leave you with a passage from the Fire Tablet and two accounts from the perspectives of Iranian Bahá'ís (I keep their identities anonymous for their own sake).

Were it not for the cold, how would the heat of Thy words prevail, O Expounder of the worlds?

Were it not for calamity, how would the sun of Thy patience shine, O Light of the worlds?

Lament not because of the wicked. Thou wert created to bear and endure, O Patience of the worlds.

How sweet was Thy dawning on the horizon of the Covenant among the stirrers of sedition, and Thy yearning after God, O Love of the worlds.

By Thee the banner of independence was planted on the highest peaks, and the sea of bounty surged, O Rapture of the worlds.

By Thine aloneness the Sun of Oneness shone, and by Thy banishment the land of Unity was adorned. Be patient, O Thou Exile of the worlds.

We have made abasement the garment of glory, and affliction the adornment of Thy temple, O Pride of the worlds.

Thou seest the hearts are filled with hate, and to overlook is Thine, O Thou Concealer of the sins of the worlds.

When the swords flash, go forward! When the shafts fly, press onward! O Thou Sacrifice of the worlds.

Dost Thou wail, or shall I wail? Rather shall I weep at the fewness of Thy champions, O Thou Who hast caused the wailing of the worlds.

The first two sections relate the idea that if one does not understand the lowest parts in life, then the brightest parts cannot be appreciated. We are powerful and must defend ourselves against the world; we can defend ourselves with the pen-not the sword.


This is a commentary written by a Bahá'í who left Iran about ten years ago.

Why?
Why must my grandparents have to suffer living apart from their children and grandchildren, b/c their grandchildren would not be allowed to attend university solely because of their Faith, when they (my grandparents) have spent their entire LIVES in service to their countrymen, to their land, and working to create a better life for their posterity? This is injustice, for me to have to hear my grandfather's tired voice over the phone, from thousands of miles away, telling me that old age is sweet, but only if you have your children, their spouses, and their children around you, and me knowing full well that, unless I want to give up my education and practically my future, there's nothing I can do to help. Thank you blind prejudice and utter ignorance for doing this to our lives.


This one is from a father writing about his child unable to go to school.

The Forgotten Child
(Translated by Gloria Yazdani)

A friend once told me that when she took her first child to school, her little one who was a bit younger than the other child (and most eager to go to school) looked angrily upon her and complained as to why she had not obtained the same sort of birth certificate for him as she had for his brother, so that he, too, could go to school…

Years have now passed since then, but our children still pine with the same eagerness to begin school and learn the alphabet and more with the tender affections of a loving teacher… When August comes around, the hustle and bustle of back-to-school begins also; and the kids along with their parents set out excitedly to buy books, pens and papers and other school supplies.

But for my child, the excitement of the back-to-school month is one filled with great fear, disappointment and grief. So I call out to you… To those of you who enjoy utmost liberty in your lands … those of you who have the freedom to register your child at any time, at any school, and to send him/her off to acquire knowledge of all that she/he desire… To those of you who sit back in your armchairs at day’s end and give ear to the news of the world … such news as is meant to inform you of patrol resources and of its price fluctuation in the world market … of the rise and fall of stock from this firm and that factory… or of rocket-science research and countries that have developed nuclear power…

I call out to you to listen to the cry of my child as he recounts his own excitement of the back-to-school season:

Is anyone out there on the face of this planet thinking of me … even a little? As the back-to-school season rolls around, my life begins its circle of an unexplainable fear about whether or not I can find a school that would enroll me… Would I be able to find a place that would allow me the opportunity to gain knowledge? I don’t seem to understand what difference there is between your child who was born on the other side of the globe and someone like me who was born in Iran! Are we not all – as children -- the future of the world? Then why is it that I have been deprived of my most basic rights while some of you are sitting quietly in other parts of the planet in comfort and raise not a cry against such a perverse calamity? Or do you not consider my plight to equal that of a calamity? The expulsion of a bomb or the firing of a bullet may take a life and release the physical body of its earthly attachments instantly… But my soul is broken every single day… No, every single hour in this corner of the world with the pain of this deprivation -- and yet the world does not seem to care!

I walk inside the school registry office with my hand in mother’s hand. The man looks upon the form which mother has filled out and shakes his head in disappointment… A discussion pursues between him and my mother on legality and the sort, of which I don’t understand anything…. And we are finally sent to see the school principle. I look upon my mothers face with expectant eyes and she drowns my heart in a sea of love with her affectionate gaze. But the principle -- who seems to have been already informed of the nature of our complaint -- does not even lift his face from off his papers and shaking his head in a sign of negation directs us -- with his finger pointed at the door -- to take our leave... And I realize that this school, too, like the one before does not allow a space for me…

From news clips on television and listening to my parent's conversations, I gather that there are countries in other parts of the world that give children great importance and in which governments actually support and protect tender souls…. I hear that those governments actually come up with ways and means of facilitating education for children from every walk of life, because they believe their children are their nation’s greatest assets for the future.

I cannot fathom why it is not so in my land!!! I am being tossed around from one school to the other; and -- even if one were to enroll me -- would I dare contemplate the manner in which I would be treated there? I hear the reason for this chaotic treatment of my enrolment is because my parents are Baha’is. I have heard of a word here and there which I am told is used to define a virtue… A virtue, of which some are possessed and some are not. .. The word is “fair-mindedness”… It seems that school principals in Iran are amongst those who are not possessed of this virtue. I am sure though that they receive their orders from higher up… I am also certain that most of you are fair-minded, and so I dare ask you: “Why don’t you raise your voices in my defense? Why don’t you speak out and say “that it is every human being’s right to gain an education and that no-one should remain illiterate in today’s world”? Why do you busy your minds only with such issues as nuclear energy? Why do you show interest only in such news as those pertaining to wars and homicide? Why have you all forgotten me? Why don’t the powerful men of this world stand up for a defenseless child like me? Why do most people define nobility only in involvement in matters of an astronomical proportion? What would you do if your own child was afflicted with such atrocity? Would you not expect others to stand up for you and for your children? Why then -- I ask again -- have you forgotten me?”

These are questions that are burning away in the hearts of many Baha’i children, pre-youth and youth in Iran who are afflicted every year at this time with the fear and dilemma of deprivation from education while everyone else is enjoying the excitement of the “back-to-school” season… Is anyone out there who would give ear to this call? Can anyone hear the cries of my child?


Here are the voices. Be the amplifier which blasts it across the world.

Update on the Bahá'í Trial

Since Saturday, news has come through that the Seven Bahá'í leaders are still being held prisoner and their trial has been delayed until further notice.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/14/iran.bahai.trial/index.html

http://news.bahai.org/story/723

Why would the Iranian government delay the trial? Do they fear greater uproar-internationally and locally? Did they actually try and execute the Bahá'ís in secret? Do they, God forbid, simply wish to keep them in prison for life?

Let the world know!


“Had you believed in Me, O wayward generation, every one of you would have followed the example of this youth [Anis-the young man martyred along side the Báb], who stood in rank above most of you, and willingly would have sacrificed himself in My path. The day will come when you will have recognised Me; that day I shall have ceased to be with you.”
-Last Words of the Báb

So much can be taken out of this quote. Does the final part "that day I shall have ceased to be with you" mean His literal death? Or does it perhaps refer to the coming of Bahá'u'lláh and He being the One who they shall recognize? Any thoughts?

The Bahá'í Situation: A Brief Summary

Today we will not give a quote. Today, a more serious issue is at hand. Today, we will cover the persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran. More specifically, the seven Bahá'í leaders to be put on trial tomorrow after over a year in prison and without access to their lawyer.

You look around the world and pick any nation with a minority throughout history. This minority, somehow or another, is discriminated against. Even in the United States today, it is near impossible for people who are not of the Protestant sect of Christianity to achieve the presidency. Those who are of any other system of belief are usually shunned aside. In Iran, the news propagates President Ahmadinejad's, and every other (I believe) past president's, dislike of Israel and at times the discrimination of the Jews in Iran. However, there is a discrimination which is at the point of persecution which has been occurring in Iran since 1844.

From the inception of the Bahá'í Faith in Iran (1844 AD), its members have been persecuted, removed from their occupations, sent to prison, separated from their families, exiled, humiliated and even murdered. Lord Curzon writes,

“Before I quit the subject of the Persian law and its administration, let me add a few words upon the subject of penalties and prisons. Nothing is more shocking to the European reader, in pursuing his way through the crime-stained and bloody pages of Persian history during the last and, in a happily less degree, during the present century, than the record of savage punishments and abominable tortures, testifying alternately to the callousness of the brute and the ingenuity of the fiend. The Persian character has ever been fertile in device and indifferent to suffering; and in the field of judicial executions it has found ample scope for the exercise of both attainments. Up till quite a recent period, well within the borders of the present reign, condemned criminals have been crucified, blown from guns, buried alive, impaled, shod like horses, torn asunder by being bound to the heads of two trees bent together and then allowed to spring back to their natural position, converted into human torches, flayed while living."-circa 1900 (Introduction of The Dawn Breakers)

These persecutions were not saved only for the early Bahá'ís, but for everybody. However, to a greater extent, the Bahá'ís faced the barrel end of this persecution.

Let me write a brief history of the Bahá'í Faith and perhaps this will help us all understand the current situation. In 1844, the Báb (meaning the Gate) declared that He was a Manifestation of God heralding the coming of a new day. The Báb spoke of a person to come after Himself which He called, "Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest." He may be likened to John the Baptist who spoke of the coming Messiah, Jesus the Christ. The Báb's teachings spread throughout Persia like a wildfire and immediately the Persian officials became alarmed. Since this nation was (and still is) an Islamic state (specifically that of the Shiah sect), the Islamic leaders-the Mullahs and Ulamas-began denouncing the Báb and persecuting His believers. In the beginning, such persecution was on the more mild state. Two of the Báb's believers who began teaching the Faith were arrested and the governor of the province of Fárs, "...reviled and cursed him [one of the two believers], ordered his attendants to strip him of his garments and to scourge him with a thousand lashes. He then commanded that the beards of both Quddús and Mullá Ṣádiq should be burned, their noses be pierced, that through this incision a cord should be passed, and with this halter they should be led through the streets of the city. 'It will be an object lesson to the people of Shíráz,' Ḥusayn Khán declared, 'who will know what the penalty of heresy will be.'" (The Dawn Breakers)

At this point, one must be in a confused state. How can this be a more mild punishment? As the Bábi Faith grew, more and more people began to follow the Faith and awaiting the coming of Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest. The Islamic clergy felt nothing but fear could turn people away from the Báb. They had the Shah exile the Báb to the most remote parts of the country. At the height of the persecution, the Persian army was sent against a band of Bábis making their way through a town. For a five month period of time, the army clashed against this band who protected themselves in a fort. Every one of them was killed or imprisoned. In 1850, the Báb Himself was hung in the barracks square in Tabriz and a contingent of 750 soldiers took His life.

This however did not stop the movement. Bahá'u'lláh, a follower of the Báb, was released from prison in 1853 and exiled to Baghdad with His family and some of the other Bábis. Many people began to realize Bahá'u'lláh was a very special person due to His kindness and magnetic personality. In 1863, when He was about to be exiled again to Constantinople (again, the Islamic clergy began to see a gain in popularity in This Figure and were afraid He would take away from their power), Bahá'u'lláh declared He was Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest. The Bábis began then to referring themselves as Bahá'ís. From here Bahá'u'lláh was exiled to Adrianople and finally to Akka, the prison city, the penal colony, where the worst prisoners-thieves, murderers, highway men, were sent. In each city, Bahá'u'lláh gained such a following that the leaders did not feel comfortable with having Him nearby. He died as a prisoner in 1892.

Returning to Iran. The persecution of the Bahá'ís never stopped. Due to humanitarian voicing however, it has declined to an extent. However, after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, this all changed. Bahá'ís began to be openly persecuted and killed. After the hanging of seven Bahá'í women began publicized (years after their deaths), public outcry increased to the extent that the persecution went underground.

In a document called the Closed Doors Document, the Iranian government planned the expulsion of all Baháís from education (in Iran and worldwide if possible). Here is a transcript of that very letter http://denial.bahai.org/002_1.php

Finally, the present. Now. Today. Within the next twentyfour hours, a group of Seven Bahá'ís are being put on trial. Their charge? Spying for Israel, spreading corruption on Earth and many others. Here is an article one may peruse giving more information on these Seven Bahá'í leaders.
http://news.bahai.org/story/719

Let me now refute the two above charges. After looking through the history, we know that the Bahá'ís were in Israel while it was still an Ottoman Province and then Palestine. The fact that they have their administrative body and Holy Places in Israel does not mean they spy for Israel. They were simply exiled there by the body who now accuses them of espionage.

Now corruption on Earth... This is a ridiculous charge. The Bahá'í Faith seeks to unite the world and eliminate all forms of prejudice. It believes that all of humanity is a family, that we are all brothers and sisters. How can this be corruption? If corruption is bringing people together, then their view of a perfect society is one of disunity and chaos.

In the past few months, we have seen journalists and other people taken into custody and put on trial in the most ludicrous of methods in Iran. The same may be expected for these seven Bahá'í leaders. All we can do at this point is pray.