Bahá’í World/Volume 32/Bahá’ís in Iran, Current Situation
Bahá’ís in Iran[edit]
CURRENT SITUATION[edit]
The Bahá’í International Community’s written statement to the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, held in Geneva from 15 March to 23 April 2004.
In the following statement, the Bahá’í International Community would like to present the most recent evidence1 that Bahá’ís in many different localities in Iran continue to be subjected to persecution, including arbitrary arrest and short-term detention, and that patterns of harassment, intimidation, and discrimination against them persist. Officials still confiscate their homes, deny their rightfully earned pensions, benefits, and inheritance, deny them access to employment, and block their private business activities, interfere with classes that they give to their own children in private homes, and ban the institutions that perform, for Bahá’ís, most of the functions reserved to clergy in other religions.
International bodies have again recognized these facts in 2003, e.g.:
- In December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution expressing “serious concern” over continuing violations of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran and specifically mentioning the Bahá’ís.
- In August, Iran presented its report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In its Concluding
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Observations, CERD noted with concern “the reported discrimination faced by certain minorities, including the Bahá’ís, who are deprived of certain rights,” and specifically recommended that Iran “permit students of different origins to register in universities without being compelled to identify their religion.”
- The International Labour Organization (ILO) referred to the ongoing discrimination at its Conference in June, and the ILO Global Report 2003 stated that in Iran: “the situation of members of the Bahá’í faith, an unrecognized religious minority, continues to be a source of concern. The barriers that these people face in access to higher education and to employment in public institutions are still high (para. 102).”
As a result of international pressure, the Iranian government has taken a small step towards lifting the restrictions on access to higher education for Bahá’í students. Recently, a question on the university entrance examination was modified such that it no longer requires all applicants to explicitly state their religious affiliation as one of the four recognized religions. It remains to be seen whether this measure will, in practice, allow Bahá’í students full access to universities in Iran.
Historical and Legal Context[edit]
Since 1979, Bahá’ís in Iran have been subjected to attack, harassment, and discrimination solely on account of their religious beliefs, and have repeatedly been offered relief from persecution if they were prepared to recant their Faith. The extent and systematic nature of the persecution—and the fact that it constitutes deliberate government policy—have been documented in reports issued by the UN Special Representatives.
As stated in previous years, the Bahá’í community poses no threat to the authorities in Iran. It is not aligned with any other government, ideology, or opposition movement. The principles of the Faith require Bahá’ís to be obedient to their government and to avoid partisan political involvement, subversive activity, and all forms of violence. Iranian Bahá’ís seek no special privileges but ask
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only for their rights under the international covenants to which their State is party.
Government initiatives promoting the rights of religious minorities in Iran do not apply to the Bahá’ís. The Iranian Constitution stipulates that Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians are the only recognized religious minorities; therefore some 300,000 Bahá’ís—the country’s largest religious minority—do not benefit from such initiatives. Classified as “unprotected infidels,” Bahá’ís have no legal recourse.
Executions, Death Sentences, and Imprisonment[edit]
Since 1979, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been killed, and 15 others have disappeared and are presumed dead. The last Bahá’í executed was hanged on 21 July 1998. During the past few years, all the Bahá’ís sentenced to death have either been released or had their sentences reduced. As of February 2004, three Bahá’ís were still being detained solely because of their religious beliefs.
The Iranian authorities now use arrest, interrogation, and short-term imprisonment to harass and intimidate Bahá’ís. In 2003, we received information concerning 23 Bahá’í residents of 18 different localities who were arbitrarily arrested and detained during that year. Subjected to indignity and humiliation while being questioned about their beliefs, they were all eventually released.
Denial of the Right to Organize as a Peaceful Religious Community[edit]
Since 1983, the Iranian Bahá’í community has been denied the right to assemble officially and to maintain its democratically elected sacred institutions, which perform many of the functions reserved to clergy in other religions and are the foundational element of Bahá’í community life.
Iranian Bahá’ís worship in small groups, conduct classes for children, and take care of other community needs in private homes. Still, the authorities harass them, arresting teachers, disrupting meetings, and giving participants suspended sentences to be carried out should they again commit the “crime” of attending such activities.
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Denial of Access to Education[edit]
An entire generation of Bahá’ís has been barred from higher education in legally recognized institutions in Iran. They established their own program in 1987, but intelligence officers raided the Bahá’í Institute of Higher Education (BIHE) in 1998, arresting faculty members and confiscating textbooks, papers, records, computers, and furniture. In 2001 and 2002, officials also interfered with instruction being given to Bahá’í youth. Then, in July 2002, authorities disrupted BIHE qualification examinations in eight different locations, videotaping proceedings, interviewing students, confiscating papers and books. International pressure has finally resulted in one positive measure, as the government recently announced that applicants would no longer be required to state their religious affiliation on the official registration form for national university entrance examinations. However, it remains to be seen whether this provision will, in practice, allow Bahá’í students full access to higher education in Iran.
Confiscation and Destruction of Property[edit]
Bahá’í cemeteries, holy places, historical sites, administrative centers, and other assets were seized after the 1979 revolution. No community properties have been returned; many have been destroyed. Seizure of cemeteries has been particularly difficult for Bahá’ís, who are only given areas of wasteland for this purpose and are not allowed to mark the graves of their loved ones.
The property rights of individual Bahá’ís are also disregarded: officials have arbitrarily confiscated many private and business properties, homes, and farms. Evidence of recent judgements proves that the properties were confiscated because the owners were Bahá’ís. One document states:
In principle, the foundation for the Ministry of Intelligence taking legal and serious action against the cultural activities of the misguided sect of Bahá’ísm has been on the order of His Excellency the Supreme Leader... the action taken by Court 49 regarding the seizure and confiscation of the properties
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belonging to the misguided sect of Bahá’ísm is legally and religiously justifiable.
Denial of Employment, Pensions, and Other Benefits[edit]
In the 1980s, over 10,000 Bahá’ís were dismissed from positions in government and educational institutions; many remain unemployed and receive no benefits. Many Bahá’ís have had their pensions terminated or denied. Evidence in four of the most recent cases (2001–02) where Bahá’ís were denied access to their own, rightfully earned pensions, explicitly states: “payment of pension to those individuals connected with the Bahá’í sect is illegal.”
When Bahá’ís find employment in the private sector, officials try to force companies to fire them, and when they start a private business, authorities attempt to block these activities. For example, in the two most recent cases:
- in Tehran, a court verdict (dated 29 September 2003) rejected an appeal by a Bahá’í against an injunction requiring him to cease his business operations, and rejected his petition for a business license, citing information it had received “about the plaintiff’s being associated with the perverse Bahá’í sect”;
- in Isfahan last year an administrative injunction, issued to impede a Bahá’í-owned company from doing business, stated that “the link between the company . . . and the perverse Bahá’í sect is established to be true; therefore it is advisable to adopt measures to prevent any collaboration with the . . . company.”
Denial of Civil Rights and Liberties[edit]
Although it is now easier for Bahá’í couples to be registered as husband and wife and to register their children, Bahá’í marriage and divorce are not legally recognized in Iran, and Bahá’ís are denied the right to inherit. A court judgement in June 2002 dispossessed a Bahá’í from inheritance, stating:
Since the religious minorities, according to the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, are only Christian, Jewish, and
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Zoroastrian, and Baha’ism is a misguided sect and is not recognized as a religion or as a religious minority, the issue of the probate of the will as the sole beneficiary of the deceased is not religiously allowed, and is against the law.
Official Incitement of Hatred and Suspicion[edit]
The Bahá’í International Community recently expressed concern about articles published in August 2003 in Jam-e-Jam, a newspaper funded by the government of Iran and distributed nationwide (with a circulation of half a million copies and a presence on the Internet). The content of these articles was defamatory and designed to misinform the Iranian public about the Bahá’í Faith. This incident is important because it belies statements made by Iranian officials to their counterparts in other countries, claiming that the government could do more to uphold the rights of Bahá’ís, if only the Iranian people did not have such an age-old animosity against them. Here was direct evidence that the government incited hatred and suspicion, vilifying the Bahá’ís as enemies of Islam and the Islamic Republic in one of its officially controlled newspapers. The authorities were thus generating the atmosphere that they then used as an excuse for inaction.
Factions struggling for political ascendancy in Iran have repeatedly used the Bahá’í community as a scapegoat, based on hostility and prejudice generated by ecclesiastical propaganda. For over 150 years, in every medium of public information—pulpit, press, radio, television, even scholarly publication—an image of the Bahá’ís and their beliefs has been created that is grossly false, generating public hatred and contempt. At no point have the victims of these attacks been given an opportunity to defend themselves and communicate the facts.
Nevertheless, all attempts to destroy the community have failed. The Iranian Bahá’ís have steadfastly refused to compromise their faith despite the worst abuses that their tormentors could inflict upon them. These abuses have become an established issue in the ongoing indictment by the international community—the United Nations, intergovernmental bodies, and civil society—of the Government
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of Iran for its violation of universally accepted standards in human rights.
The Iranian Bahá’ís love their homeland, despite the suffering that they have endured under successive regimes. They only ask to benefit from the rights accorded to all Iranian citizens, and they look forward to the day when they may be accepted as a respected and valuable part of the Iranian people.
NOTES[edit]
¹ The documentation has been submitted to the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and can also be obtained from the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations office.