MUHJ63-86/253/Ominous Increase in Pressures on Iranian Bahá’ís

Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986
Ominous Increase in Pressures on Iranian Bahá’ís

30 June 1980

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

253.1 PRESSURES ON BELEAGUERED FRIENDS OMINOUSLY INCREASING. IN ISSUE LE MONDE NO. 11009 TUESDAY 24 JUNE IN ARTICLE ABOUT IRAN BEGINNING FRONT PAGE ENDING SIXTH PAGE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS MADE “. . . LE VÉNÉRABLE AYATOLLAH (SADOUGHI) A INVITÉ FOULE DES FIDÈLES À ‘CHASSER LES BAHAÏS QUE VOUS CONNAISSEZ DE TOUTES LES ADMINISTRATIONS ET DE LES LIVRER AU PARQUET RÉVOLUTIONNAIRE.’ LA PEUR S’EST EMPARÉE DE LA COMMUNAUTÉ BAHAÏ (ENVIRON CINQUANTE MILLE PERSONNES) ET POUR CAUSE, LES PROPOS DE L’AYATOLLAH SADOUGHI ONT ÉTÉ REPRODUITS DANS LE QUOTIDIEN INGUILAB ISLAMI (ORGANE DU PRÉSIDENT BANI-SADR) LEUR DONNANT AINSI UNE DANGEREUSE PUBLICITÉ. UNE VAGUE D’ARRESTATIONS DE BAHAÏS A COMMENCÉ A DÉFERLER DANS DEUX VILLES: À YAZD ET À CHIRAZ.

253.2 “DIMANCHE 22 JUIN, ETELAAT PUBLIE UN COMMUNIQUÉ DE L’ASSOCLATION ISLAMIQUE DES FONCTIONNAIRES DE L’ETAT EXIGEANT ENTRE AUTRES LE RENVOI DE TOUS LES EMPLOYÉS DES CONFESSIONS BAHAÏES EN LEUR INTERDISANT DÉSORMAIS D’EXERCER TOUTES ACTIVITÉS RÉMUNÉRÉES.”^[1]

253.3 [Page 453]SUCH PRONOUNCEMENTS AND COMMUNIQUES CAN BUT PROVOKE EASILY EXCITABLE PASSIONS LEAD TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES FATE INDIVIDUAL BAHÁ’ÍS INFLICT UPON MEMBERS OPPRESSED COMMUNITY UNTOLD SUFFERINGS PARTICULARLY ON OCCASION HOLY DAY CURRENT MONTH SHA‘BÁN AND MONTH RAMAḌÁN ENDING MID-AUGUST. . . .^[2]

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

Notes[edit]

↑ The English translation of the quotation from Le Monde is as follows: “. . . the venerable Ayatollah [Sadoughi] invited the mass of the faithful to ‘hunt out the Bahá’ís throughout the public services and deliver them to the revolutionary prosecution department.’ Fear has gripped the Bahá’í community (about fifty thousand persons), and with good cause. The remarks of the Ayatollah Sadoughi have been reproduced in the daily paper Inguilab Islami (organ of President Bani-Sadr), thus giving them dangerous publicity. A wave of arrests of Bahá’ís has broken out in two cities: Yazd and Shiraz. “Sunday, 22 June, Etelaat publishes a communique of the Islamic Association of Civil Servants requiring, among other things, the dismissal of all employees who are of the Bahá’í religion, prohibiting them henceforth from practicing any remunerated activity.”
↑ The fifteenth day of the month of Sha‘bán is believed to be the birthday of the Twelfth and Hidden Imám, who, according to, the teachings of Shí‘ah Islam, was the last in the series of successors to the Prophet Muḥammad. There are two holy days during Ramaḍán, the Muslim month of fasting-the nineteenth, which commemorates the day the Imám Ḥusayn was wounded on the battlefield of Karbilá, and the twenty-first, which commemorates his death.

[1] The English translation of the quotation from Le Monde is as follows: “. . . the venerable Ayatollah [Sadoughi] invited the mass of the faithful to ‘hunt out the Bahá’ís throughout the public services and deliver them to the revolutionary prosecution department.’ Fear has gripped the Bahá’í community (about fifty thousand persons), and with good cause. The remarks of the Ayatollah Sadoughi have been reproduced in the daily paper Inguilab Islami (organ of President Bani-Sadr), thus giving them dangerous publicity. A wave of arrests of Bahá’ís has broken out in two cities: Yazd and Shiraz. “Sunday, 22 June, Etelaat publishes a communique of the Islamic Association of Civil Servants requiring, among other things, the dismissal of all employees who are of the Bahá’í religion, prohibiting them henceforth from practicing any remunerated activity.”

[2] The fifteenth day of the month of Sha‘bán is believed to be the birthday of the Twelfth and Hidden Imám, who, according to, the teachings of Shí‘ah Islam, was the last in the series of successors to the Prophet Muḥammad. There are two holy days during Ramaḍán, the Muslim month of fasting-the nineteenth, which commemorates the day the Imám Ḥusayn was wounded on the battlefield of Karbilá, and the twenty-first, which commemorates his death.

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