BERLIN - Two new studies have disclosed state-sponsored violence directed at the
Bahai religious minority in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ahmed Shaheed,
UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, announced the findings of his
report last week in Geneva. According to his report titled “On the situation of
human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Shaheed found “that 110 Bahais
are currently detained in Iran for exercising their faith, including two women,
Mrs. Zohreh Nikayin (Tebyanian) and Mrs. Taraneh Torabi (Ehsani), who are
reportedly nursing infants in prison. It was further estimated that 133 Bahais
are currently awaiting summonses to serve their sentences, and that another 268
Bahais are reportedly awaiting trial.”
The UN report noted “members of
the Bahai community are reported to continue to be systematically deprived of a
range of social and economic rights, including access to higher education.
Informed sources have reported that authorities from three different
universities expelled five Bahai students in November 2012.”
In a second
March report issued by the Bahai International Community titled “Violence with
Impunity: Acts of aggression against Iran’s Bahai community,” persecution
between 2005 and 2012 was analyzed. According to the study, “this persecution
has intensified in recent years. Since 2005, more than 660 Bahais have been
arrested, and, by the end of 2012, at least 115 Bahais were languishing in
prison The increase in arrests has been accompanied by a rising tide of violence
against Bahais, marked by incidents that include arson attacks, anti-Bahai
graffiti, hate speech, the desecration of Bahai cemeteries, and assaults on
schoolchildren.”
A leading international expert on the Bahai community in
Iran, Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, told The Jerusalem Post that the in-depth BIC
study is “excellent.” Wahdat-Hagh, a senior fellow with the European Foundation
for Democracy in Brussels, examined the 45-page BIC report for a series of
articles in a German newspaper. Since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in
1979, successive Islamic administrations have cracked down on the Bahai, Iran’s
largest non-Muslim faith, a peaceful religious community founded by Bahá'u'lláh
in Iran in 1863.
The Bahai religion accepts and recognizes the right and
universality of all religions. There are an estimated 350,OOO Bahai in
Iran.
The BIC depicts a systematic form of repression against Bahais in
all walks of life in Iran.
The report states, “In 2007, a 16-year-old
Bahai high-school student in a suburb of Tehran found herself subject to
repeated harassment by a group of religious fanatics who had apparently been
monitoring her movements. During November and December 2007, these anonymous
individuals threatened to kill her, made harassing phone calls, and then one day
forced her into a car and assaulted her, breaking her glasses, before she
managed to escape.”
The report continued, “In October-November 2010, more
than a dozen Bahai-owned properties were the target of arson attacks in the city
of Rafsanjan.”
The role of Iran’s regime in state-sanctioned violence and
judicial indifference was noted in the BIC report. “Yet many if not most of
these attacks bear the imprint of direct involvement by government agents, or,
at least, official sanction or encouragement. And even if some are the work of
ordinary citizens acting simply out of religious intolerance, there can be
little doubt that their passions were inflamed by official anti-Bahai
propaganda, and that they feel free to act because they have no fear of
prosecution or punishment,” wrote the authors.
The BIC study urged the
international community to ramp up the pressure on Iran’s regime. “History has
shown that the only real protection for Iranian Bahais comes from continued
international outcry and action. The last three decades have proved that Iranian
authorities are indeed cognizant of international opinion and that pressure to
meet their obligations under international human rights law can have an effect.”
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