“مردم باید به همدیگر کمک کنند”

“People should help each other.”
Farhad Sabetan

The arrest of Mr. “Abdullah Al-Ulfi”, the spokesperson for the Baha’i community in Yemen, and 20 other Baha’i citizens in Yemen, is a reminder of the bitter events that have been repeated in Iran since the beginning of the revolution until now, and continue to this day. Iranian Baha’i citizens have either experienced or witnessed these events. One of the latest examples of the wave of arrests of Baha’is (especially Baha’i youth), according to HRANA, is the arrest and detention of Baha’i youth in Shiraz. According to this report, the authorities arrested Mr. “Navid Bazmandegan” while he was teaching a psychology class. It is reported that they also took their IDs, computer cases, flash drives, cell phones, passwords, and emails of other individuals. Finally, they took Mr. Bazmandegan to his home and after searching his house and confiscating personal belongings, they also arrested “Bahare

Arrest and detention are just one example of suppressing a peaceful and non-violent society. Baha’i citizens are under pressure and official harassment from various directions, and in difficult circumstances, they endure these hardships and difficulties.

In the last episode of Voice of America program, dated October 12, 2018, in an interview with Mr. Rasoul Badaghi, the inspector of the Iranian Teachers’ Union, he mentioned that after six years of imprisonment and pressure, which could not change his beliefs and behaviors, he was told that if he did not stop his activities, his salary would be cut off. In this interview, Rasoul Badaghi explained that the issue of cutting off his salary was so difficult for him that he lost five kilograms in a week and had a lot of worries about how he could provide for his family if his salary was cut off. It seemed that for this educated man, enduring torture and imprisonment was easier than losing his salary and income and not being able to meet his family’s needs. But this was one of the first and least pressures that have been imposed on the opposition in the past forty years and it is still ongoing.

The pressures that the government imposes on the Baha’is have also added to their economic problems – which have become widespread in Iran and put everyone under pressure – and have faced them with multiple limitations. In recent years, the unprecedented closure of Baha’i shops has also deprived them of one of the only remaining ways to make a living. Baha’is, who were expelled from all government jobs at the beginning of the revolution, had their retirement benefits cut off and were even told in many cases to return the salaries they received during their employment. After a while, they were also deprived of the right to higher education and entering the free market and buying and selling ordinary goods. They are not issued business licenses in many trades because they are considered “unclean” and it is feared that their Muslim compatriots may touch their “unclean” products and become unclean themselves! Documents related to all of these oppressions are available on the website of the Baha’i persecution house in Iran

“But the sealing of the Baha’i shops also blocked their last economic opportunity; simply because they closed their shops for a few days each year to respect their religious rituals. Imagine telling Muslim shop owners in a non-Islamic country that if they close their shops during the month of Muharram, the government will permanently seal their shops. Will the Muslims of that country tolerate this kind of economic pressure?”

The official documents of the Islamic Republic of Iran confirm this policy. For example, in a document dated 2 June 2018, the governor of Sari county, under the chairmanship of the Chamber of Commerce of Sari city, announces that: “It has been decided that the respected General Directorate of Industry, Mines and Trade should inquire [in an illegible manner] from the General Directorate of Guilds before issuing any trade license for applicants of the misguided Baha’i sect. After reviewing the response, take action.”

The purity and discrimination against Baha’is does not end here. Even the dead Baha’is are not shown mercy. In the past few months, incidents have occurred, such as in Kerman, where officials did not allow the burial of a deceased Baha’i in a cemetery that they themselves had given to the Baha’is. On one hand, the hospital pressures to take the body, on the other hand, officials do not give the family a place to bury it.

In many parts of Iran, including the village of Ivol or the Yezd cemetery, even the buried dead are not respected; they attack cemeteries and destroy tombstones.

For over three decades, Baha’i students – many of whom rank highly in the university entrance exams – have been deprived of the right to continue their education in Iran. This ongoing deprivation has been clearly communicated to Baha’i students. This year, at least 60 Baha’i students have been deprived of higher education under the pretext of “incomplete files”. What does “incomplete files” mean? It means that they are Baha’i and do not declare their religion as “Muslim” on university forms, and they do not lie in their files by admitting to this fact. This fact is considered a “deficiency” by the government, which deprives them of one of the most basic human rights. It seems that officials prefer citizens to resort to lies rather than have the right to education. Since the revolution, thousands of Baha’i students have been deprived of entering university and continuing their education. This is while one of the wishes of Baha’i citizens is to serve Iran

Discrimination against Baha’i citizens – and generally other minorities – has turned Iran into a kind of internal and external apartheid, as shown in the film “The Cost of Prejudice”. The result of these conflicts has not only affected the Baha’is, but has also brought nothing but alienation, pessimism, distrust, insecurity, and division among Iranian citizens.

The plan of these brief examples of forty years of persecution and harassment of Bahá’ís in Iran, which carries a burden of grudges, abuses, and tortures from the past one hundred and seventy years, is a manifestation of a phenomenon: the prevalence of a culture of impurity and otherness, which has been imposed on followers of other religions and, most severely, on Bahá’ís. Perhaps addressing these examples will serve as a wake-up call to our minds, how long and to what extent this culture of impurity and otherness will continue? How far can we guide Iranians, who have been a refuge for minorities such as Jews, towards peace and unity, beyond ethnic, religious, and gender differences?

Can a culture that begins with “hello” not create a society where people live alongside each other, transcending differences and embracing a culture of unity, and create a new culture rooted in the word “human,” which means empathy and companionship with one another?

The similarity of the detention of Baha’is in Iran and Yemen shows that the persecution against Baha’is not only continues in Iran, but has also spread to neighboring countries. Baha’is are arrested and imprisoned both in the marketplace and while teaching, and face many restrictions and pressures. Meanwhile, guaranteeing their citizenship rights can lead to a society where violence turns into understanding, competition into collaboration, enmity and alienation into love and peace, and ultimately “hello” into peace.

Notes:

1. Increase in the number of Baha’i citizens arrested in Shiraz, HRANA news agency, October 7, 2018.

2. “Prohibition of Burying a Baha’i Citizen in Kerman, Hrana News Agency, 5 Shahrivar 1397”