The seven Bahá’ís who had served on an ad hoc group (“Friends in Iran”) that coordinated the spiritual and community affairs of the 300,000 Bahá’ís of Iran were arrested in March and May of 2008. Twelve months later they remain in Evin prison, having been subjected to intense interrogation, having had no access to legal counsel and having had very restricted visits from family.
In February 2009, Iranian authorities announced that they had completed their investigation of the “Friends in Iran”. They were to be charged with “espionage on behalf of Israel”, “insult to the sacredness [of Islam]”, and “propaganda against the regime” and their case was being referred to the Revolutionary Court the following week for an indictment. An international outcry over the blatant falsity of the charges ensued and the authorities changed the investigating magistrate.
New Charge
Some twelve weeks after the investigation had reportedly been concluded, the families of the Friends were informed that a new charge would be brought against them: “spreading corruption on earth” (“Mofsede-fel-Arz”).
As statements made by judicial officials have thus far proved generally unreliable, this recent charge may well prove to be nothing more than yet another tactic aimed at terrorizing the families of the “Friends in Iran”. Nonetheless, the crime of ‘spreading corruption on earth’ is regarded as extremely serious within Islamic law and, as it is set out in Iran’s penal code, is cast in such vague terms as to place anyone accused of committing it in an extremely vulnerable position. Depending upon the severity of the perpetrator’s actions in the view of the court, punishment can range from execution to
imprisonment, exile, or amputation of a leg or hand.
Efforts to Eliminate the Bahá’í Community as a Viable Entity Intensify
In late February, Iranian authorities declared the ad hoc arrangements made to tend to the spiritual needs and coordinate the activities of the Bahá’í community in Iran illegal. Instead of releasing the Friends – who as loyal and law-abiding citizens immediately expressed their willingness to bring to a close their collective functioning – and ameliorating the situation of the Bahá’ís in general, the authorities have done the opposite.
Following the announcement by the Bahá’ís of Iran that the local and national ad hoc coordinating groups – which were now deemed illegal – would cease to function at the national and local level, Iranian authorities began what appears to be a concerted effort to bring a halt to any Bahá’í activity that extends beyond private, individual acts of faith.
Since the beginning of March, some 35 believers in 11 different localities, who had formerly served as members of the coordinating groups at the local level as well as others who have been active in the life of the Bahá’í community, have been summoned to the local offices of the Ministry of Intelligence, interrogated, and then pressured to sign an undertaking that they will not engage in any Bahá’í activity whatsoever with others. All have declined to sign this undertaking.
Summary arrests, too, are on the rise. In the first four months of this year, there have already been 38 arrests, which is more than half the highest number of Bahá’ís arrested in any of the years since 2005 (2005 – 68; 2006 – 65; 2007 – 14; 2008 – 60).
The tactics employed in the persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran show signs of a strengthened determination on the part of the Iranian authorities to carry out their intention to eradicate the Baha’i community as a viable entity in Iran. These include covert efforts to identify and monitor the believers throughout the country; demonization of the Bahá’í Faith and its adherents from the nation’s pulpits; a systematic, long-running campaign of incitement to hatred through state-controlled mass media; gross misrepresentation of the Faith’s history and teachings in school text books; systematic efforts to impoverish the Bahá’ís through denial of access to higher education and to earning a livelihood; systematic exclusion of Bahá’ís from employment in the civil service, educational institutions, the legal profession, and the debarring of Bahá’ís from employment in just over two dozen types of business on the grounds that they are either “unclean” or pose a security risk; systematic efforts to drive all the Bahá’ís out of certain villages and rural areas; and persistent official denial that the Bahá’í Faith is a religion.
Sustained pressure on Iran to respect its international human rights obligation is urgently required.
For further information or updates on the situation of the Bahá’ís of Iran please contact
Susanne Tamás, Director
Office of Governmental Relations
Bahá’í Community of Canada
613 233 37121
613 266 8677 Cell
bccottaw@ican.net
