Yesterday's lovefest with Rainn Wilson and Oprah Winfrey still has me feeling high. The inspiration and spiritual resonance that infused that interview are especially poignant as I reflect on new information regarding the injustices facing Bahá’ís in Iran
For those who may be unaware, in May of 2008, six Bahá’í administrative leaders were arrested in Iran and taken to the Evin prison. A seventh individual had been arrested two months earlier. According to news services:
"The six men and women, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Bahá’ís in Iran, were in their homes Wednesday morning when government intelligence agents entered and spent up to five hours searching each home, before taking them away."
"The seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in early March in Mashhad after being summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence office there on an ostensibly trivial matter."
On the heels of news this past week about a 75-year-old Saudi woman who was sentenced to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, the news about the Bahá’ís in Iran seems rather expected or usual. However, in the context of the hundreds of Bahá’ís who were imprisoned and/or lost their lives during the 1980s, the arrests and upcoming trial are the latest actions of a systematic campaign to eradicate Bahá’ís from the land that birthed our Faith.
From the Bahá’í International Community's news service:
"On 21 August 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran were abducted and disappeared without a trace. It is certain that they were killed.
"The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran was reconstituted soon after that but was again ravaged by the execution of eight of its members on 27 December 1981.
"A number of members of local Bahá’í governing councils, known as local Spiritual Assemblies, were also arrested and executed in the early 1980s, before an international outcry forced the government to slow its execution of Bahá’ís. Since 1979, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been killed or executed in Iran, although none have been executed since 1998.
"In 1983, the government outlawed all formal Bahá’í administrative institutions and the Iranian Bahá’í community responded by disbanding its National Spiritual Assembly, which is an elected governing council, along with some 400 local level elected governing councils. Bahá'ís throughout Iran also suspended nearly all of their regular organizational activity.
"The informal national-level coordinating group, known as the Friends, was established with the knowledge of the government to help cope with the diverse needs of Iran’s 300,000-member Bahá’í community, which is the country’s largest religious minority."
The seven individuals are being charged with espionage and several other bogus crimes--all completely falsified. Read more here, and if you are interested, be sure to check out the supporting documents listed down the right side of the page as well as a thorough history of the systematic persecution of Iranian Bahá’ís.
As I have been keeping informed, several other articles help provide a fuller picture of what is happening. The most recent piece of correspondence is this letter written by the Bahá’í International Community and addressed to Iran's Prosecutor General. It is a powerful, beautifully written letter that I pray does not fall prey to blind eyes.
In the meantime, here is what you and I can do.
Senate Resolution 71, a concurrent resolution to House Resolution 175 regarding the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran, has now been introduced into the U.S. Senate by Senator Wyden of Oregon. The other original cosponsors are Senators Brownback, Menendez, Snowe, and Whitehouse.
You may write to your Senator regarding the critical situation in Iran and reference S. Res. 71 in your letter. Of course, if your Senator is already a cosponsor of the resolution, you may want to write and thank him or her for their support. You can track details regarding S. Res. 71 here.
You can also track if your Representative is a cosponsor of H. Res. 175 here, and you may want to write him or her as well.
We have a lot of work to do in this world.
