Letter From the Baha'i International Community, this is important

4 March 2009
Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi
Prosecutor General
Islamic Republic of Iran
Your Honor,
Your recent announcement regarding the administrative affairs of the Bahá’ís of Iran has
brought to the arena of public debate issues which not only affect the safety and livelihood of
the members of that community but also have profound implications for the future of every
citizen of that esteemed nation. The steps that have been taken to formulate the response of
the Iranian Bahá’í community to your announcement have surely been communicated to you.
The Yaran and the Khademin, the small groups that have been attending to the spiritual and
social needs of the several hundred thousand Bahá’ís of Iran, the former at the national level
and the latter at the local, have expressed their willingness to bring to a close their collective
functioning. This decision has been made for no other reason than to demonstrate yet again
the goodwill that the Bahá’ís have consistently shown to the government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran for the past thirty years.
The Universal House of Justice has assured us that the disruption in the functioning
of these groups need not be seen as a cause for concern. There is no doubt in the minds of
millions of Bahá’ís residing in virtually every country around the world—nor in the minds
of many others who are watching these events with impartiality and who are aware of the
historical development of the Faith—that the Bahá’ís in Iran will find ways of managing the
spiritual life of their community, as they have done for generations over the past one hundred
and sixty-five years of persecution. However, given the gravity of the accusations leveled
against the Yaran and the Khademin, we feel obliged, as the representatives at the United
Nations of one hundred and seventy-nine National Spiritual Assemblies encircling the globe,
to bring certain fundamental points to your attention in an open letter and request that you
examine them with the sense of fairness they deserve.
In reference to Article 20 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran pertaining
to the rights of its citizens, as well as Article 23 related to freedom of belief, you have stated:
“Adherence to a principle or belief is free [to anyone], but to openly express and proclaim it in
order to cause deviation in the thoughts of others, to manipulate, pretend, disseminate [ideas],
and otherwise attempt to deceive and confuse people will not be permissible.” Such a statement
tests credulity to an extreme. It is widely recognized that similar statements have been used by
BAHÁ’Í
INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY


United Nations Office
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Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi
4 March 2009
Page 2
repressive regimes throughout the centuries to justify the arbitrary suppression of conscience
and belief. The suggestion that it is possible to separate the convictions held by an individual
from their expression in words and action begins an entirely false line of reasoning. To see its
absurdity one need only ask oneself what it means to have faith if it is not consciously
manifested in one’s relationships with others. Qualifying the argument by implying that only
those expressions of belief which cause deviation in the thoughts of others are objectionable
may appear reasonable at a first glance. In reality, of course, it is a means of granting license to
those in authority to suppress whomsoever they wish, for it leaves open the possibility of
labeling any action or comment not to their liking as a cause of deviation in the thoughts of
others. In any event, the record of the Bahá’ís of Iran is clear in this respect. They have never
sought to cause such deviation, nor have they ever attempted to deceive and confuse people.
Since you have raised the issue of freedom of belief in the context of the articles pertaining to
the rights of Iranian citizens, knowing full well the Bahá’í record, we can only assume that you
have made curtailment in the functioning of the Yaran and the Khademin a condition for
according the Bahá’ís at least some of the rights which they have been denied for some thirty
years now.
The facts of the matter are, of course, well known to you:
· Following the Islamic revolution in 1979, the Bahá’ís of Iran, who had long been the
victims of periodic outbreaks of violence, the later rounds of which had been instigated
by the notorious SAVAK, were subjected to a fresh wave of persecution.
· In August 1980 all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of
Iran—a national council whose election and functioning are prescribed in the Bahá’í
teachings and which forms part of the Bahá’í administrative structure in all countries—
were abducted and disappeared without a trace. Undoubtedly they were executed.
· Members subsequently elected to this council, as well as scores of individuals with
influence in the Bahá’í community, including several members of Local Spiritual
Assemblies—councils operating at the local level—were executed by the government
in the years immediately after.
· In response to the announcement made by the Prosecutor General of Iran in 1983
calling for the dismantling of the Bahá’í administrative structure, the National Spiritual
Assembly of Iran dissolved itself and the rest of the administrative structure in the
country as a demonstration of goodwill towards the government.
· Subsequently, ad hoc arrangements were made to tend to the spiritual and social needs of
the 300,000 Bahá’ís in Iran through the formation of the Yaran at the national level and
the Khademin at the local level.
· For some twenty years, government agencies had regular contact with the Yaran and the
Khademin—some times friendly and other times in the form of unreasonably long and
aggressive interrogations—consulted with their members and were entirely aware of
their activities. The possibility of some degree of dialogue between the Bahá’ís and
government agencies seemed to be emerging.
· During that same period, however, a 1991 memorandum signed by Hujjatu’l Islam
Seyyed Mohammad Golpaygani, then Secretary of the Iranian Supreme Revolutionary
Cultural Council, came to light. It called for the “progress and development” of the
Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi
4 March 2009
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Bahá’ís in Iran to be “blocked” through a number of specific measures it advocated
and for a plan “to confront and destroy their cultural roots outside the country.”
· While the harassment and ill-treatment of Bahá’ís continued uninterrupted during this
period, they have been taken to new levels of intensity in recent years as certain elements
that have historically been bent on the destruction of the Bahá’í community have assumed
growing influence in the affairs of the country.
· The official campaign to malign the name of the Faith through the mass media—through
newspaper articles and Web sites, through radio and television programs and films—
escalated around 2005; it has proceeded unabated to this day. There can be little doubt
that systematic steps are being taken to implement the provisions set out in the 1991
memorandum.
· In March 2006 a confidential letter from the Iranian military headquarters, dated
29 October 2005, asking various intelligence agencies and police organizations, in
addition to the Revolutionary Guard, to identify and monitor Bahá’ís around the country,
came to the attention of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief,
raising great concern throughout the world for the safety of the Bahá’ís.
· For more than two decades young Bahá’ís were barred from entering university through
an application process that would require them to deny their faith. Though a modification
in the process, achieved through worldwide public pressure, enabled a few hundred to
register at the start of the 2006–2007 academic year, their hopes of pursuing higher
education were soon dashed. That same year the Ministry of Science, Research and
Technology issued a letter to eighty-one universities, instructing them to expel any
student known to be a Bahá’í.
· The abovementioned letter was followed by another in April 2007 from the Public
Intelligence and Security Force restricting the involvement of Bahá’ís, already barred
from employment in the public sector, in some twenty types of businesses. The
document reinforced ongoing efforts to strangle the economic life of the Bahá’í
community.
· In these past few years, the number of Bahá’ís arrested without cause has climbed; the
confiscation of Bahá’í personal property has grown; attacks on Bahá’í homes have
escalated; acts of arson against Bahá’í properties have proliferated; the desecration and
destruction of Bahá’í cemeteries have spread; the sealing of shops owned by Bahá’ís
has increased; refusals of bank loans and business licenses to Bahá’ís have multiplied;
harassment of landlords with Bahá’í tenants has intensified; threats against fellow citizens
who associate with Bahá’ís have mounted; and the vilification of Bahá’í children in their
classrooms by teachers has been on the rise. That such acts are being systematically
orchestrated city by city is unquestionable.
· Then last year the seven members of the Yaran were imprisoned, one of them in March
and the remaining six in May. For some time they were held in solitary confinement and
denied access to their families. Although eventually family members were allowed brief
visits under strict observation, the prisoners have yet to be given access to legal counsel.
The conditions of their incarceration have varied in degree of severity over the course of
the past several months, with the five male members confined at one time to a cell no
more than ten square meters in size, with no bed.
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· Finally, after some nine months of imprisonment, during which time not a shred of
evidence could be found linking the members of the Yaran to any wrongdoing, they were
accused of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the
Islamic Republic,” and it has been announced that their case will soon be submitted to
court with a request for indictment.
· This announcement was followed almost immediately by news reports which indicated
that you had written to the Minister of Intelligence stating that the existence of the Yaran
and the Khademin in Iran is illegal, while at the same time raising the question of the
constitutional right of Iranian citizens to freedom of belief. You then made an official
announcement to this effect.
*
Your Honor, the events of recent years and the nature of the accusations made raise
questions in the mind of every unbiased observer as to the intent behind the systematic
perpetration of injustice against the Bahá’ís of Iran. Even if there might have been some
misunderstandings about the motives of the Bahá’í community during the early turbulent days
of the revolution, how can such suspicions persist today? Can it be that any member of the
esteemed government of Iran truly believes the false accusations which have been perpetuated
about the Bahá’ís in that country? Are not the following facts well known to the authorities in
the various branches of the government?
· In whatever country they reside, Bahá’ís strive to promote the welfare of society. They
are enjoined to work alongside their compatriots in fostering fellowship and unity and in
establishing peace and justice. They seek to uphold their own rights, as well as the rights
of others, through whatever legal means are available to them, conducting themselves at
all times with honesty and integrity. They eschew conflict and dissension. They avoid
contest for worldly power.
· It is a fundamental principle of the Bahá’í Faith that its followers strictly refrain from
involvement in any partisan political activity, whether local, national or international.
Bahá’ís view government as a system for maintaining the welfare and orderly progress
of human society, and obedience to the laws of the land is a distinguishing feature of
their beliefs.
· To take any action in willful violation of allegiance to one’s own country is explicitly
proscribed in the Scriptures of the Bahá’í Faith. Adherence to this principle has been
amply demonstrated by Bahá’ís everywhere.
· The Bahá’í administrative structure, which is established in more than one hundred and
eighty countries worldwide, is a means for channeling the energies of Bahá’ís in service
to the common good and for organizing the religious and social affairs of the Bahá’í
community itself. For Bahá’ís, the concept does not imply in any way the existence of a
political agenda or any kind of interference in the affairs of the government.
· The international headquarters of the Bahá’í Faith is located within the borders of
modern-day Israel as a result of the successive banishments imposed on Bahá’u’lláh in
the mid-nineteenth century by the Persian and Ottoman governments. Exiled from His
native Persia, Bahá’u’lláh was sent to Baghdad, Constantinople and Adrianople and
finally to the fortress-city of Acre in 1868, eighty years prior to the establishment of the
Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi
4 March 2009
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State of Israel, where He eventually died in 1892. That Bahá’ís in all parts of the world
are today in contact with the international headquarters of their Faith regarding their
individual and collective affairs is entirely natural and is a well-established fact.
· Bahá’ís have the highest respect for all religions. Our Writings refer to Islam as “the
blessed and luminous religion of God” and the Prophet Muhammad as “the refulgent
lamp of supreme Prophethood,” “the Lord of creation” and “the Day-star of the world,”
Who, “through the will of God, shone forth from the horizon of Hijaz.” The station of
Imam Ali is described in terms such as “the moon of the heaven of knowledge and
understanding” and “the sovereign of the court of knowledge and wisdom.” In the Tablet
of Visitation revealed by Bahá’u’lláh Himself for Imam Husayn, He refers to him as “the
pride of the martyrs” and “the day-star of renunciation shining above the horizon of
creation.”
· Bahá’ís are exhorted to evince a high sense of moral rectitude in their activities, chastity
in their individual lives, and complete freedom from prejudice in their dealings with
people of every race, class and creed.
*
In light of these well-established facts, Your Honor, it is difficult to understand how
words such as “manipulative” and “deceitful,” “dangerous” and “threatening,” can be applied to
Bahá’í activity in Iran. Do you consider dangerous the efforts of a group of young people who,
out of a sense of obligation to their fellow citizens, work with youngsters from families of little
means to improve their mathematics and language skills and to develop their abilities to play a
constructive part in the progress of their nation? Is it a threat to society for Bahá’ís to discuss
with their neighbors noble and high-minded ideals, reinforcing the conviction that the
betterment of the world is to be achieved through pure and goodly deeds and through
commendable and seemly conduct? In what way is it manipulative for a couple to speak in the
privacy of their home with a few friends confused by the portrayal of Bahá’ís in the mass media
and to share with them the true nature of their beliefs, which revolve around such fundamental
verities as the oneness of God and the oneness of humankind? What duplicity is there if a child
at school, after listening to offensive language about the Founder of her Faith Whom she so
loves, politely raises her hand and requests permission to explain to her classmates some of the
teachings she follows? What deceit is there if a young person, committed to the acquisition of
knowledge and learning, seeks the right from the authorities to enter university without having
to lie about his faith? What harm is done if several families gather together periodically for
communal worship and for the discussion of matters of concern to them all? Given that the
human soul has no sex, is it so alarming for someone to express the view that men and women
are equal in the sight of God and should be able to work shoulder to shoulder in all fields of
human endeavor? And is it so unreasonable for a small group of people, in the absence of the
administrative structures prescribed in their teachings, to facilitate the marriage of young
couples, the education of children and the burial of the dead in conformity with the tenets of
their Faith?
These are but a few examples of the various endeavors for which the Bahá’ís of Iran are
being so grievously persecuted. It is the right to engage in such activity that has been denied
them for thirty years.
Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi
4 March 2009
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Your Honor, many times over these twenty years the Yaran and the Khademin have been
told by government officials that they are in fact protecting the Bahá’í community from those
who regard its members as a negative element in society. It is true that there may be a small
fraction in any populace who, succumbing to the forces of hatred and enmity, can be incited to
perform acts of cruelty and oppression. But, in the main, our vision of the Iranian people does
not correspond with the one projected by such officials. Narrow-mindedness and pettiness are
not the qualities that we attribute to them. Rather do we see the staunch commitment to justice
evinced by the citizens of one town who petitioned the government when several shops owned
by Bahá’ís were closed without reason. We see the fidelity shown by the young musicians who
refused to perform when their Bahá’í counterparts were prohibited from playing in a recital.
We see the courage and tenacity of university students who stood ready to prepare a petition
and to forgo participation in examinations that their Bahá’í classmates were barred from taking.
We see the compassion and generosity of spirit exhibited by the neighbors of one family, whose
home was attacked with a bulldozer, in their expressions of sympathy and support, offered at all
hours of the night, and in their appeals for justice and recompense. And we hear in the voices
raised by so many Iranians in defense of their Bahá’í compatriots echoes from their country’s
glorious past. What we cannot help noting, with much gratitude towards them in our hearts, is
that a majority of those coming out in support of the beleaguered Bahá’í community are
themselves suffering similar oppression as students and academics, as journalists and social
activists, as artists and poets, as progressive thinkers and proponents of women’s rights, and
even as ordinary citizens.
Your Honor, the decisions to be taken by the judiciary in Iran in the coming days will
have implications that extend well beyond the Bahá’í community in that land––what is at stake
is the very cause of the freedom of conscience for all the peoples of your nation. It is our hope
that, for the sanctity of Islam and the honor of Iran, the judiciary will be fair in its judgment.
Respectfully,
Bahá’í International Community
cc: Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations