The Persecution of Iranian Baha'is

The Baha’i Faith is a religion that started in present-day Iran, roughly 160 years ago. It has since spread to over 200 countries across the globe. But interestingly enough, this religion is hated the most in its own country of origin. Though the Baha’is have certainly not been around as long as the Jews, nor have they undergone such an atrocious holocaust, they can certainly understand what it means to be stripped of their most basic civil rights and to essentially be considered subhuman.

Early Baha’is have had a history of enduring incredibly severe forms of torture, such as bastinadoing and being branded with red hot iron rods. One individual even had holes drilled into him, which were then plugged with lit candles. It is truly shameful that a religion that believes in the equality of men and women, the incorporation of a universal auxiliary language, and in the unity of God, religion, and mankind, as well as other noble ideals, has been punished with such backwardness.

In more modern times, especially after the Iranian revolution of 1979, the persecution has remained constant in more subtle ways. Over the past 30 years, countless Iranian Baha’is have had their business licenses gratuitously revoked, their houses raided and possessions confiscated, their cemeteries razed to the ground, and their prerogative to a higher education barred by government-sponsored prejudice. In 1993, a secret memorandum that had been written two years earlier by the Iranian government came to light. It addresses “the Baha’i question”–frighteningly similar to the way Nazis addressed the Jews–and serves as a blueprint for the way in which governmental officials should treat Baha’is. The document has been translated in full here. Additionally, Over 200 Baha’is have been executed in Iran since the beginning of the revolution; many others were abducted, never to be seen again. Although these killings slowed down after the 1980s, the aforementioned more subtle methods of persecution are still going strong. Reports of Baha’is being imprisoned for ridiculous pretexts or simply no charge at all come out of Iran almost every week now. The most glaring example of this was when seven Baha’is, who were once members of an ad hoc body known as the Yaran (Friends), were arrested in 2008 on the basis of “insulting religious sanctities,” “spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic”, “espionage for Israel,” and “spreading corruption on earth” (which has historically carried the death penalty). Of course, not one of these charges was ever substantiated, nor have they been to this day. All seven were recently sentenced to 20 years in prison on absolutely no grounds. The Yaran essentially oversaw the administrative affairs of the Iranian Baha’i community. What is perhaps most ironic about this is that they had already been operating for over 20 years prior to these events, and the Iranian government was fully aware of their existence and had no problem with them then!

It is only natural to ask oneself in the 21^st century, truly an age of reason and rationale, what could have given rise to this blind animosity. What could fuel such unforgiving hatred towards one’s own countrymen? The answer is ignorance. For several decades now, Baha’is have been portrayed as something they’re not–malevolent, treacherous, two-faced–by Iranians all across the board: historians, theorists, intellectuals, religious clerics, and ordinary laypeople who have been indoctrinated by all of the above. However, depending on the audience, different methods have been used to brainwash Iranians into thinking Baha’is are evil. But the two most common ways are what I call the religious argument and the nationalist argument. I will explain both discourses below.

The religious argument

This is an argument that has historically been presented to those who are devoutly religious and has been delivered by those who are usually religious themselves (i.e. clerics). The religious argument dictates that Baha’is apparently reject many of the fundamental tenets of Islam, most salient among them being the belief in the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood. The fact that Baha’is believe in a prophet who came after Muhammad, called Baha’u’llah, poses a severe transgression in the eyes of fundamentalist Iranians, and is not something that can go without reprimand. This hostile discourse was most notably proliferated through the virulent radio sermons of one Shaykh Muhammad-Taqi Falsafi, a Muslim cleric, during Ramadan of 1955. In these sermons, Falsafi frequently lambasted the Baha’is for what he believed to be their heedlessness and the misguided nature of their “sect”. His unabashed hostility inculcated such a thirst for vengeance in uneducated Iranians that mobs actually galvanized and destroyed Tehran’s Baha’i center. However, in more recent times, a rift of mistrust has been expanding between the Iranian government and the masses. The former has been invariably continuing their tactic of shoving down irrational fanaticism down peoples’ throats, and as a result the latter has progressively been turning away from Islam, and many from religion altogether. Thus, the religious argument is not quite as effective in this age as it was under more secular rule, namely that of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The nationalist argument

For Iranians who are not necessarily religious, or for those who are more attached to their country and its culture than their faith, the nationalist argument–which is nothing more than an appeal to treason–seems to be most potent in instilling a sense of antagonism towards Baha’is. In this discourse, Baha’is are branded as agents of foreign powers, be they Russian, British, or “Zionist”, who have historically been pursuing an agenda of inciting chaos within Iran. Through this reasoning, Baha’is and their most revered personages are reduced to tools of imperialist and colonialist powers with no will of their own, but are subject to everything their “Western masters” command them to do. They are thus not only divested of their own “Iranianness” but are considered enemies of the state altogether. Such claims were advanced in books with faulty references or forged tracts altogether (for more information on this, I refer you to my e-book, Debunking the Myths). Perhaps one reason why this discourse has proven to be more effective than the religious argument is because the hatred that results from this argument can be shared by both nationalists and religious people alike.

Fortunately, the growing mistrust of pro-government media among Iranian people is leading to a steady decline in the efficacy of these baseless accusations leveled against Baha’is. People are beginning to think with their own minds and not with the mind of their local cleric. They are learning to independently investigate the truth for themselves and not be led by blind faith. Hopefully, this wave of reason will triumph and draw a close to the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran altogether.