Baha'is have rights too
Baha'is have rights too... - President Khatami
November 1999, (Iranian Human Rights
Working Group) -- President Khatami's pronouncement, in his Paris press
conference on Friday 29th October, on the plight of Baha'is in Iran is
by far the most encouraging statement made by an Iranian high official
of the Islamic Republic in this regard since the demise of the provisional
government of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979. However, his statement fell far
short of acknowledging the basic rights to religious freedom enshrined
in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Iran
is a state signatory.
Baha'is are the single most persecuted religious minority in Iran (followed,
by a large margin, by the Jews). They have never been recognised by the
mainstream religious and political authorities as a religious community
- though they were commonly tolerated before the 1979 revolution. However,
soon after the revolution, a large-scale hate campaign was launched against
this community by the authorities, resulting in death, destruction and
sufferings for a large section of the community. Well over 200 Baha'is
have been executed (ostensibly on charges ranging from espionage to apostasy),
hundreds more have been detained, tortured or sentenced to long imprisonment,
thousands have been harassed to eviction, loss of property or jobs or
driven out of the country, while the rest of the community have been denied
of their rights to employment, education, election, property or religious
practice.
In answer to a question about the persecution of the Baha'is, Mr. Khatami
declared that "nobody should be persecuted because of their beliefs"
and that he would defend the civil rights of ALL Iranians regardless of
their beliefs or religion. He however, sought to justify the denial of
the rights of Baha'is to practice their religion on the grounds that
the Constitution has declared only four religions as recognised to the
exclusion of the Baha'is.
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic is a collection of contradictory
sets of rights and privileges accorded to various sections of the society.
While in article 19 it declares all the Iranian people enjoy "the
same rights irrespective of their colour, race, language and the likes
(sic)", it goes on in many other parts to apportion rights on the
basis of religion, religious credentials or what it calls "Islamic
criteria" - contravening many of the articles of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. The reference to the Constitution by the President begs
the question of how at the same time he could reconcile this with his
emphasis that NO citizen will be denied of their civil rights or that
he sees as his duty to guarantee these rights to all citizens "no
matter what their beliefs". At any rate, the declaration by the
president in regards to the Baha'is, taken at face value, implies that
the they should no longer be deprived of their civil rights such as jobs,
education and owning property. This, if implemented properly, will mean
a significant change of direction in the policies of the Islamic Republic,
and a great reduction in the long list of injustices suffered by members
of this community. For instance, Bahai children should no longer be
barred from state schools and institutions of higher education - even
though they may have to sit at Islamic classes as part of their course
or go through anti-Bahai propaganda at schools. This is because the President's
pledge would not extend to freedom of religion, and religious association,
practice, worship and observance recognised as basic human rights by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It appears that in the vocabulary
of the President, civil rights do not include the right to observe one's
religion.
The resort to the provisions in the Constitution by President Khatami
to justify denial of the religious status for the Baha'is could perhaps
be interpreted as a mild criticism of the Constitution that it has failed
to include the Bahai faith as a recognised religion. But such a criticism
is beyond the point: recognition of a religion as official by the state,
to the inevitable exclusion of some other religions, is in itself an act
of discrimination on the grounds of beliefs and a recipe for religious
intolerance. It is the right of citizens to adhere to a set of beliefs
(a religion) and the state has no right whatsoever to determine which
set of beliefs are acceptable for its citizens. The problem is, therefore,
not why the Iranian Constitution has not named the Bahai faith as a recognised
religion, but that it has named any at all. Naming one or more religions
in a constitution as being recognised, not only discriminates against
adherents of other religions at the time, but it also precludes the formation
of any other religious communities in the future - a fact that bares the
constitution of its basic characters of universality (covering all) and
endurance (being future-proof). It was revealing of the degree that
President Khatami understands this basic principle when in the same interview
he criticised the French Constitution for not recognising Islam as an
official religion!
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic, in naming four recognised
religions, has further violated some basic human rights by institutionalising
a system of religious apartheid. It restricts the right to representation
on religious lines, declaring that each individual is allowed to vote
for a nominee of their own faith. As a result, adherents of (recognised)
minority religions are destined to electoral ghettos. This is in direct
contravention of the internationally recognised standards of election
laws and specifically Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. In short, the religious discrimination provisioned in the Constitution
of the Islamic Republic has all the hallmarks of an apartheid system:
declaring an official religion for the land with all civil and political
rights for its followers, few second-class religions with some rights
for their adherents and token presence in the political structure, and
all others as being non-religions with anyone associated with them regarded
as non-persons. This bears a startling resemblance to that other bastion
of apartheid, South Africa of pre-Mandela era with a constitution identifying
three classes of people: whites, coloured and blacks. And as with South
Africa experience, only with removing all references to religion in the
Constitution, and guaranteeing equality of all citizens, can one see that
the civil and human rights of the Baha'is in Iran are restored as well
as those of followers of all other religions.
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