Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Amnesty International has reported that at least 202 Baha’is have been executed by the current Iranian regime. Although executions have become rarer in recent times, the Iranian regimes’ campaign to systematically cripple members of the Baha’i Faith in Iran has intensified, as on the 14th of January six Baha’is were arrested, including one Baha’i woman who worked at a human rights organization linked with Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. These events have followed the closure by the Iranian government of Shirin Ebadi’s Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran. On December 23rd, the Baha’i International Community voiced their concern over the shutting down of this center in Iran, and has called for its reopening. The reason given by the spokesperson of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the closure of the center was that it had no license, something very simple to obtain, but increasingly difficult for Ebadi to receive as her and her colleagues have engaged in defending many individuals and groups, including the Baha’is, who have had their human rights violated under the current Iranian government.
The six Baha’is arrested on January 14th will join the seven Baha’i leaders who are currently being held without charge in Evin prison in Tehran who were arrested in March and May of 2008. Mrs. Ebadi is currently representing these seven Baha’is, whose arrests have recalled memories of the situation in the 1980’s where countless Baha’is were arrested and executed without any formal convictions, or simply under the accusation that they are apostates. On the recent arrests, Diane Ala’i, a representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, has stated that “as far as we know, all of these people were arrested primarily because they are Baha’is.” Among those arrested on the 14th of January was Jinous Sobhani, who worked as an assistant for the Organization for Defending Mine Victims, and also for the Defenders of Human Rights Center, both founded by Ebadi. Ms. Ala’i has confirmed that “the connection of Ms. Sobhani to the work of Mrs. Ebadi’s organizations points to the gravity of the situation in Iran, where the government seems intent on stifling any expression of the importance of human rights or religious freedom.”
Media outlets in the Islamic Republic of Iran have recently made allegations that Shirin Ebadi’s daughter, a former LL.M. student, was converted to the Baha’i Faith by McGill law professor and human rights lawyer Payam Akhavan, a move made undoubtedly to discredit Shirin Ebadi amongst the Iranian people. Other such claims made against Akhavan and the McGill Association for Baha’i Studies have claimed that Akhavan is a spy for the C.I.A., and that McGill is a prominent center of Baha’ism in North America, and that the McGill ABS is the hub of this activity. All allegations have been made falsely, and have fallen within a larger campaign of the Iranian government to slander and misrepresent Baha’is, and all those associated with them, including one of their tireless defenders, Shirin Ebadi. Shirin Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for significant efforts in furthering the cause of democracy and the rights of women and minorities in Iran, has been receiving an unprecedented amount of death threats in relation to her defending the seven Baha’i leaders arrested last May. On January 1st, demonstrators in support of the current Iranian regime attacked Ebadi’s home and office.
The closure of Shirin Ebadi’s Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran, as well as the recent arrest of six Baha’is, has reflected the gravity of the conditions facing Baha’is in Iran, as well as the overall situation of human rights in Iran which has reached another critical point. With the world’s attention now focused on the conflict in Gaza, the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken another opportunity to further its agenda of prosecution of its largest religious minority, the Baha’i Faith, who have committed no crime but to believe in a religion which espouses beliefs such as the oneness of humankind and the oneness of religion. The persecution of Baha’is in Iran has taken a much more methodical direction in recent times, as they are denied higher education, have suffered from the confiscation and destruction of property, have been denied employment, and are often denied government benefits. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran which only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism as protected religions under the regime, has served as the institutional basis for the persecution of Baha’is in Iran, and was purposely worded in such a way as to exclude Baha’is from any government security, thus forming the platform on which Baha’is are denied the most basic of human rights.
