 So moved
Bahais were easily the most welcoming, friendly,
and genuinely sincere people
I had ever met
By Sam Slinn
August 21, 2003
The Iranian
One day, about 10 years ago I was in the local video
store with my mom.
I was 8-years old at the time. She really wanted to rent a movie
that a
friend of hers told her about. It was called "Not Without
My Daughter" starring Sally Field. I am sure
you are all familiar with the storyline of
this movie (and the stupidity of it) so I will not recount it here.
Anyways
as I was too young to really understand what this movie was about
I didn't
even watch the whole thing. Six years later I was once again in
the video
store and for some reason I got a flashback of that movie. I couldn't
remember what it was called or who was in it but a gave the lady
at the till
a brief description and she found it for me.
I watched it 7 times
in three
days. I became totally obsessed with Iran. I was fascinated how
a country
could go from being so modern back to being so religious in the
space of a
few years. I was fascinated with the images of women in their billowing
chadors, with the revolutionary music played over loud speakers
and the
power that religion (appeared) to hold over everyone.
I also become
very
interested in the Persian language. After making a few phone calls
I found
out that my city Regina in the middle of nowhere in Saskatchewan,
Canada, had
a Persian language school. I called and registered. My excitement
grew
everyday leading up to Saturday, the day the classes were held.
I was excited by the prospect of seeing first hand people like
from the movie,
women in
chadors, men dressed in robes (remember I was 13 at the time).
When I got
there I was surprised to find that not one of the teachers wore
any kind of
covering, let alone a chador. Some of the mothers of the children
in my
class however did wear head scarves, when they came to pick up
there
children. The teachers were thrilled that a Canadian teenager
would want to
learn Persian.
Over the next few years I became aware of the fact
that although
my city was quite small by North American standards (approximately
200,000
people) it had a microcosm of many different Iranian groups.
There was
everything from Mojahedin, to Monarchists, to Communists, and
Khomeinists.
One thing that proved to be very interesting was
that despite their strong
differences in opinion, they all sent the children to the same
Persian school, socialized together, and attended the same Noruz
celebrations.
The most interesting day that I had in Persian class
revolved around an off
handed comment made by one of the teachers. She had been joking
with me
about our class going on a field trip to Iran. I became enthusiastic
about
the idea of going to Iran and said "why not?". Her response
changed my
life: "Because we have a lot of Bahai kids in the class."
"Bahai
kids," I
thought to myself. What the hell were Bahai kids? I started
to look up
what "Bahai" was, and why these kids couldn't go to
Iran although they were
just as Iranian as their classmates. My initial assumption was
that they
were some kind of political group, or even members of some kind
of terrorist
group the the Mojahedin.
Then I discovered that they were just
a religious
minority in Iran and had no political connections. I learned
about the
persecution they were undergoing in Iran and found out that the
majority of
them were refugees not economic immigrants like many other iranians
in
Canada. (That is not to say that there is not a huge number of
other
Iranians in Canada who came here as political refugees).
Then
I discovered
the fact that the Bahai faith wasn't an Iranian religion, but
was in fact a
world religion like Christianity or Islam. Over the next several
years I
met more and more Bahai Iranians (my city has a disproportionate
Muslim/Bahai ratio in comparison with Iran and even other
cities in
Canada, it is about 50/50). These people told me there stories
and I became
fascinated with them.
For example one man I know named Sayyid, moved to
Canada in 1982 from Iran,
with his wife. They had three children here. He has not seen his
parents or
his family for over 22 years, because he cannot return to Iran,
and the
Iranian government won't issue his parents passports to come here.
His
sister was arrested and threatened with execution, only a few years
ago.
This only one example of many stories I have heard from Iranian
Bahais.
Why
would these people put themselves through this? Why wouldn't they
just "pretend" to not be Bahais so that their persecution
would end? There had
to be a good explanation.
Over the next year I continued to investigate
the religion, and I attended a few programs at our local Bahai
center.
They were easily the most welcoming, friendly, and genuinely sincere
people
I had ever met. I was so moved by what I witnessed especially the
Persian
prayers chanted by the Iranians.
Just by coincidence that night
the Regina
Bahai community was hosting a couple Iranian Bahai men who were
visiting
from Tehran to see how the faith was growing in Canada. They
could not speak
English, but as I had taken so man years of Persian we managed
to have a
conversation. they were completely shocked that I was not Bahai,
nor
Iranian, and that I had such an interest in Iran, their language
and the
Bahai religion.
I was so moved by the beautiful prayers chanted
in Persian
by some of the Iranian women there, and by the warmth and friendliness
of
the people there that I declared myself to be a Bahai that
night.
By that
time most of the people had gone home and it was mostly older
Iranian Bahais who stayed behind to visit with the guests from
Iran. After
I
declared an elderly Iranian woman chanted a prayer for me.
It was the most
beautiful thing I had ever heard, despite the fact that I
did not understand
a word of it.
I have been a Bahai for almost two years now,
and it is the
best decision I have ever made. My love for Iran and it's
people has only
been made stronger by my new found love for Bahaullah.
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