Struggle fought in hearts

Human rights in Iran

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Struggle fought in hearts
by Randolph Dobbs
08-Apr-2010
 

Human rights and globalization share a common vocabulary. No matter where people may live in the world they share a vital interest in the basic requirements of liberty, including the right to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion;” the right to “freedom of opinion and expression” and the “right to peaceful assembly and association.” These and 27 other specific freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were adopted by the United Nations more than 60 years ago.

Partly as a result of this declaration as well as a growing global view of social responsibility, human rights transcend national borders. Globalization is more than just economic interests—it includes a social and political interdependence that promotes human rights worldwide.

Unfortunately for the people of Iran and most especially for Iranian Bahais, human rights are neither widely recognized by the Islamic government nor is their application evenly distributed. Yet human rights are universal exactly because they define the interests of those without power—even in authoritarian states like Iran.

No country in the world has unlimited power to do whatever it wants to its own people. The very idea of national sovereignty includes a dual responsibility: to respect the sovereignty of other countries but also to respect the rights of its own citizens. As a member of the U.N. and signatory to a number of international conventions, the Islamic Republic of Iran has to face some tough questions about the treatment of its own people and especially the 300,000 Iranian members of the Bahai Faith.

Bahais have been persecuted ever since their religion was founded in mid-19th century Persia (present-day Iran). The Iranian Bahai community is often viewed as the canary-in-the-coal-mine regarding human rights abuses because as the nation’s largest non-Muslim religious minority they suffer the most discrimination—denied access to higher education, prevented from working in government jobs or receiving federal pensions to cite only a few examples.

Since obedience to government wherever Bahais reside in the world is a matter of religious principle, the Bahais in Iran are a convenient scapegoat for the Islamic regime which seeks to redirect public ire over its difficulties. Following the Ashura Protests last December, a group of Bahais were arrested on January 3 under the guise that they were responsible for the anti-government turmoil. But Bahais must also refrain from involvement in partisan politics whether local, national or international. In the spring of 2008, seven Bahai leaders were rounded up during the night and have been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison ever since. Faced with trumped-up charges of “spying for the state of Israel” and “spreading corruption on earth” their fate may be decided at a trial in a Revolutionary Court set for April 10.

Their families and fellow Bahais around the world have good reason to fear what may result should they be found guilty. Some 25 years ago members of Iran’s national-level Bahai leadership were arrested in a similar manner and executed by the Iranian government.

The Islamic Republic of Iran promotes division within its own country by pitting one group against another. To make this policy effective Iran has tried to isolate its people from accurate reporting of the news. According to Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based organization that promotes freedom of the press, Iran has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world—a distinction it has earned not only by jailing foreign correspondents but also by depriving its own citizens of the freedom of thought and conscience.

Iran, in fact, controls every aspect of its domestic news even down to minor details. Last November the country’s largest circulation newspaper, the Hamshahri, was temporarily closed down after it published a photograph of a Bahai temple in India as part of an advertisement for tourism to that country.

Any kind of criticism, foreign or domestic, only fuels the Iranian Islamic regime’s worst expectations. The government is sensitive to international embarrassment and highly reactive as is clearly shown by its response to ongoing public protests over the Iranian presidential election held last June.

The international community, including the American government, should continue to highlight Iran’s human rights abuses as such global attention makes it more difficult to continue rights violations without being noticed.

What is also needed is a sustainable policy that promotes human rights, encourages international support and does so in a way that doesn’t antagonize Iran’s historical anxiety over foreign influence or heighten concerns over the loss of traditional values—a sustainable policy, in other words, that appeals to the Iranian government’s better judgment. In essence, the abrasive relationship between Iran and the rest of the world, particularly between Iran and the West, masks a deeper truth. Iran needs the rest of the world more than the rest of the world needs Iran.

That “the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens” is an oft-quoted excerpt from the 19th century writings of the prophet-founder of the Bahai Faith, Bahaullah. Universal human rights and international conventions may not represent global governance, but the recent earthquakes in Haiti followed by those in Chile and just last week the modest quake in Los Angeles, pose an excellent metaphor for global unity and the interconnectedness of nations—what happens in one part of the world affects people living elsewhere.

Whatever happens in the show-trial of seven Bahai leaders in Iran, the larger issue is the fate of the Iranian people. The question is: What kind of nation does Iran aspire to become? Will it remain a repressive society unable to overcome the effects of religious bigotry? Or will it live up to the ideals not only of international human rights but also Islamic standards of justice?

Bahais have the greatest respect for all religions. The sacred writings of the Bahai Faith refer to Islam as “the blessed and luminous religion of God” and Iran, itself, as having a glorious future as a “focal center of divine splendors” to match its proud history of achievement.

In the face of injustice people turn to external interventions. They march in protest, conduct economic boycotts, work to enact various laws, abandon old policies and adopt new ones. Bahais believe that the ultimate struggle for justice in Iran will not be waged in the streets of Tehran, will not be contested in Islamic courts but will, instead, be fought in the hearts of the Iranian people.

AUTHOR
Randolph Dobbs is the secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of Los Angeles and a member of the Regional Bahai Council of the Southwestern States. Along with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UCLA, the Bahais of Los Angeles are co-sponsors of “The Struggle for Human Rights in Iran” a human rights event to be held Monday evening, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The program is free to the public and will feature Roxana Saberi as keynote speaker and Rudi Bakhtiar of Fox News as emcee. Visit struggleforhumanrights.org.

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Laurelgord

thank you for the thoughtful article

by Laurelgord on

Laurel Gord

I was very moved to read of the plight of the Bahai'i in Iran.  I would like the Bahai'i people to know that many people of faith stand with them.  I am also a little disturbed by the vitriol of some of the responses.  Let's pray for the well being of all the people of Iran, and for peace in the region and the world.

Laurel Gord, Quaker representative to the InterReligious Council

 


i am a bahai too

Thank You - Reader1

by i am a bahai too on

Dear Reader-Jan,

Thank you for this heartfelt apology. You were a tender child at the time you were persecuting Baha'i classmates. You yourself were victim of socially-sanctioned prejudice. Those around you did not know how to teach you anything better. Baha'is steadfastly believe no human being is a loss. You are an example of conscience at work and exemplify the hope Baha'is feel for the people of Iran.  Please release your guilt and take a hand in friendship.  This is all Baha'is ask.

Baha'u'llah wrote:

"The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures and enable mankind to benefit therefrom."

He also wrote:  

"A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom."

Now you are a "lodestone" (magnet) of hearts and for my sincere admiration.


DBaxtrom

How tragic

by DBaxtrom on

This article was heartbreaking. I have Iranian friends and I know how difficult things are for them, but the Bahai clearly have it much worse. I pray things will change in that country soon. The Iranian people have so much to offer, and so much to teach us.


rjbell

Standing with you

by rjbell on

Mr. Dobbs,

Thank you so much for this important and timely article! As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, freedom of relgious expression is a core tenant of our faith. I could not agree more with your call for Iran to deal fairly and opening with the 7 prisoners and to follow the UN Universal Declaration of Human Right. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the Bahai people living in Iran!


Shazde Asdola Mirza

As long as IRI treat our own people like animals, why shouldn't

by Shazde Asdola Mirza on

other countries treat it like a crazy maniac?


cyclicforward

Thanks for the article

by cyclicforward on

It was quite illuminating and I sure hope that some day this republic of hell disappears from the face of the earth and all citizens of Iran get their rightful rights.

I however do have one question for you and please don't get me the wrong way. It was mentioned in the article that the Bahais don't interfere in politics and obey the government. In my opinion this is not a responsible act and promotes governments to be abrasive and dictatorial. How can one possibly sit aside and let governments like IR or Sudan or etc. commit hideous atrocities and not to say a word.


reader1

I am sorry

by reader1 on

I was truly touched and became uncharacteristically emotional while reading this piece by Randolph Dobbs.   For a long time I have been looking for an opportunity  to apologize to my Bahai ex-classmates and ex-neighbours for allowing myself to be brain washed by the men of religious pretensions to treat them with suspicion and mistrust. I have been waiting for a long time, nearly 35 years,  for an opportunity to let off the guilt bottled inside me on a public forum such as this. Thank you "Iranian.com".

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to say sorry.  I particularly would like to say sorry to a lone Bahai classmate of mine who was desperately seeking friendship in the school playground but was cruelly turned down because he was Bahai. Sorry, I just had no courage  to leave the  main stream of religious ignorance, bigotry and prejudice. I am guilty.