End This Historical Shame; Statement of 147 Political and Civil Activists Against the New Wave of Repression of Baha’is in Iran

Source: www.zeitoons.com

Translation by Iran Press Watch

Zeitoun- More than a hundred political and civil activists issued a statement condemning the “new wave of arrests against Baha’is and their deprivation of basic human and civil rights” and urged “all social and political activists” to “raise their voices more than before against these barbaric and anti-human behaviors.”

The full text of this statement, provided to Zeitoun for publication, follows.

Statement of 147 political and civil activists against the new wave of repression of Baha’is in Iran

End this historical shame!

For more than a century and a half, the Baha’is in Iran have faced systematic ideological, political, educational, and economic pressure and oppression. A brutal repression that, at times, has taken unimaginable and inhuman dimensions.

The root of this repression lies in the fanatical provocations of clerics and some religious institutions and figures, and the overt as well as clandestine cooperation and complicity of Iran’s various ruling governments in different historical periods up to today.

With the clerics coming to power, this repression has gained wider dimensions and a more inhumane intensity. Members of the Baha’i National Assembly were kidnapped and disappeared in the first months of the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The members of the subsequent Assembly were officially arrested and executed, and the subsequent Assemblies also faced heavy and long-term sentences.

The process of all-round deprivation of Baha’is from their civil rights under the religious tyranny of the governance of the Islamic jurist regime, such as civil actions like marriage registration or the right to education and employment, etc., or the desecration of deceased bodies of some Baha’is thrown in back roads, confiscating the property of poor Baha’is in villages, attacking private celebrations, and unjustified arrests with heavy judicial sentences based on fictitious and false cases, have reached their peak.

The ideological roots of these behaviors go back to the prejudices of extremist Muslim clerics and their differences with the Baha’is on the issue of Muslims believing “the Islam prophet is the last prophet.” Another issue intensifying this sensitivity and hatred is the intense propaganda launched about the creation of “the Baha’i faith at the hands of the colonials”, pushing this made-up myth into the depths of religious and cultural society. One argument is the existence of the Shrine of Baha’u’llah, the Baha’i leader, in Israel, despite his passing away and burial there in 1921¹, decades before the establishment of Israel.

Every citizen is responsible and accountable for their personal positive and negative behavior and actions in society, and all citizens are equal in this matter. No citizen should be punished just because of their beliefs. No citizen or minority in society should be judged, discriminated against, socially deprived, and systematically suppressed due to religious prejudices, dogmas, or political delusions.

Prejudiced judgments and cruel and inhuman treatment of a century and a half, not only by some religious institutions and radical clerics and accomplices or complicit governments but also, at times, an important part of the masses, including some intellectuals of society, due to unfair judgments and wrong, oppressive, and humiliating behaviors, have placed a heavy burden on the collective cultural, religious, and political conscience of our country. This historical shame should be compensated in action and ended.

At the moment, however, it has been years since the Iranian cultural and political society has been trying to overcome the “demonization” created by some religious institutions and fanatical clerics based on ignorance and dogma, delusion, and repression, and to change the cultural and political atmosphere of civil society in relation to Bahá’í compatriots, to be humane and based on human rights. Of course, there is still a long way to go to achieve this.

We, the signatories of this statement with various ideologies, condemn the wave of new arrests against Baha’is and their deprivation of their basic human and civil rights by the agents of ignorance, prejudice, and delusion of the Islamic jurist regime. We urge all social and political activists to raise their voices more than before against this increase in brutal and anti-human behavior.

The common desire for the end of religious rule and the separation of religion and government among the owners of different ideologies and political opinions is a fundamental and national step forward in our society; a democratic and secular government in which believers of all religions, non-believers, and owners of different intellectual and political ideologies can work together with each other and with equal rights for the all-round development of Iran and the realization of freedom, justice, and democracy and the elimination of all types of discrimination in society.

Names in alphabetical order:

Ahmad Ahmadi

Ahmad Pourmandi

Ahmad AlaviAhmad Mohammadi

Ahmed Mashouf

Ahmed Nejati

Ahmadreza Karimi Hakaki

Ardvan Ershad

Ismail Zargarian

Ashkbus Talebi

Afsaneh Godarzi

Akbar Karami

Alborz Salimi

Elahe Amir Entezam

Elahe Mashouf

Omid Khadir

Amir Abol Hasani

Ayaz Asim

Araz Fanni

Art Hajarian

Aida Hasanifar

Elan Towfighi

Bahram Emami

Bahram Rasta

Behrouz Bayat

Behrouz Khaliq

Behzad Karimi

Bahman Niroomand

Behnam Bayat

Bijan Pirzadeh

Bijan Sina

Parviz Mokhtari

Parveen Shahbazi

Parichehr Taheri

Turan Hemti

Soraya Nadeempour

Jafar Hosseinzadeh

Jamshid Khoonjoosh

Jahangir Golzar

Jahangir Laghai

Hasan Tavana

Hasan Jafari

Hasan Zehtab

Hassan Arabzadeh Hejazi

Hasan Golshahi

Hasan Naeb Hashemi

Hasan Yousefi Oshkuri

Hossein Behirai

Hossein Alizadeh

Khosrow Mirmalek

Davood Gholam Azad

Rahman Livani

Rahim Kazemi Seresht

Roza Rozbahan

Rasoul Kamal

Reza Ekrami

Reza Shirazi

Reza Allamezadeh

Reza Alijani

Reza Qureishi

Reza Goharzadeh

Reza Najafi

Rouhangiz Karachi

Ruhi Shafii

Zahra Ghozaat

Zohre Habib Mohammadi

Jaleh Sahangian

Sarvar Kasmai

Saeed Dehghan

Samia Ghozaat

Soheila Golshahi

Siamak Soltani

Siamak Allamezadeh

Siamak Farid

Siamak Kalhor

Siavash Abghari

Siavash Kasraian

Cyrus Mirzai

Shahin Heydari

Shoaleh Zamini

Shahram Arshadnejad

Shahla Abghari

Abdul Ali Bazargan

Efat Bahrami

Ali Yazidi

Ali Gholam Azad

Ali Fekri

​Ali Akbar Mousavi (Khoeini)

Gholamreza Masmoi

Faeimeh Sonbol

Fariborz Mehran Adib

Farid Mehran Adib

Kazem Alamdari

Kamran Amiri

Kourosh Aftasi

Leila Nafe-Meshkin

Mohsen Nejad

Mohsen Nekomanesh

Mohammad Abu Talebi

Mohammad Olyaei Far

Mohammad Pourdavai

Mohammad Soleimani

Mohammad Hadi Hadi Zadeh Yazdi

Mohammad Hossein Shamsai

Mahmoud Mehran Adib

Morteza Niki

Marzieh Danesh

Maryam Tangestani

Maryam Sotovat

Mazdak Limakshi

Masoud Sefri Nasab

Masoud Shab Afrooz

Masoud Hemmati

Masoume Shapouri

Malihe Hayati

Mansour Farhang

Mansoure Shojaei

Manouchehr Golshan

Mehdi Ebrahimzadeh

Mehdi Amini

Mehdi Fatapour

Mahdi Momken

Mehdi Noorbakhsh

Mehran Mossadeghnia

Mehran Mirfakhrai

Mehrangiz Kar

Mehrdad Ahmadzadeh

Mehrdad Baharara

Mehrdad Darvishpour

Mehrdad Elmi

Mehri Kar

Mahshid Pegahi

Mahvash Jame’i

Mahin Khadiri

Nasser Shahin Par

Nahid Farhad

Nayere Tohidi

Nima Mashouf

Vahab Ansari

Vida Farhoudi

Elham Nikooie

Hayede Dahi

Hajir Attari

Homayun Mehmanesh

Yasser Mirdamadi

Yadollah Baladi

Yusuf Mohammadi

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1. Baháʼu’lláh the prophet founder of the Baha’i Faith passed away in 1892 not in 1921. It was ʻAbdu’l-Bahá, the eldest son of Baháʼu’lláh and his successor who passed away in 1921.