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Jun
12
Persecuting the Bahá’ís
Filed Under Human Rights, Iran, People | Leave a Comment
Under the heading, Persecuting the Bahá’ís, The Guardian’s Comment is Free section has published a moving contribution by Bahar Tahzib, a UK-based complementary health practitioner whose father was executed in Iran in June 1980 for being a Bahá’í. Her uncle, Jamaloddin Khanjani is one of the six Iranian Bahá’í leaders arrested on 14 May.
“Hearing that the Nobel laureate and human rights campaigner Shirin Ebadi is launching her latest book in London has reminded me of the pride and hope I felt as an Iranian woman when in 2003 she became the first Iranian woman and, indeed, the first Muslim woman to receive the imprimatur of international moral leadership,” writes Mrs Tahzib, “Lately though, hope – like human rights – has become a scarcer commodity for many of Iran’s citizens.” She then goes on to reflect on what the Bahá’ís might have done to deserve such treatment:
The tragedy of Iran’s obsessive witch-hunt against its largest non-Muslim religious minority is that the Bahá’ís cherish an abiding love for their country and have remained there – despite intense persecution – because they wish to contribute to its progress and prosperity. Iran is their homeland, and as the cradle of their faith and others, they extol it as a sacred land. Their steadfastness in the face of oppression, and the evidence of their goodwill towards their countrymen is gaining increasing recognition amongst ever greater numbers of Iranians at home and abroad. Muslim campaigners are openly calling for the Iranian government to respect the human rights of its Bahá’í population.
Read Persecuting the Bahá’ís here
Read the latest news about the arrest of Iran’s Bahá’í leaders, here
Technorati Tags: Iran, human rights, persecution, Baha’i, Bahai, Shirin Ebadi
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