This article on Bahais persecution in Iran, written by journalist Hamed Thabet, was translated and published in the Dutch newspaper Trouw Baha’is are equal in creation, but not in Iran By Hamed Thabet Bahais in Iran are forced to renounce their faith, writes Hamed Thabet. This is not compatible with what Mohamed said. When I was watching the dignified ceremony of the MH17 crash victims on television, I noticed with admiration how the Netherlands treated the remains of their fellow citizens with such respect to human dignity regardless of one’s religion or belief. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought of my own family members and other Bahá’ís who were executed by hanging in 1983 and buried in the historical Bahá’í cemetery in Shiraz, Iran. The destruction of this same cemetery with about 950 graves had fortunately not gone unnoticed in TROUW since Eildert Mulder in his column Under the Minaret” wrote about it. The Revolutionary Guards of Iran started the demolition to make way for the construction of a new cultural and sports complex. They organised a public celebration for the people of Shiraz, to inform them of their progress in clearing the site and by moving the remains of 30 to 50 graves into an open canal. By using a heavy roller to compact the ground, a carpet was laid over a number of graves and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards of Fars Province gave a speech attacking the Bahá’ís and calling them a “foul” and “perverse sect”. Among the prominent individuals at rest in the cemetery are the ten Bahá’í women of Shiraz who were executed by hanging on 18 June 1983, at the height of the governments campaign of executing the Bahá’ís, two of whom are my family members: Akhtar Thabit and Tahirih Siavashi. In addition to the two women, my father’s uncle, Ahmed Ali Sabet was arrested because of his religion. While being in prison, he became ill and when the prison officials took him to the hospital, he was refused entrance once the hospital officials realized that he was a Bahá’í. He returned to the prison clinic where, being prevented from receiving proper treatment, he passed away on 30 June 1983. Returning to the execution of the ten women, they were hanged for having taught Bahá’í classes (Sunday school), for being members of Bahá’í youth committees, for allegedly being supporters of Zionism, and for refusing to recant their faith. While writing these words, I imagined how truly beautiful it would be if the Revolutionary Guards in Iran would treat their fellow citizens, albeit from a different religion, in the same respectful way as the Dutch did with the plane crash victims. How beautiful would it be if all Iranians were treated equally. Iran was once the cradle of the most ancient of civilizations, and has a long history of human rights and dignity, with the first human rights laws being established in 539 BC by Cyrus the Great. Cyrus declared that all people had the right to choose their own religion, established racial equality and freed the slaves. The Bahá’í Faith recognizes all religions. It calls for unity between people, nations, races, religions or belief systems. “Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other”, Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith says. We are learning to love, respect, cooperate and be of service to humanity to foster the wellbeing of all. My family has been imprisoned, killed, scattered around the globe, because of these ideas. Even their graves in Shiraz are desecrated, but this is what we stand for. Also Prophet Mohamed ordered Muslims and all humans to respect the dead by giving them a proper burial, even to “non-believers” and Imam Ali, His successor, taught: “People are of two kinds – either your religious brothers, or your equal in creation”. This government perseveres in the undignified persecution of Bahá’ís, even after death, which is clearly not according to their own spiritual laws.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 13:05:19 +0000
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