Chapter IV

“To kill a Bahá’í is a good deed…”

How the contemporary
persecutions started

ong before the targeting of innocents by suicide bombers and the gruesome web-cast of “infidel” executions on the Internet became commonplace, the Bahá’í community of Iran faced and survived a horrific campaign of killing, torture and imprisonment that had been inspired by religious fanaticism.

In 1982, in the village of Rahimkhani, armed assailants broke into the home of Askar Muhammadi and shot him in the back. Confronted by Mr. Muhammadi’s brother as they were leaving the scene of the crime, the murderers stated simply: “He was a Bahá’í, and to kill a Bahá’í is a good deed for devout Muslims.”

Funeral of Hashin Farnush, arrested 5 November 1980, executed 23 June 1981. His wife is shown kneeling down at his graveside in Tehran. High Resolution Image >

While many Iranians hailed the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 as the dawn of a long awaited era of political liberty and national reconstruction, it was clear from the start that the Bahá’ís would be unjustly reviled for their beliefs.

Even before Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to assume power in February of that year, an increase in attacks on Bahá’ís presaged the wholesale persecution that was to come. In 1978 at least seven Bahá’ís were killed, most as a result of mob violence.

When the Republic’s new constitution was drawn up in April 1979, certain rights of the Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities in Iran were specifically mentioned and protected. However, no mention whatsoever was made of the rights of the Bahá’í community, Iran’s largest religious minority.

Under Iran’s concept of an Islamic government, this exclusion has come to mean that Bahá’ís enjoy no rights of any sort, and that they can be attacked and persecuted with impunity. Courts in the Republic have denied Bahá’ís the right of redress or protection against assault, killings or other forms of persecution — and have ruled that Iranian citizens who kill or injure Bahá’ís are not liable for damages because their victims are “unprotected infidels.”

Without any claim to civil rights, the Bahá’í community saw rapid deterioration of its position within Iranian society. In March 1979, the House of the Báb, the holiest Bahá’í shrine in Iran, was turned over by the government to a Muslim cleric known for his anti-Bahá’í activities. In September, the house was destroyed by a mob led by mullahs and officials of the Department of Religious Affairs.

A November 1979 edict from the Ministry of Education required not only the dismissal of all Bahá’í teachers, but also held them responsible for the repayment of all salaries they had previously received.

At least seven Bahá’ís were killed in 1979. Two were executed by the government and one was hanged in prison. Others were beaten to death or killed in local incidents.

“To cut off the head...”

Buoyed by their growing influence over all aspects of Iranian life, in 1980 the clergy moved “to cut off the head” of the “heretical” Bahá’í movement by destroying its leadership, believing that the majority of the Bahá’ís would then succumb to social pressures to recant their Faith.

The nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly who were kidnap-
ped in 1980.

This policy is reflected in the fact that nearly half the Bahá’ís executed in Iran since 1979 have been members of national and local governing councils of the Bahá’í community, known as Spiritual Assemblies.

The execution on 27 June 1980 of Yusuf Sobhani, a highly regarded member of the Tehran Bahá’í community, was among the first of such killings that targeted Bahá’í leadership. This was followed by the executions of the chairman and another member of the local Spiritual Assembly of Tabriz on 14 July 1980, a member of the Spiritual Assembly of Rasht on 16 July 1980, and two prominent Bahá’í spokesmen in Tehran on 30 July and 15 August 1980.

On 21 August 1980, all nine members of the national Bahá’í governing council, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran, were abducted and disappeared without a trace. It seems certain that they were executed.

During 1980 at least 24 Bahá’ís were killed in Iran; 20 were executed by the government and the rest were stoned, assassinated or burned to death.

Faramarz Samandari, with his wife Anita, and children. He was a physician and professor at the University of Tabriz. He was excuted in Tabriz on 13 July 1980. High Resolution Image >

Despite a growing international outcry, the rate of executions continued to grow through 1981. By late summer that year, revolutionary courts were openly sentencing Bahá’ís to death purely on religious grounds and announcing the fact in Iranian media. The Attorney General, Siyyid Moussavi-Tabrizi, stated explicitly: “The Qur’an recognized only the People of the Book as religious communities. Others are pagans. Pagans must be eliminated.” Under Islamic law in Iran, “People of the Book” include only Muslims, Jews, Christians and, by special dispensation, Zoroastrians.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran was reconstituted through new elections but was again ravaged by the execution of eight of its members on 27 December 1981. In all at least 48 Bahá’ís were killed in Iran during 1981; of those, all but two were executed by the government.

Executions continued apace through 1982, 1983 and 1984. At least 32 Bahá’ís were executed or killed in 1982, 29 were executed or killed in 1983, and 30 were executed or killed in 1984. And, again, the targets of these executions were often members of Bahá’í governing councils. Four members of the National Spiritual Assembly, which had once again been courageously re-established through fresh elections, were executed in 1984, although by then the institution had been disbanded in accordance with a government decree and the individuals held no official position in the Bahá’í community. [See Appendix I for a complete list of those who have been killed or executed.]

One of the most dramatic groups of executions came in June 1983, when ten Iranian Bahá’í women, including two teen-age girls, were hanged. The primary charge against them: teaching Bahá’í children’s classes. [See “Hanged for teaching ‘Sunday school’”]

The women were subjected to intense physical and mental abuse in an effort to coerce them to recant their Faith — an option that was almost always pressed upon Bahá’í prisoners. Yet, like most Bahá’ís who have been arrested in Iran, they refused to deny their beliefs. Nevertheless, the fact that so many Bahá’ís were given the option of recanting, with the promise of release if they did so, is among the strongest proofs that the persecutions were based solely on religious beliefs.

Imprisonment and Torture

Since 1979, nearly 1,000 Bahá’ís have been arrested and imprisoned. At one point in 1986, some 747 Bahá’ís were being held in prisons throughout Iran. In most cases, they had no trials.

A woman from Kata, murdered by a mob in 1979, shown with her two younger sisters. High Resolution Image >

The torture of Bahá’ís in Iranian prisons — and particularly of those who had been members of Bahá’í governing councils — was routine and systematic. Again, according to Bahá’ís who survived, the purpose of the torture almost invariably was to make the Bahá’ís recant their Faith or confess to some treasonous activity.

Torture included sustained beating and flogging, the bastinado (whipping the soles of the feet), the pulling out of fingernails and teeth, and the deprivation of food and water for days at a time.

Bahá’ís were also subjected to psychological torture, including mock executions and being forced to witness the torture of family members and friends.

Thus an elderly Bahá’í woman, who was a member of a local Bahá’í council, was tortured in front of a dozen other Bahá’ís in an effort to persuade her and them to deny their Faith. The woman’s jailer took her by her hair and continually banged her head against the wall. She was beaten about the head for a long time, until her body was covered with blood. After two years of imprisonment, she was summarily released, with no recourse against the abuse she had received.

At least 13 Bahá’ís who died in prison are believed to have been tortured to death. In these cases, the bodies were buried by the authorities before the families could view them.

Two of the most recent cases involving torture and intimidation took place in July 1997.

Masha’llah Enayati, a 63-year-old Bahá’í resident of Tehran, died on 4 July 1997, after being severely beaten while in custody. During a visit to his native village of Ardistan to attend a Bahá’í meeting, Mr. Enayati was arrested under circumstances which are not clear. He was taken to prison in Isfahan, where he was severely beaten on all parts of the body. It appears that he was held in prison for about a week before being taken to a hospital, where he eventually died. Mr. Enayati’s death certificate is worded in a most unusual way, suggesting that the doctor himself may have been under threat. Under “cause of death” the doctor entered in his own handwriting, “will be known later.”

Shahram Reza’i, a young Bahá’í serving as a conscript in the Iranian army on a military base near the city of Rasht, was shot in the head by his superior officer on 6 July 1997 and died the following day. The officer concerned, who was responsible for weapons training, maintained that the bullets were fired in error. He was released after a few days, once it was determined that the dead soldier was a Bahá’í. The court excused the officer from paying the blood money normally required in such instances, ordering him to pay just the cost of the three bullets used to kill Mr. Reza’i. Mr. Reza’i was the seventh Bahá’í in Iran engaged in compulsory military service to have been slain by officers or other soldiers.

Social and Economic Intimidation

As noted earlier, the authorities have also conducted a campaign of economic, social and cultural intimidation against the Bahá’í community of Iran. The objective, it is clear, has been to deprive Bahá’ís of their rights to education, to jobs and to homes of their own — once again with the intention of forcing them to recant.

Since the 1930s, the Bahá’ís in Iran have been forbidden to run their own educational establishments, and have therefore educated their children at state-run schools and universities where they have often suffered discrimination and persecution.

The level of discrimination and persecution in schools rose sharply following the Islamic revolution in 1979. In 1981, an official decree was issued barring Bahá’í students and professors from admission to or employment at any university in Iran. Universities published new prospectuses in 1981 requiring that applicants belong to one of the four religions recognized in the constitution, namely the Muslim, Jewish, Christian or Zoroastrian religions.

Admission to primary and secondary schools was refused to those who identified themselves as Bahá’ís, and hundreds of students were expelled.

Government document of permanent dismissal from employment for being a Bahá’í. High Resolution Image >

Deprivation of Employment

The Iranian government has also sought to intimidate and stifle Bahá’ís by making it impossible for them to earn a living.

In 1979 the government started dismissing all Bahá’í civil servants without compensation. By July 1982, all Bahá’í public servants had been dismissed and the pensions of all retired Bahá’í civil servants had been terminated.

In late 1984, the Attorney General started issuing summonses demanding that all those Bahá’í civil servants who had been dismissed repay salaries they had received during their employment. They were threatened with imprisonment if they did not comply. Obviously, repayment of a lifetime’s wages was beyond the means of most victims. Many were imprisoned as a result of failure to meet this absurd demand.

The government has also systematically sought to drive Bahá’ís in the private sector to economic ruin. In the early 1980s, the trading licenses of most Bahá’í businessmen were revoked, the assets of businesses run by Bahá’ís were confiscated, and bank accounts of most Bahá’í businessmen were frozen. In addition, the authorities intimidated private employers into dismissing many Bahá’í employees.

Almost every dismissal notice served on a Bahá’í employee, whether in the public or the private sector, stated that the reason for dismissal was membership in the Bahá’í Faith and that the individual’s job would be restored if he or she would recant his or her faith.

In addition to depriving Bahá’ís of a livelihood, the government in the early 1980s sought to deprive arrested Bahá’ís of many of their possessions, including their homes.

Through its takeover of the major Bahá’í savings company, Nawnahalan — literally meaning “new plant,” a reference to the fact that the savings institution was started by Bahá’í children at the turn of the century — the government in one move swept away the life savings of 15,000 Bahá’í shareholders and investors. In addition, thousands of Bahá’ís, rich and poor alike, have had their homes and personal possessions confiscated by the government, and thousands more have had their homes destroyed by arson and looting. In rural areas, the authorities have encouraged the plunder and destruction of the livestock and crops of Bahá’í farmers.

Confiscation of Community Assets

The Bahá’í community in Iran has never been allowed to hold community property in its own name. As a result, all community property has been held in the name of a non-profit company created for this purpose. This body, the Umana — meaning “Trustee” — Company, was allowed to administer such properties without undue interference until the change of government in 1979.

One of the first acts of the new government was to confiscate the Umana Company and all its holdings. This meant that in one stroke all Bahá’í community properties were arbitrarily transferred to the state without compensation. The government also confiscated the assets of all Bahá’í welfare agencies, which provided services to people of all religions on an equal basis.

Among the government’s next steps were to desecrate and in many cases destroy Bahá’í holy places throughout Iran. As noted, these properties include the holiest Bahá’í shrine in Iran, the House of the Báb in Shiraz, which was confiscated and then destroyed. The House of Bahá’u’lláh in Takur, where the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith spent His childhood, met a similar fate: it was demolished and the site was offered for sale to the public.

In Tehran and other cities throughout Iran, Bahá’í buildings were looted and burned, Bahá’í cemeteries were bulldozed and Bahá’í graves were broken open. In Tehran, as noted earlier, the Bahá’ís have long been forced to bury their dead in a barren stretch of land reserved by the authorities for “infidels.” Having access to their own cemeteries is especially important to Bahá’ís because, as might be expected, they are not allowed to bury their dead in Muslim cemeteries.