Written evidence submitted by National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United
Kingdom
INTENSIFYING PERSECUTION
OF THE
BAHÁ'ÍS
IN IRAN
I am writing to request a meeting with you on
behalf of the Hon. Barnabas Leith, Secretary of the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the UK in response to
a marked intensification of the persecution of the Bahá'ís
in Iran.
The latter half of 2004 has seen the Iranian
authorities renew their efforts to persecute the Bahá'í
community. The Bahá'í have been ordered to cease
any and all collective activity, they have been threatened with
the removal of the state's protection from elements in the population
who may wish to attack them out of their "Islamic sentiments"
and there have been fresh pressures on the cultural, economic
and social life of the Bahá'í community. Young Bahá'ís
have again been denied access to university education after a
cruel deception by the authorities had raised their hopes of change.
Specific cases we have learned of recently include:
— A Bahá'í who was abducted
and assaulted by unknown assailants who pressured him to convert
to Islam. When he reported this to a public court they made repeated
efforts to get him to drop his complaint.
— A family brought a prosecution against
another Iranian citizen who had killed their relative in what
the court termed "quasi-intentional murder". Despite
securing a conviction they were refused blood money on the grounds
that the deceased was a Bahá'í and the killer was
given a 4 month suspended sentence.
— Earlier this month the Iranian Bahá'ís
published an open letter to President Khatami asking for restitution
of their rights. One individual was arrested while presenting
this letter to a group of jurists and detained in Evin prison.
For the first 10 days of his incarceration the authorities disclaimed
to have any knowledge of his whereabouts, leading to fears for
his physical integrity.
Mindful of the ongoing work of the Foreign Affairs
Committee into foreign policy aspects of the war against terrorism,
which has examined human rights questions in Iran, representatives
of the UK Bahá'í community would like to meet with
you in the New Year and brief you more fully on our concerns over
the deteriorating situation for our Iranian co-religionists. The
Bahá'í community has always presented a soft target
to forces vying for supremacy in Iranian politics at times of
tension and uncertainty in the past. This is true again of the
current period of time.
If you are willing to meet with our representatives
in principle perhaps your staff or staff to the committee might
contact this office to arrange further details.
Daniel Wheatley
Office of External Affairs
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís
of the United Kingdom
20 December 2004
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