Ay. Sadr Issues Fatwa on Bahai Rights

Rooz Online

Attorney Ms. Ghiti Poorfazel told Iran’s ILNA labor news agency last week that a court had issued sentences for 15 of her Bahai clients in Shiraz. “My colleague has seen the sentences according to which the sentences of four of my clients have been commuted from 1.5 years to a 5 year suspended prison term. The court found four of the defendants to have continuously engaged in acts against the security of the state and sentenced them to three and a half years of commuted sentences while another seven of the defendants were sentenced to 30 months of prison each. We will appeal the sentences and hope that the new sentences will be reduced.”

Yesterday, the news of the sentencing of another Bahai defendant was published in Tehran. In Tabriz too a Bahai was arrested and summoned to a court in the city of Tabriz along with another Bahai.

Earlier this month on July 5th news reports indicated the sentencing of seven Bahai citizens in the Revolutionary Court in Orumieh. According to this report, “From the seven defendants, three were sentenced to six years of prison each while the remaining four to six months each.

In recent years, and even after the election of a new president in 2013, pressure on religious minorities in Iran has been rising. Pressure on Bahais too has been growing in the form of arrests, summons and prison sentences.

In addition to government pressure, attacks on Bahais and even their murder by individuals or covert organized groups have continued as well. A few months ago reports indicated the kidnapping of a Bahai in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas who was found shot in the head. Prior to him, Iraj Mehdinejad, a Bahai resident of the same city had been killed through knife stabs. In January of this year a man had broken into the house of a Bahai family, stabbed the residents and then fled the scene.

The international Bahai association has written a letter to president Rouhani asking him to investigate these killings and attacks. The letter partly read, “During the last eight years till now, there had been attacks on the lives of 50 Bahais nine of which had been killed while no court had looked into who the perpetrators of the crimes were.”

A few months ago attorney Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize wrote a piece titled, “Bahai Murderers Escape Punishment,” in which she had written, “Because Bahaism is not recognized as a religion in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, if a person following Bahaism is murdered or injured through an attack, he is not provided any restitution. Bahais in Iran, who constitute about 350,000 people, face serious danger all the time because the unjust laws that have been passed can be misused.” She continued, “As a defender of human rights, I point the attention of the international community and particularly the UN and human rights organizations to the potential threat that exists for a group of Iranians and remind the officials of the Iranian government that the code of criminal procedures in the country must be reconsidered to be in line with human rights standards.”

In addition to the above, efforts to create hate against the Bahais and isolate them also continue. Extensive rumors against Bahais are continuously published and some of these are so gross that force even officials to deny or disclaim them. For example, in July, the head of judiciary of the province of Yazd said in response to a reporter’s question during a press conference who asked about the murder of seven individuals in Zarech by a Bahai, “This is pure rumor and there is no truth to it.”

Last year the fatwa that ayatollah Khamenei issued against Bahais says, “Any kind of association with this group should be refrained.” And in response to specific written questions that were asked of him about Bahais, he has responded with these words: “Bahais are condemned to be unbelievers and dirty and any food or other objects that may have come in contact with them through air must be desisted. The faithful are expected to confront this strayed group.”

The attacks on Bahais have been so widespread and intense that Shirin Ebadi has written the following in another letter on the subject. “Bahais have continuously been hated by the political rulers of Iran to the extent that they are not even allowed to bury their dead in general cemeteries. They must bury their dead in special cemeteries. Fundamentalists have repeatedly attacked Bahai cemeteries in various towns and uprooted their tomb stones. Bahais are deprived of all civil rights; they cannot be hired in government offices or the military. They are even deprived of private jobs that require some form of government licensing, such as working at a bakery, a restaurant, and hair salon.”

There have been efforts by some Shiite clerics to reduce the discrimination and deprivations of this group but to no avail. In a historic statement a few years ago, ayatollah Montazeri announced that because Bahais do not have a holy book, similar to the Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, they are not recognized as a religious minority under the constitution. But since they are citizens of this land and have a right to its water and land and civil rights, they must be given Islamic blessings, as is prescribed in the Quran and the leaders of our religion.”

This fatwa provided the ground for other similar rulings. Ayatollah seyed Hossein Sadr, a prominent Shii cleric and a relative of the famed seyed Mohammad Bagher Sadr who lived in Iraq, also issued a fatwa calling for the respect for the principles of justice and brotherhood in law and rejection of discrimination and pressure” against other religious minorities.

This fatwa has been widely disseminated and speaking to Din Online, ayatollah Sadr later said about his fatwa, “Being good to others is not related to special religions because we are all humans and the Quran calls us Adam. According to Imam Ali too there are two groups of people: brothers in religion or brothers in creation.” “If I disagree with a religion it does not mean I am depriving them of their natural human or their national rights and deny these to them. Our religion demands that we treat humans - even our enemies - with justice and equality.”