Iran Press Watch: The Baha'i Community

Baha'i International Community deplores destruction of Khavaran cemetery

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 04:23 PM PST

GENEVA, 30 January (BWNS) - The destruction earlier this month of a cemetery in Iran used for the mass burial of hundreds killed in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution in 1979 is an outrageous violation of human dignity, the Baha'i International Community said today. At least 15 Baha'is were among those buried at the site.

"The destruction of the Khavaran cemetery by government agents goes against all concepts of respect for the dead in any culture, including values preached in Islam," said Diane Ala'i, the representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

"We join with other human rights groups inside and outside of Iran in condemning this shameful deed, which is yet another sign of the intolerance of the current Iranian regime," said Ms. Ala'i. Located southeast of Tehran, the Khavaran cemetery was used as the burial site for hundreds who were killed in the early years of the Iranian revolution.

Earlier this month, a group of unidentified individuals using bulldozers demolished an area of the cemetery known as the "graveyard of the infidels," the area where many of the people executed in the early years of the revolution were buried.

Reports indicate the group clearly represented a branch of the government. It was also reported that the officials told the cemetery custodian that the parcel was being demolished to develop a green space or park.

Human rights groups inside and outside of Iran have since registered protests.

On 20 January 2009, Amnesty International called on Iranian authorities to "immediately stop the destruction of hundreds of individual and mass, unmarked graves in Khavaran, south Tehran, to ensure that the site is preserved and to initiate a forensic investigation at the site as part of a long-overdue thorough, independent and impartial investigation into mass executions which began in 1988. …"

Iranian human rights advocates, including Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, have also condemned the cemetery's destruction.

"We have recently learned that Khavaran cemetery, where the victims of the illegal massacre of political prisoners in the 1980s and especially 1988 are buried, has been destroyed by some officials," the Human Rights Defenders' Centre said in a statement issued on 25 January, according to Agence France-Presse. "The Human Rights Defenders Centre condemns this ugly and appalling act and notes that everyone including the authorities is required to maintain the dignity of the dead."

At least 15 Baha'is were buried in the same section of the cemetery, all victims in the early 1980s of the government's campaign to systematically persecute Iranian Baha'is for their religious beliefs.

Specifically, it is known that eight members of the national Baha'i governing body killed on 27 December 1981 are buried there, along with six members of the Baha'i Spiritual Assembly of Tehran, killed on 4 January 1982. It is likely that other Baha'is were buried there, too.

According to a Baha'i whose husband is buried at the site, most of the graves in that section of the cemetery were unmarked, designated only by numerical row markers.

"They called it the place for 'infidels,'" said the widow, who currently resides outside of Iran. "They just gave us row numbers, and that is how I knew where my husband was. But there were no markers and we were not allowed to identify which grave was which."

Source: http://news.bahai.org/story/691

I Condemn Publication of the Baha'i Names!

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 03:53 PM PST

Editor's Note: We live in a new moment of history. For the first time in the entire history of the Baha'i Faith, Iranian intellectuals, journalists, university professors and generally Iranians of all walks of life are speaking loudly and courageously in support of the beleaguered Baha'is of Iran. Many pages of this site have been dedicated to recording testimonials of these individuals who are moved by the remarkable example of the Baha'is of Iran in voicing their profound concern and deep indignation. Joining this chorus of support is now an unlikely voice. Abdollah Shahbazi is no friend of Baha'is. For the last 30 years, he has made a career writing the most caustic attacks against the Baha'i Faith and its members – all in the guise of "historical research". Nonetheless, recent events seem to have awakened the conscience even of a man like Shahbazi – with his deep-seated hatred of the Baha'is – and compelled him to speak up against atrocities committed by the regime against the Baha'is of Iran or planned genocide by their nefarious agents. This is a translation of what Shahbazi posted on his personal blog on Monday, 26 January 2009, under the title "Important Announcement".

In recent days, the names of a number of the Baha'is of Shiraz have been widely disseminated in a document of 31 pages. This list is accompanied by several provocative extracts from talks of Imam Khomeini, the exalted leader of the Revolution, and several other sources of emulation [i.e. high clerics] regarding the Baha'i sect, intended to incite religious sentiments against the aforesaid Baha'is. This list provides the complete identity and details of a number of Baha'is who occupy various occupations, such as painters, welders, carpenters, physicians, health care providers, or people engaged in other pursuits. The list gives their exact home and work addresses as well.

This action, which has taken place at the behest of certain societies [i.e. Hojjatieh Society which greatly influences Iran's ruling class and is dedicated to eradication of the Baha'i community], is the beginning of the execution of a plan which can lead to most tragic and evil ends, such as unleashing waves of attacks against the listed Baha'is and promoting persecution against them.

I strongly condemn this most conniving and worrisome act, which is only now at the beginning of its implementation, and direct the attention of authorities in the Judiciary, Intelligence and Security apparatuses of the nation and province to its dangerous and treacherous consequences. …

[Posted on Monday, 26 January 2009, at: http://www.shahbazi.org/blog/index.htm. Translation by Iran Press Watch.]

Prayer for Prisoners

Posted: 30 Jan 2009 08:17 AM PST

Editor's Note: Iran Press Watch is pleased to share an authentic prayer of Baha'u'llah in Arabic for protection and delivery of Baha'i prisoners. This prayer is accompanied by special instructions revealed by Baha'u'llah pertaining to its use. We also share a provisional translation of the same prayer.

Baha'u'llah instructs that believers must detach themselves and recite this prayer nine times.

He is, in truth, the Omnipotent, the Unconstrained! O Lord of Names and Fashioner of the Heavens!

Free Thy lovers from the prison of the enemy. Verily, Thou art the Sovereign Ordainer of Thine irrevocable decree. He who alone shineth resplendent on the horizon of creation. O Everlasting Root! By the life of the All-Glorious, deprive them not of hope, nay rather aid and assist them. Verily, Thou rulest as Thou pleasest and within Thy grasp lie the kingdoms of creation. The fangs of Thine enemies have been whetted, ready to bite into the flesh of Thy lovers.

Protect these companions, O Thou Who rulest over all humankind and art the Judge on the Day of Judgement.

Download: Original Prayer for Prisoners - Arabic (PDF)

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