This week marks the seventh year since the imprisonment of seven Baha’i leaders by the Islamic Republic. The Baha’i—whose religion is an offshoot of Islam founded in 19th-century Persia—have been subject to systematic repression since the 1979 revolution. Elliott Abrams writes:
The persecution [of the Baha’i] continues to increase—including since the election of the supposed reformer Hassan Rouhani as president in 2013. For example, there were 57 Baha’i in prison in 2011, but by January 2014 the number had reached 136 (in addition to hundreds more awaiting trial or sentencing). . . . And state-controlled media have greatly increased their attacks on the Baha’i: instead of once every day or two in previous years, last year attacks were running an amazing average of 400 per month. . . .
The Baha’i have no clergy and have self-governing communities with ad-hoc leaders. Their informal leadership group in Iran . . . was arrested in May 2008 and sent to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. There these seven men and women remain today, seven years later. They’ve been charged with espionage, cooperation with Israel, and “spreading corruption on earth,” among other crimes. They were tried in closed sessions in 2010. One of the lawyers who tried to represent them, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, says there was no evidence against them—nor did they get a fair trial. But all seven were sentenced to twenty-year terms.
On this seventh anniversary of their incarceration, it’s worth remembering the viciousness and the deceit with which the Iran continues to treat its peaceful Baha’i citizens. The truth about life in the Islamic Republic is revealed not by the smooth diplomats it sends abroad for international negotiations, but by the suffering of these peaceful and vulnerable citizens.
Read more on Pressure Points: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2015/05/19/a-sad-anniversary-as-irans-brutalization-of-the-bahai-continues/