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My families have been imprisoned for not being Moslem. <br> About the Persecution<br> In Iran, repression of the Baha’i community is official government policy.<br> <br> This policy is outlined in a previously secret memorandum that was uncovered and published by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 1993. Written by the Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council in 1991 and signed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, this document provides a blueprint for the suppression of the Iranian Baha’i community. It contains specific guidelines for dealing with the Baha’is so that “their progress and development are blocked.”<br> <br> More than 20,000 gave their lives for this cause and thousand more were imprisoned. Today the Iranian government regards Baha’is as apostates and “unprotected infidels.” Baha’is in Iran have no legal rights.<br> <br> Baha’is in Iran are systematically denied jobs, pensions and the right to inherit property. More than 10,000 Baha’is have been dismissed from government and university posts since Iran’s 1979 revolution.<br> <br> A letter from an Iranian university, Payame Noor, states that it is Iranian government policy to prevent Baha’is, on account of their religion, from enrolling in universities and that they must be expelled if discovered to have enrolled. A confidential letter issued in 2006 by the director general of the Central Security Office of Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology instructs eighty-one Iranian universities to expel any student who is discovered to be a Baha’i. Baha’is have been barred from institutions of higher education since 11980.<br> <br> The government has put in place measures to suffocate the Baha’i community through extensive social and economic restrictions. It has destroyed Baha’is from obtaining business licenses and other means of livelihood, and harassed Baha’i school children.<br> <br> PERSECUTION<br> <br> Throughout the history of the Faith, the Baha’is of Iran have been persecuted. In the mid-1800’s, some 20,000 followers were killed by the authorities or by mobs, who viewed the infant movement as heretical to Islam.<br> <br> Baha’is understand this pattern of persecution as a manifestation of the misunderstanding and fear that often occur when a new religion emerges from the matrix of a well-established orthodoxy. The pattern has been repeated through the ages; indeed, virtually all of the world’s great religions have faced intense persecution in their early history.<br> <br> In 1979, with the establishment of an Islamic Republic, the persecutions took a new direction, becoming an official government policy and being pursued in a systematic way. Since that year, more than 200 Baha’is have been executed or killed, hundreds more have been imprisoned, and tens of thousands have been deprived of jobs, pensions, businesses, and educational opportunities. All national Baha’i administrative structures were banned by the government, and holy places, shrines, and cemeteries were confiscated, vandalized, or destroyed. <br> My relatives taken in custody January 2009.<br> <br> <br> Evaz Fanaian<br> evaz@fe.ro
By Evaz Fanaian

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