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Category: News
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Created: Friday, 19 June 2009 05:51
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Published: Friday, 19 June 2009 05:43
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Written by Angela Shortt, Sacramento Baha'i Examiner
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Angela Shortt
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Last Friday (June 8), started out like so many beginning-of-the-weekend nights—I finished doing my nightly meditations and prayers, then went over to my computer for one last check my emails and Facebook/Twitter accounts. At first, I didn’t notice anything different. But then I saw several people re-posted (known as “re-tweet” in Twitter Land) information on the Iranian elections. As a Baha’i, the elections have been of particular interest to me and many other Baha’is around the world, namely because there are a group of Baha’i women and men who have been unjustly thrown into Tehran’s notoriously brutal prison, the Evin Prison, for the “crime” of being members of the Baha’i Faith, which is “spreading corruption on the earth” a charge that could result in the death penalty. Also, they have been charged with "espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic".
{josquote}It didn’t matter to me personally that some of the people protesting the elections probably dislike or mistrust Baha’is.{/josquote}
There have been many Baha’i arrests in recent months, which, in retrospect, could be seen as a prelude to the tumultuous events in Iran over the past week. However, it has been precisely one year since the arrest of the Iranian Baha’i leaders who formed an informal administrative body for the affairs of Baha’is in Iran. Normally, Baha’is have a National Spiritual Assembly in their country that handles administrative duties on a national level. However, the Baha’is of Iran have been without a National Spiritual Assembly since June, 1980, after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The members of the NSA disappeared, and they are presumed dead. However, since the mid 19th century, Baha’is have been repeatedly denied their basic rights such as the right to meet and worship, have employment, own property and have education available to their children.
Initially, my (very naïve) hope was that the more moderate candidate would at least give the Baha’is more consideration concerning their human rights, but I have since abandoned that hope. Despite some political differences with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there has been no indication that Presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi would do anything but defer to the commands of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei, who is steadfast in his condemnation of the 300,000 Baha’is living in Iran. This was disheartening, but I was reminded that there is a time for change, and that change does not always occur on my personal timetable.
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