Enough is enough

To worship is a crime, to get an education is a crime, to work is a crime, even in death, getting a proper burial and a burial site seems to be a crime. These basic human rights are not fictional nor exaggerated.

This is exactly the conditions that the Baha’i community in Iran are living in for over three decades, and it’s not improving.

It is interesting that the Baha’is do not feel victimised by these violations of their rights, they do not hate their fellow compatriots who curse them and call them impure on daily basis.

Lovingly they continue ‘trying ‘ to live a normal life while serving humanity, following the main teachings of their faith that has unity of humankind as its core principle.

Though not feeling victimised, the injustices committed upon the Baha’is who by the way consist the largest religious minority after Islam must be brought to light. The world should know how in the 21st century a group of citizens, in their own country are being deprived of their rights, oppressed and marginalised in the name of religion.

And came punishment
Since 1844 when the Babi and Baha’i Religions started in Iran, there have been more than 20,000 martyrs; many were tortured in the most gruesome of ways before being killed in public places to be made as examples for others.

Before the Islamic Revolution in 1997, matters were calmer with the Baha’i community of Iran who seemed, at least on the surface of matters, to be practicing their Faith.

Soon after the revolution, they were once more put to test, this time, it included confiscation of property, not giving jobs to Baha’is, depriving youth from higher education and any sort of pressure to make life difficult for them.

Matters got worse at times to the extent of breaking into the Baha’i cemeteries and levelling them with the ground, with no respect even for the dead.

Another form of aggression was the arrest of seven Baha’i leaders eight years ago, they are called prisoners of conscience. Their crime, embracing a religion that the current Iranian government does not approve.

With no proper access to lawyers, these leaders were sentenced to 20 years in prison in horrible conditions. Later on, the sentence was reduced to 10 years which eight have passed.

At the moment there are many movements and campaigns on social media saying ‘Enough’ to this imprisonment and asking the Iranian government to release these prisoners of conscience along with other Baha’i prisoners. These have for one reason or the other have been incarcerated. Enough is enough.

Violation
Thousands of citizens have been arrested without proper warrants or sufficient legal basis in just the last few years.

Dissenters facing prosecution are routinely denied access to lawyers, held for months without charge, denied access to information about charges or evidence against them, charged with capital offenses such as “enmity against God,” forced to confess in show trials after being tortured, and given disproportionately harsh sentences—including death—for “crimes” as petty as throwing rocks during demonstrations.

Extremely short trials, secret executions, and forced televised confessions are far from unusual.