The Baha Is Of Iran

First comprehensive study of the Baha’i community of Iran Wide range of topics covered, including the role of women, schools and literature Includes many chapters authored by leading academics in Iranian Studies Fills a gap in the study of modern Iran

This book provides the first comprehensive assessment of the contribution of the United Nations to the human rights situation of the Bahá ís in Iran. It does this by examining the theoretical, legal, institutional and political dimensions of this issue in detail. The situation of the Bahá í community in Iran between 1979 and 2002 provides a particularly good test case for the international community due to its clarity. By giving attention to a singular case within a discrete time frame, this book is able to effectively examine the impact of UN human rights protection. Attention is given in this study to the clash between religion and human rights, the protection of freedom of religion or belief in international law, the workings of UN human rights charter-based and treaty bodies and their various mechanisms, and recommendations for the resolution of the Bahá í human rights situation in Iran.

For almost two centuries, followers of the Baha'i faith, Iran's largest religious minority, have been persecuted by the state. They have been made scapegoats for the nation's ills, branded enemies of Islam and denounced as foreign agents. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Baha'is have been barred from entering the nation's universities, more than two hundred have been executed, and hundreds more imprisoned and tortured. Now, however, Iran is at a turning point. A new generation has begun to question how the Baha'is have been portrayed by the government and the clergy, and called for them to be given equal rights as fellow citizens. In documenting, for the first time, the plight of this religious community in Iran since its inception, Fereydun Vahman also reveals the greater plight of a nation aspiring to develop a modern identity built on respect for diversity rather than hatred and self-deception.

The early histories of all the Baha'i communities of southern Iran are narrated here for the first time. Drawing on original sources including manuscript histories, letters, family records and material previously published only in Persian, Dr Moojan Momen provides a panoramic yet detailed account of the largest and the smallest Baha'i communities during the period 1851 to 1921. During this time they acquired characteristics that differentiated them from the rest of the population - their ethos and outlook, their system of administration and social institutions - and the persecution they faced as a result. The study of the religious minorities in Iran is still at an early stage. In particular, the Baha'i community has received relatively little attention, despite being the largest non-Muslim minority in Iran. Moojan Momen sets out to remedy this situation. Using a narrative style, he presents an account of the Baha'i communities in the southern half of Iran, province by province, during the early years of their formation and development. The starting point is the execution of the Bab in 1850 and the holocaust of 1852 when the shah gave orders for the extermination of the Babi community and thousands of Babis were killed. Set against the background of the turmoil in the social and economic conditions in Iran, the book stretches across the period of the leadership of the Baha'i community by Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha. The book traces the developments in the Iranian Baha'i community as it emerged from the Babi community and, under the guidance of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, became less parochial and more global in its outlook, seeking education and raising the position of women in its local communities. By the period of the leadership of 'Abdu'l-Baha, these communities were making a notable difference, with the establishment of modern schools, the promotion of the education and social role of women, the development of health facilities and the building of modern public baths. In all these areas the Baha'is were at the forefront of modernity and development in Iran. However, each upsurge in the activities of the Baha'i community resulted in an upsurge of persecution. This book is an important contribution to the knowledge of the early days of the Baha'i Faith, the development of the largest non-Muslim minority in Iran and the emergence of modernity in the Middle East.

By the end of the nineteenth century it became evident to Iran's ruling Qajar elite that the state's contribution to the promotion of modern education in the country was unable to meet the growing expectations set by Iranian society. Muzaffar al-Din Shah sought to remedy this situation by permitting the entry of the private sector into the field of modern education and in 1899 the first Baha'i school was established in Tehran. By the 1930s there were dozens of Baha'i schools. Their high standards of education drew many non-Baha'i students, from all sections of society.Here Soli Shahvar assesses these 'forgotten schools' and investigates why they proved so popular not only with Baha'is, but Zoroastrians, Jews and especially Muslims. Shahvar explains why they were closed by the reformist Reza Shah in the late 1930s and the subsequent fragility of the Baha'is position in Iran.