U.S. Bahais Denounce Abuses (The Washington Post – 7/6/1983)

          
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          By Caryle Murphy
          Washington Post Staff W;iter
          When the phone rang in the pre-
          dawn darkness of Saeid Eshraghi's
          home in Nácogdoches, Tex., two
          weeks ago, it brought terrible news
          from halfway around the world:
          After eight months in prison, his 60-
          year-old father had been hanged by
          Iranian Revolutionary Guards for
          refusing to recant his religious be-
          liefs.
          But more was to come. Another
          phone call 24 hours later relayed the
          message that his mother and 21-
          year-old sister, along with eight
          other women, three of them teen-
          agers, had met the same fate. -
          The Eshraghis are Bahais, mem-
          bers of a religious minority of.
          350,000 in Iran who have suffered
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          increasing persecution and repres-
          sion from the Shiite Moslem govern-
          ment that regards them as a heret-
          isa! sect.
          The executions came a month
          after President Reagan had publicly
          criticized “the persecution and severe
          repression of the Bahais in Iran” and
          appealed to Iranian leader Ayatollah
          Ruhollah Khomeini to spare the
          lives of 22 members of the religion
          who had been condemned to death.
          Reagan's appeal followed requests by
          congressmen and Bahai leaders that
          he intercede on behalf of the Bahais.
          Six .days later the ayatollah re-
          jected the appeal in an angry broad-
          cast speech, saying Reagan's concern
          for the Bahais proved that they were
          spies. Reagan's statement was care-
          See BAIIAIS, A20, Col. I
          BP tYO27 i
          aMjfttgtó 4 t
          l6thYear No.213 ®1 TheWonPescom y WEDNESDAy, JULY 6,1983 0 2
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          Exeeutions,Arrests in Iran
          U.S. Bahais Denounce Abuses
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          - — - TflFW tcHlNGTONPOST
          Bahai Leaders in U.S. Deplore Suffering of M nthers in Iran
          BAHAIS, From Al ,have had their pensions cut off and religious rites, hots can we believe their captor in which they are told: resentatives c ndem the persecution the spot market in Europe. In the
          fully weighed because of fears that it have been forced to leave sthools thia any longer?. “If you recant, you are fre&, you have in rnational meeti0ga a d provide first qua er of this year those pur.
          might anger the ayatollah and spur and universities. State Depart ent “Had these people not been spies, your family, belon ngs, job, house, . humanitarian relief to those who had chasesmade up t e bulk of the S185
          to execute more peopl officials say. between 250 and 300 then Reagsn1 would not have ut- ever hing. If you don't recant you, left Iran. - million worth of imports from Iran
          Firus Kazêmzade a professor of a S are knoan to be imprisoned tered a word.” . are going to be hanged.” At present any hanian Bahal who to t count .
          Russian histor at Yale and secre- in Iran. Since Reagan's appeal, 17 Bahais, ‘Fm a 34-year-old man and I asks for asylum in the United States “1 thai be fo ling myself, like the
          ta for the Bahai National Spiritual The pacticular plight of the Ba- i cluding Esbeagi's family, have never cried in y life, but I just . is granted i but a debate continu Je in Eccope thought it could
          Assembly, the governing body for its hais has been largely submerged in been executed. Two prominent Ba- cried for one day. I couldn't help i ” among o cts]a about whether public never happen, but I don't think they
          100,000 American adherents, said he the general accounts of atrocities hais were abducted in Tehran last said Eshraghi, who came to this statements hcct or help the Bahais. are going to start a large-scale mas-
          cannot be sure the recent series of and execptioflS since the Shuts the- week, and in the village of Ival last country as an architecture student in he problem is not being able to sacre,” Kazemzadeh said.
          executions was in direct retaliation ocrary came to power in iran. Am- Friday 130 men, women and chil- 1978 but became a restaurateur in evaluate what a statement's impact These daya Saeid EshragH tries to
          for Reagan's remarks, but “it may nesty International estimated in De- dren were run out of their Itoted Nacogdoches because of the upheav- is going to have. W 're still the, soothe his grief with the thought
          have been partly in answer.” cember of 1981 that at least 3,800 homes after being forced to stand in al in his homeland. ‘Great Satan' sa far as Iran ia con-
          In tolosh Eshra , the father of people had been executed since the a walled field for three days and Fearful of further aliena ng Kh cemed and they are ve resentfal of that he is now the “son of a
          - Saeid Es a and a fo er employs Iranian Moslem revolution began. . nights without food or shelter and meini, the Bah leadership in the what they see as interference in their and says his Bahai frith has groan
          of Iran's national oil company, hia On May 22 President Reagan told to recant their fait according United States init Iy refrained mestic affa ” said one State De- stronger.
          wife, Ezat, 5Z and their thugher, urged other world leaders to join him to Bahai officials here. from speaking out against the per- partment official .. “I had two little birds called
          Roya, were among the latest group in appealing to Khomeini to spare An outgrmcth of Islam, the Bahai secution. . . There are no diplomatic relations fmch ” he related. The thy after he
          of Bahais executed in the southern the lives of 22 Bahais condemned to religion was at ed in 1M4 by an But as the disappearances, arrests between the o countries and eco- le ed of his father's death, “I was
          toan of Shires in a campaigu that death, aaying this would be “a step Iranian merchant in Shirar named and executions increased, their pa- numic preessees are limited by the. just c ng. I went outside and freed
          has caused 155 deaths, the impris- fonvard for Iran and the world corn- Se ed Au Mohammed and now has tience gradually ended. . fact that trade consists mainly of the birds. I didn't want to see any
          onment of scores of others and the muni .” - . adherents . in more than 150 coun- “It was only when a poliry of p r- U.S. impo of Iranian oil bought on creature caged.”
          flight of about 15,000 fiom Iran Khomeini gave Reagan his reply tries. secuting the Bahais began to emerge
          since the Istemic revolution began in in a rambling, sarcastic speech on . Although the Ithomeini govern- and when dire appeals to the Iranian
          1979. national radio. ment says Bahais are executed for government were rejected, telegrgifls
          Ch ing the Bshths with “So he has gought the assistance antigovemmgnt politics, Eshai lead- not accepted, pleas went unanswered
          Zionism, prostitotion and ying for of the entire world, sa ng that these ers say the enmity is religious. The and foreign llraniani diplomats
          foreign powers the Shuts cle people are not apies. They do not e erienct of Eahra 's mother would look us in the eye and tell us
          have executed moot of the national bother anyode... If they had not would support this ew. As her son moat outrageous things,” that they
          leaders of the reli on, confiscated . said these things, well we might recounts it, when relativea visited changed their . tactic, Kanemzadeh
          their religious centers and bank àc- have, out of sheer simplicity, thought her in prison June 17 the day after aaid. . I
          counts and allowed mobs to best that peobably they are engaged in her husband was hanged, she told Following . testimony by Bahai
          • their followers and burn and loot their oun affairs, exercising what them: “Were going to go see Dad so leaders on Capitol Hill, Reps. Jim L.
          their homes, according to Bahai they regard as worship. just be strong. We've aheady had Leach (R-Iowa), wa J. Derwinski
          leaders in the United States. Bahais . “ [ Buti having heard Mr. R sgan's . the ‘class.'” (R-Ill.) and Don Bonker (D.Wash.)
          have also been fired from jobs as claim that these people have nothing According to her son, the “class” is wrote to President Reagan in Novem-
          . teachers and government emplayes, else in mind but to exercise their a session given to Bahai prisonecs by her 1982 asking him to have U.S. rep- . . .
          In 1844 in a direct challenge to the Shiite Bahai FaIth tresses are about 1,000 Bahais and their assembly
          meets at their center at 16th a d Montague
          Moslem clergy of Iran who hold thgt Mo-
          hammed was the last of a series of prophets streets in Northwest Vashin on.
          goin all the way back to Adam; the Shiraz Value f Religions, Many Bah i leaders believe the Shiite clergyh
          hatred far their religion stemS from the fact that
          • merchant Seyyed Mohammed said he was a
          prnphet equal to Mohammed, that another nity of Huinanity Bahais believe cleriff are not necessary. “I think
          U.
          ihat it is the Babel abrogation of the clergy in its
          revelation is an ongoing process and that the rael, which Bahaia believe to be the reason for own religion; that is to say, all of a sudden, it
          became clear to the people that you can actoallly
          greater, prophet would follow because divine
          Koran should be interpreted allegorically, the Shuts Moslem clergf's chargesof Zionism. get to heaven without your priest,” Kazemzadeh
          Acc6rding to the Bahai faith, Christianity, In the United States the religion's beginnings said at a congressional hearing in 1982.
          Judaism and Islam are all the res t of dbene date back to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in “By envisioning a federation of na ons under I
          revelatIon. Emphasiing the unity of humanity, Chicago where its tenets wer first publicized to a world government, the Bahai faith shatters
          the religion advocates the establishment of a Americans. The faith's national headquarters is Shiite notions of exclusiveness and monopolistic
          world government. the Bahai House of Worship on Lake Michigan poesession of power,” said California state judge
          After Sewed Mohammed's . execution, his' inChicago. .l es Nelson, chairman of the Bshai National
          teachings were propagated by a nobleman The 100,000 American Bahais are scattered Spiritual Assembly in the United States.
          named Baha'u'llah. who gained the follraving of acrun the United States in more than 7,400 /oother Bshai teaching that has incurred the
          thousands before he was expelled from Iran.,He localities from rural hamlets in South Carolina wrath of the Shuts clergy is the idea that men
          died in the city of Akko. generally known as to Los Angeles. Tltsv are organized into I . 1 lt l al wuowo are equal. And since Ilahai mar-
          erc, then in the OttoOuin Empire hut. now in c,,mniunities run by local g,,verfling bodies rims si' cm l k'galiv rermmgnized in Iran, the
          Israel. ‘l'he faith's w,,rld i-enter is in Hails. Is- called assethhlims. In the Washington area there M,slems lergy s age' the women f pristitUtion. -