‘ iran's Persecution of Baha'i Unchecked. 1,
10 Women Reported Hanged After Refusing to Renounce F itI t
BY GEORGE CORNELL,ASSOCiatCd Press 4
After being questioned and threatened for hours and were confined three days and ilenied food and water
assured that they could save themselves and gain unless they converted to Islam. r'
national respect if they renounced their “misguided” Eventually released without yielding, they ‘were'
faith, the 10 unyielding women were hanged. attacked by mobs, driven from their homes and'forced to
Executed were two teen-age girls, five women in hide in a forest outside the village.
their 20s and three older women, all members of one of In the execution of Baha'is, the Irani ii”coiii 'ts
the world's most tolerant, peace-loving religions, the That cha ge, Kazemzadeh says, is “becau ê'Baha'iS
Baha'i faith. teach the equality of the sexes”—which theKhömciiii
Their executions in the city of Shiraz in southern Iran regime sees as depraved. .•
on June 18, as recounted by American Baha'i leaders, Although the Iranian courts cite such chargés'ájaii st
represented only one episode in a grisly, three-year the Baha'is, rather than religion, a judge in Shiraz s i1d ii
succession of deaths and abuse against Iran's largest -
religious minority.
“The objective is the elimination of the Baha'i
community,” says Firuz Kazemzadeh, a Yale University . . ir
expert on the Middle East and chief executive of the An Iranian judge was quoted as
Baha'i National Assembly in the United States.
It is a systematic, grinding process of arrests, denouncing the perverted Ba/ia iS; ‘ ‘
confiscations of property and assets, dismissals from ‘
jobs, expulsion of children from school and executions who are instruments of Satan and!
designed to intimidate and spread fear, he said. . . ,
The persecution so far has not involved “mass followers of the devil.
murder,” Kazemzadeh said in a telephone interview, _________________________________________________
but, he asked, in the face of executions over religious —
belief, ‘How long can human nerve endure?”
Only two days before the women were killed, SIX an interview in the newspaper Khabar-I-Junub last
Baha'i men, ranging in age from 23 to 60, were hanged in Feb 22. .
- the same city, and, later, on June 24. a young man was -- “The IraMan nation has. ,determined to establish
executed by hanging. In these cases, as in the others, the government of God on earth. Therefore, it cannOt
Baha 1 officials said, the victims were offered release if' tolerate the perverted Baha'is, who are instruments of•
they would recant their faith. ... .• Satan and followers of the devil. . . There i io place
“They're told they can be freed, have then' homes for Baha'is and Baha'ism.” -.
back and their jobs,” said, Robert Blum of the Baha'i The persecution has been protested by
temple and headquarters in Wilmette, ill. That s the Congress, Canada, West Germany, Great Britath,isr.:
offer—your life versus your faith. Many are offered tralia, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the U.N t rnmI-
more than they had before.” , sion on Human Rights, plus organizationa isuç 1 , is
But few .have given in, because almost. all the Baha' Amnesty International and the U S National C5tincil4f '
members under arrest believed that earthly survival is Churches
not as important as life's quality for eternity, Blum said. Baha'i ‘leaders see the campaign as a genocidal
Compared to Nazi Persecution of Jews attempt to wipe out Iran's 350,000 Baha'is, tile largest
religious minority in a land where the faith or lflatett.!Ti;
The killings, persecution and pressure are being 1844. Around the world, there are now about ntl4iDfl:
compared to the early Nazi persecution of the Jews. But Baha'is in 165 countries, with 100,000 in tff Jn teD
in that case, Jews were classified racially and had no States . .
chance to recant to save themselves. . . .‘ . ‘
Kazemzadeh likens the situation of Iran's Baha'is to . .
that of the early Christians in the Roman Empire who
died rather than renounce their faith.
“It's a matter of transcendence, of values greater than
life itself,” he said.
In the last three years under the regime of the .
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran, there have been 9
142 known hangings, firing-squad executions or assassi- — 5
nations of Baha'is, mostly local or national Ieadqrs. ..
Among other abuses are destruction of. Baha'i . . i . >
property, including homes, businesses and shrines,. - ‘ .— z
stopping of pensions. to the elderly, ousters from jobs and i
schools, and attacks by mobs. ‘. •‘ . . ..
In the first week of July, about 130 Baha'is, including . ..
women and children, from the northern village of Ival
n,
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