wfn.org | Baha'i news: The Baha'is of Ivel - Undaunted spirit

[Rob Weinberg <rweinber@bwc.org>]

>Baha'i World News Service
>http://news.bahai.org
>For more information, contact news@bahai.org<mailto:news@bahai.org

>The Baha'is of Ivel - Undaunted spirit

GENEVA, 11 July (BWNS) - Following the demolition of Baha'i homes in the Ir 
anian village of Ivel - reported last week - there is another story that mu st 
also be told: that of sympathetic villagers who have commiserated with t heir 
Baha'i neighbors over the injustices they have been forced to endure.

It is also the story of an undaunted spirit and a commitment to social good  
that continues to enable the Baha'is to transcend their prolonged persecut ion 
and be active participants in the social and economic development of th eir 
village.

>Service and persecution

In its earliest days, Ivel was the summer residence for sheep farmers from  the 
surrounding region of Mazandaran. There have been Baha'is in the villag e for 
more than a century and a half. Indeed, since the years immediately f ollowing 
the establishment of their Faith in mid-19th century Iran, the Bah a'is have 
comprised about half of Ivel's total population. All the while, t hey have 
lived side by side with their Muslim neighbors in comparative harm ony.

Unfortunately, however, outside elements strongly inimical to the Faith hav e 
periodically sought to stir up the local population against the Baha'i co 
mmunity, resulting in intermittent persecution - ranging from life-threaten ing 
to less harsh forms of harassment.

In 1941, for example, lives were imperiled when gangs from outside roused l 
ocal citizens to attack the Baha'is. The Baha'is were arrested, severely be 
aten and subjected to extortion; their houses and belongings were plundered . 
Finally, they were banished to a village seven kilometers away. When the  
situation eased some months later, the Baha'is returned to their homes and  
farms.

The lengths to which those holding enmity towards the Baha'is would go are  
perhaps best summed up in an incident that occurred in the mid-1950s when a  
member of the newly-established "Hojjatieh" society arrived in Ivel. Hojja tieh 
- a semi-clandestine traditionalist Shia organization - was founded on  the 
premise that the most immediate threat to Islam was the "heresy" of th e Baha'i 
Faith, which had to be eliminated.

When this individual proved unsuccessful in his attempts to drive a wedge b 
etween the Muslims and the Baha'is, he endeavoured to prevent their cows fr om 
grazing in the same pasture, on the basis that the Baha'i cows were "unc lean".

For a few days, the cattle belonging to the Baha'is were confined to their  
barns while those of the Muslims went to graze. The Baha'is repeatedly refe 
rred the matter to the village head, appealing for compassion to be shown t o 
the animals. Consequently, a decision was made to have the cows enter the  
pasture from opposite sides, so as to respect the decree. This did not acc ord 
with the natural instincts of the livestock, who continued to graze tog ether.

>Contribution to social progress

Throughout the years, notwithstanding the efforts to repress them, the Baha 'is 
have actively contributed to the betterment of life in their village. I n 
addition to the role they played in the area's agriculture, they establis hed a 
school at which local children, regardless of their religion, were ed ucated. 
By 1946, when the Iranian government had begun to organize rural sc hools and 
assumed responsibility for the one in the village, Ivel's school  extended to 
six elementary level classes in which some 120 pupils from Ivel  and seven 
other nearby villages were receiving general education.

In 1961, in another example of service to their community, the Baha'is comp 
leted a bath house for use by the villagers, which included modifications t o 
the local reservoir and the introduction of modernizations to improve the  
facility's levels of hygiene and the general health of the people.

>Escalation of attacks

Following Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, the situation for Baha'is in I vel 
deteriorated. Land was confiscated and attempts to regain it proved uns 
uccessful. Baha'is were denied access to health clinics and other instituti ons 
that they themselves had helped establish. Muslim children were encoura ged by 
their teacher to harm their Baha'i classmates. When parents proteste d, the 
teacher found other means to persecute his Baha'i pupils, including  failing 
them in their exams.

In June 1983, the Baha'is were forced out of their homes and transported by  
bus to the nearest major city, Sari. When they arrived, the authorities ma de 
them go back. Returning to Ivel, they were locked into a local mosque. M ore 
than 130 of them - including children and the elderly - were held capti ve for 
three days without food and water. When pressure to make them recant  their 
faith failed, they were allowed to return home. However, that same n ight, they 
were attacked by villagers. A few were taken off by the mob, oth ers were 
injured, and more were forced to hide in a nearby forest.

Since that time, many of the Ivel Baha'is have resided nearby and return to  
the village only in the summer to plant and harvest their crops and tend t o 
their properties. According to Natoli Derakhshan, a Baha'i from Ivel who  was 
interviewed recently by the Persian-language Radio Farda, "Each time or  each 
year when they wanted to go there they had to obtain permits from the  Justice 
Administration to be allowed to stay in their own homes for two or  three days."

In the past three years, the Baha'i International Community has monitored a n 
increase in efforts to put pressure on the Baha'is of Ivel to leave the r egion 
altogether. "Their empty homes have been burned, Baha'is have been su bjected 
to verbal and physical attacks, and the 100-year old Baha'i cemeter y was 
confiscated and sold for conversion into residential property," said  Diane 
Ala'i, representative of the Baha'i International Community to the Un ited 
Nations in Geneva.

"Numerous complaints have been filed at all levels but, in general, the Bah 
a'is are only met with indifference. The authorities say that there's littl e 
they can do in the face of the opposition Baha'is face from the local res 
idents," she said. "In every case, knowledge of the demolitions or the moti ve 
behind them was denied by local government officials."

"What we are witnessing in Ivel, and the surrounding region of Mazandaran,  is 
part of a wider campaign to humiliate and dishearten all the Baha'is and  
prevent them from practicing their faith in any way whatsoever," said Ms.  
Ala'i. "The government has certainly demonstrated thus far that if it is no t 
behind it, it is either unwilling to stop it or incapable of doing so."

In recent weeks when Mr. Derakhshan heard stories about the imminent destru 
ction of the Baha'i homes in the village, he went with other Baha'is to var 
ious officials to find out if the rumors were true. "We were told not to wo rry 
and that there was not such a possibility; we believed them," he told R adio 
Farda.

"We do not know and cannot say that it was ordered by someone," he said. "A ll 
we know is that unfortunately everything has been completely destroyed."

>Local and international support

There are, however, many villagers in Ivel who are deeply troubled by these  
developments. In an interview with the Rooz Online website, Mr. Derakhshan  
paid tribute to those who have expressed dismay and concern at the ill-tre 
atment of their Baha'i neighbors: "These days many of our Muslim folks sat  
together with us with tearful eyes, and apologized to us, and held our hand s!  
We are thankful to them all."

The news from Ivel has also received widespread attention from further afie ld 
- in the world's news media and online news services, including a host o f 
Persian language outlets.

Among the English language reports, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ran a s 
tory on 29 June with the headline, "Baha'i Houses Demolished In Iran." It a lso 
carried video of the incident which had been obtained by Human Rights A 
ctivists of Iran.

On 29 June, the National Review Online published an article under the headl ine 
"Regime Razes Bahai Homes in Iran."

A feature on the BBC website, titled "Iran's Bahai community fear rise in p 
ersecution", began: "First there are the images of wooden beams on fire. Th en 
buildings come into view, some without windows and doors, others reduced  to 
rubble. The shaky mobile phone footage posted on YouTube by Iranian hum an 
rights activists shows scenes of destruction filmed secretly from inside  a 
car...The reports from Ivel residents say that by June 22, almost 50 hou ses 
belonging to Bahais had been flattened."

"Several of these websites have offered places for comments by readers," sa id 
Ms. Alai. "After enduring so much persecution for so long, we are certai n that 
the Baha'is of Ivel appreciate the support of people from all over t he world - 
including many sympathetic Iranian citizens - who have taken the  time to 
express their outrage over this latest incident."

To read the story online and see the photographs, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/782