This week the Baha’i Community of Canada joins sister communities around the world in holding prayer sessions for the seven Baha’i leaders in Iran whose imprisonment enters its third year, and as news emerges of the harsh prison conditions.
The Iranian authorities have failed to produce any evidence of guilt on charges of “corruption on earth”, espionage, and propaganda activities, and have made no response to appeals by governments, Canada’s included, calling for the release of the Baha’is.
On Friday, over a hundred Baha’is from every province and territory, representing more than 30,000 Canadian Baha’is, gather at the Toronto Baha’i Centre for a conference. They will open their meeting at 2 pm with prayers in English, French and Persian for the safety of the Baha’is in Iran.
The Iranian regime continues to violate the fundamental human rights of the Baha’is of Iran, that country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, with interrogations, summary arrests and imprisonment, deprivation of the means to a livelihood, wanton destruction of property, denial of education to Baha’i students, and incitement to hatred in the media.
Information about prison conditions has emerged that shows no regard by Iranian authorities for international human rights standards related to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The two Baha’i women and five men are confined to two, small rancid cells, without beds or bedding, with little access to fresh air. Contact with families is limited to no more than ten minutes each week, usually behind glass, rarely in person.
The persecution of Baha’is has been met by a redoubling of the efforts of the Iranian Baha’is to serve their fellow Iranians and contribute to the well-being of Iran. Rather than resorting to a militant or violent response, Baha’is inside and outside Iran have taken legal measures to bring their plight to the attention of fair-minded Iranians, the international community, and the Iranian Government itself. Though Iranian authorities have been deaf to such appeals, intensifying the oppression of Baha’is, results have been positive with governments as well as with Iranians around the world who have denounced the treatment of Baha’is.
Canada is the home to more than eleven thousand Iranian Baha’is, many of whom are relatives and friends of those in prison or whose lives have been subjected to persecution. The son of one of the imprisoned leaders is an engineer in Ottawa, and the niece of another prisoner is a student in Montreal.