Jeune Street

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

42 Iranian professionals recently posted on iranian.com a very moving open letter, which lists reasons that they are ashamed at the treatment of the Baha’is in Iran over the past century. Here is a brief excerpt:

We are ashamed that in addition to the intense suppression of Baha’is during its formative decades, the last century also witnessed periodic episodes of persecution of this group of our countrymen, in which their homes and businesses were set on fire, and their lives, property and families were subjected to brutal persecution – but all the while, the intellectual community of Iran remained silent…

We, the undersigned, asked you, the Baha’is, to forgive us for the wrongs committed against the Baha’i community of Iran.

We will no longer be silent when injustice is visited upon you.

As the letter suggests, its significance lies in the collective silence that has long accompanied the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran. Secular intellectuals in Iran have perpetuated their own insidious prejudices against the Baha’is, reinforcing the theological justifications for their persecution. In this context, it is disheartening to note the tone of a CNN report of the open letter:

A group of Iranian intellectuals released a public apology this week for what they say is a long history of the country’s mistreatment of a religious group called the Baha’i…

Members of Baha’i – who think they are targeted in the predominantly Shiite nation because of their faith – have faced arrests and other oppression over the years.

They say the persecution is part of a pattern that began in 1979. That’s when the monarchy of the Shah of Iran was toppled and an Islamic republic was created…

The entire CNN report adopts a weird tone of pseudo-objectivity, which ends up attributing well-known and documented facts to the subjective reports of the Baha’i community. Baha’is do not just “think” they are targeted because of their faith — there is a well-known government policy that has been verified and cited by the United Nations, detailing a plan for the suffocation of the Baha’i community. Furthermore, in October last year, the UN Secretary-General issued a report saying:

The special procedures mandate holders have repeatedly raised the issue of the Baha’is with the Iranian authorities. Since June 2006, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, the Independent Expert on minority issues and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have repeatedly raised the issue of the arrest of [members of the Baha'i community]

Similar concerns have been raised by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Human Rights Activists in Iran, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, the International Federation for Human Rights, and many other groups unaffiliated with the Baha’i community.

The recent CNN report follows closely on the heels of one last month:

Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested several women for doing missionary work for the Baha’is…

“For a long time now, those who wanted to recruit young Iranian men to join the Baha’is used attractive women as bait,” the site said. “Israel has given sanctuary to the leaders of this perverted group [Baha'is] for many years, and the United States and Britain have provided them with billions of dollars to engage in propaganda.”

While this report was accompanied by countering statements, the Iranian media report is so obviously prejudiced and misleading as not to be even worth quoting. Doing so lends credibility to the outright lies spread by government-controlled media outlets.

I think the question has to be asked: who is writing these reports for CNN? And what do they think is the role of the media? The case of the Baha’is in Iran involves more than competing perspectives — there is fact and there are lies, and a cursory examination of third-party accounts will very quickly tell the difference between the two.

CNN: You need to find someone competent and thorough to report on Iran. Your reporting is not good enough.