Baha’i villagers ordered to “separate their cows from the ones belonging to Muslims”

The persecution of Baha’i villagers became “stranger than fiction” when the Baha’is were ordered to “go to Israel ” and separate their own cows from cows belonging to Muslims in Ivel, a village in Mazandaran Province.

 This issue of systematic expropriation of the Baha’is in Iran and in Ivel was highlighted during a webinar hosted by Evin Incir, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), from the Swedish Social Democratic Party on the 4th of February 2021.

 The panelists included Miloon Kothari (former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing), MEP Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White, Member of the Swedish Parliament Anders Österberg, and Diane Alai (Representative of the Bahá’í International Community Geneva). The webinar was moderated by Rachel Bayan, a representative of the Baha’i International Community’s Regional Office in Brussels.

 The webinar started with the “Iran Taboo” documentary (Reza Alamezadeh,2011), in which Bahai inhabitants from the Ivel village shared how the authorities told them to leave their ancestral village and to “go to Israel”. For the last four decades, the Iranian judiciary has sent many people to prison, including Baha’is; Christian converts, and civil rights activists, accusing them of “spying for Israel” or somehow being involved with “Zionism”, without providing any documentation or other evidence.

 In this webinar, Diane Ala’i explained that, since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Baha’is have been the focus of systematic, state-sponsored persecution. She reminded us of the words of the former-United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, about the Iranian Bahá’ís experience of persecution: “from the cradle to the grave, and beyond.”

 According to Baha’is documentation, villagers in Ivel, have been under attack since the revolution: “In 1983, more than 130 Baha’is were locked in a local mosque, held captive for three days without food and water and told to recant their faith. In 2010, homes belonging to some 50 Baha’is in Ivel were burned and demolished, driving them away from their ancestral farms and homes. The Baha’is tried to solve this issue via the legal system without any result, and even “their lawyers did not get any chance to see the files in order to prepare a statement of defense”. For decades, Bahais wrote many letters to different authorities in the country to argue for their rights, but they remained “voiceless” and “defenseless”, as in October 2020, when an appeals court affirmed a decision ordering the confiscation of the land, buildings, and homes of 27 Baha’is. The case was then closed.

Leading Muslims, government officials, and parliamentarians around the world have joined a growing outcry at the unjust confiscation of properties owned by Baha’is in the farming village of Ivel.

Many documents show that Baha’is in this village, who were under attack for their identity and were victims of religious persecution, contributed to many collective actions from taking part in constructing a school for the whole village  to helping victims of the earthquake in Kirman.

Many documents show that Baha’is in this village, who were under attack for their identity and were victims of religious persecution, contributed to many collective actions from taking part in constructing a school for the whole village  to helping victims of the earthquake in Kirman.

 Diane Alavi says that what happened in this village was more than the expropriation of the Bahais because they were forced to leave their home; it was an internal displacement.

 Miloon Kothari (former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing), who traveled to Iran, also said that what we are talking about is part of the historic discrimination against minorities since the so-called “revolution”. Land confiscation, land grabbing and demolishing houses are used by the regime against minorities as collective punishment. The Iranian state uses Article 49 of the Islamic Republic’s Constitution in an abusive manner as an instrument of confiscation and a form of retribution of Baha’is belief.

Evin Encir, Swedish MEP, also believes that one of the tools that have been used against minorities is the deprivation of their property during decades of systemic expropriation in Iran to banish the Baha’is from their land and their country.

 As the persecution against Baha’is and many other religious communities has continued in Iran for more than four decades, MEP Antonio Lopez-Isturiz White proposes that Europeans must become more involved and put freedom of religion and belief as a priority in their foreign affairs agenda. He also suggests that European politicians meet civil society actors, including Bahais, and that Europe considers imposing sanctions on human rights violators.

Ivel is one of several villages, including Kata in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, where Bahai villagers were chased from their ancestral lands.

The United Nations, Amnesty International, and the European Union have stated that the members of the Bahá’í community in Iran have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property, denial of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.