Ahváz
| اهواز Ahváz | ||
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| City in Iran | ||
| Location of Ahváz
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Ahváz is the capital city of Iran's Khuzestan Province.
A Bahá’í community had been established in Ahváz by the 1920's but has faced several periods of persecution up until the present.
History[edit]
As Ahváz is distant from the parts of Iran where the Bábí Faith was established and active the Faith was not introduced in the city until after it was present in much of the rest of the country. The earliest Bahá’í to live in Ahváz was perhaps Sultan Muhammad Khan Abu’l-Virdi Shirazi who settled in the city at some point after 1897 where he befriended the ruler of Khuzestan Province.[1]
As of 1927 a Bahá’í community had been established in the city and a delegate represented the Ahváz community at the first Bahá’í National Convention of Iran held that year.[2] The community faced some persecution in the 1930's with a local Mulla denouncing the Faith at a mosque in the city and Bahá’ís working for the Department of Highways in Ahváz being dismissed from their employment.[3] In the late 1930's Dhabi'u'llah Nabili, an army officer working for the Bureau of Standards in Ahváz, was discharged from the army and fired from his job as he was a Bahá’í and his wife was also dismissed from her position with the Department of Education.[4] Teaching efforts persisted in spite of setbacks with travel teachers visiting the city in the late 1930's.[5]
In 1941 a military official expressed concern that the Bahá’í community of Ahváz was becoming influential in the city recommending that Bahá’í gatherings be stopped,[6] although an official report to the Prime Minister of Iran from the same year estimated there were no more than thirty Bahá’ís in the city.[7] The Prime Minister directed that Bahá’í meetings in the city be suppressed and that people working in government roles and for the Ministry of Education be investigated to determine if they were Bahá’ís.[8] In 1955 a period of violent persecution of the Faith broke out in Iran which affected the Bahá’ís of Ahváz with the cities Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds being occupied by armed forces at midnight on May 15 that year.[9]
After the Iranian Revolution took place in 1979 persecution of the Faith intensified and the Local Spiritual Assembly of Ahváz submitted a letter to the Revolutionary Committee in February, 1979, noting that Bahá’ís were required to obey the government.[10] In March 1979 the Ahváz community appealed to the new Prime Minister asking that their civil rights be upheld.[11] As of 1982 Bahá’ís working for the Ministry of Oil in Ahváz had been dismissed from their positions due to their religion,[12] and also from other professional positions.[13][14]
As of 1989 Bahá’í students attending university in the city were being expelled due to their religion,[15] and in 1991 the Islamic Revolutionary Court seized all assets of Colonel Amanollah Misaghi an his immediate family members as he had served as the chairman of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Ahváz prior to Bahá’í Administration being outlawed.[16]
In 2009 a Bahá’í couple living in Ahváz were arrested and placed on trial.[17] In 2014 the Bahá’í cemetery of Ahváz was sealed with concrete blocks preventing any access by a group which was supported by the authorities of the city preventing the Bahá’ís from using it for burial or visiting graves.[18] Similarly Bahá’í owned businesses were sealed preventing them from opening in 2018,[19] although they were allowed to reopen later in the year.[20]
Bahá’ís have continued to face persecution in the city to the present day with Sanaz Notghi being sentenced to five years in prison in 2021 on the charges of participating in Bahá’í Administration and propaganda against the regime.[21]
References[edit]
- ↑ Moojan Momen, The Baha'i Communities of Iran 1851-1921: Volume 2, George Ronald: Oxford, 2021, p 244
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1928). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 2 (1926-1928), Pg(s) 189. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1937). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 6 (1934-1936), Pg(s) 96. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1939). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 7 (1936-1938), Pg(s) 140. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1939). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. New York City, NY. Volume 7 (1936-1938), Pg(s) 144. View as PDF.
- ↑ Military commander in Khuzestan warns that Baha'i influence is increasing in Ahvaz at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Baha'is in Ahvaz and Khorramabad, and the unease among Muslim activists about their influence at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Justice Minister instructed by Prime Minister to investigate Baha'i activities in Ahvaz and Khorramabad at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Fereydun Vahman, 175 Years of Persecution, Oneworld Publications: London, 2019, p 140
- ↑ Letter from Local Spiritual Assembly of Ahvaz to Revolutionary Committee: Baha’is obey the government at iranbahaipersecution.org
- ↑ Baha’i Community of Ahvaz appeal to Prime Minister, Mehdi Bazargan, for their rights at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Ministry of Oil summons Baha’is suspended from work in Ahvaz area at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Employment contract of Javad Vojdani cancelled at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Baha'i dismissed from Zamzam Joint Stock Company in Khuzestan at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Mehr-Rokh Sadeghi, biology student expelled from university at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Assets belonging to Amanollah Misaghi and his immediate family cofiscated at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Trial of a Baha’i couple in Ahvaz at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Baha’i cemetery in Ahvaz closed down at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Sohrab Derakhshan's business premises in Ahvaz blocked at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ HRANA: Five shops belonging to Baha'is in Ahvaz allowed to reopen at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
- ↑ Sanaz Notghi sentenced to 5 years and 8 months prison at iranbahaipersecution.bic.org
