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I live in Olympia, Washington, USA.
Last week, I saw that the trees
in the beautiful wooded area behind my apartment complex were being cut.
The scene brought memories to my mind of
trees being cut in another part of the world.
I was born in Iran,
but had to leave a beloved homeland because,
being a Baha'i, I was subjected to state-sponsored oppression.
Baha'i is the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran.
Members the Iranian Baha'i community
are subjected to many persecutions in that land.
Even their cemeteries in different parts of Iran
are desecrated by the agents of the ruling regime;
the trees in these cemeteries are cut,
their tombstones are broken,
or they are completely destroyed by bulldozers.
The response of the Baha'i community of Iran to the persecutions is unique.
Professor Michael Karlberg
of the Western Washington University has studied this subject.
My critique
is really directed specifically at a very small
power elite in Iran today that has
manufactured a very toxic combination of politics
and religion that most people in Iran today
find oppressive. So this is not
in any way an attack
on Iranian culture, civilization, or Islam.
The Baha'is in Iran have been
the targets of recurrent waves of persecution
for over 150 years.
In that time, over 20,000 Baha'is have been executed
often in very brutal ways.
In 1979, with the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the new regime that came to power
a new wave of persecution was unleashed.
Very quickly, hundreds of Baha'is were rounded up
executed, or disappeared; thousands of Baha'is
were imprisoned, arrested, tortured;
tens of thousands of Baha'is lost their homes, their properties,
their income, their pensions, their livelihood.
Baha'is were declared unprotected
infidels in the country, which meant that
legally anyone could commit
any crime against Baha'is with legal impunity.
All Baha'is in Iran have been systematically vilified
through the media and from the pulpit; the names and locations of Baha'is
have been systematically gathered for police records;
authorities routinely come to their homes in the middle of the night to
search or arrest them;
Baha'i gravesites
are systematically bulldozed and desecrated;
Baha'i children are the targets of state-sponsored intimidation
in elementary and middle and high schools,
and Baha'i youth of university age
are denied all access to higher education
as part of a state-sponsored program to block the progress,
social and economic progress, of the Baha'i community.
All of this has been well documented by human rights organizations, the United Nations,
and many other third-party observers.
All neutral observers agree that the only reason the Baha'is are actually persecuted in Iran
is because of their beliefs.
So let me quickly sketch some of those beliefs so that you can understand the nature of this persecution.
You know the fundamental belief of the Bahai community is that humanity has entered
an age of ever-increasing interdependence
on a global scale, and that really our primary challenge at this moment in history
is to accept, to recognize and accept, the oneness of humanity
and to translate that recognition into a social order
that embodies that concept.
Baha'is also believe in the full harmony of science and religion.
They're obedient to the laws of the lands in which they live.
They don't proselytize their beliefs or impose them on others.
They organize their internal affairs without any clergy
through a unique democratic system of self-governance.
They believe that education is the key to human progress.
They believe in the full equality of men and women,
and they place the highest priority on the education of girls.
So in fact about a century ago the Baha'i community began to create the first
schools for girls in modern Iran.
These beliefs and practices that I'm describing
are the reasons the Baha'is are persecuted in Iran.
And the motives behind the persecution are quite clear:
the religious power elite in Iran
feel threatened by the mere existence of the Baha'is.
I'm a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia.
Many students and professors at my college
are deeply concerned with issues of inequality
that the american society is faced with.
Those who are active in this country
and elsewhere in the world in bringing more justice to their societies
can learn many lessons from the approach
the Baha'is adopt in response to oppression.
The Baha'is have developed
a very unique, not only nonviolent,
but entirely non-adversarial response
to oppression and injustice.
Within this approach, all of the community's energy is focused
on unifying and constructive work, oriented towards the advancement
of the entire nation.
So, the establishment of schools for girls is just
one of the many examples of what I'm talking about.
Now, as Baha'is are pursuing this work,
if they encounter violent persecution,
they adopt a posture of constructive resilience.
In other words,they continue their constructive efforts in the most resilient and resourceful ways they can,
meeting persecution with patience, appealing for justice
through whatever legal channels are available to them,
and inviting the world to observe the injustices that are being committed against them.
One of the clearest examples of this constructive resilience
can be seen in the way the Baha'i community responded
to the denial of higher education to its youth.
So, when Baha'i youth were systematically expelled from universities
and then denied future admission, the Baha'is simply began the work of constructing
a decentralized university that they operate out of their own homes,
their living rooms, their kitchens, and over the internet.
Graduates from this university
who have been able to leave Iran have been accepted into top graduate programs
including Harvard and many others, in the United States and elsewhere, because of the
quality and rigor of these degrees.
And the Baha'i community continues its constructive work
not only through the university but also in neighborhoods and villages around the country
where Baha'is continue to find a way,
a range of ways, to serve the social and economic needs
of the neighborhoods, villages, communities in which they live.
In essence,
the Baha'i path is one of planting trees, whether literally,
as Richard Baker, a British Baha'i, did,
or metaphorically, planting trees
in the soil of human societies,
as hundreds thousands of Baha'is in Iran, and millions of Baha'is
all over the world, strive to do.