Bahai Library Online

Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith

World Canada
any   all   exact phrase

Date 2020-09-21-02, descending sort earliest first

date event tags firsts
2020 21 Sep
202-
The German news agency DW obtained a leaked document that appeared to be the minutes of a meeting that was held in the city of Sari in Iran's northern province of Mazandaran. According the document, 19 representatives of key Iranian agencies, including the intelligence services and the police, as well as state authorities responsible for business, commerce and education, gathered in the northern province of Mazandaran for a meeting of the so-called Commission for Ethnic Groups, Sects and Religions. The stated aim: "To gain control over the misguided movement of the perverse Bahá'í sect." The document confirms that the persecution was nothing less than official government policy and that there was a concerted strategy in place in which a government authority provided direction to a whole range of other agencies. When an accusation is made that the persecution of the Bahá'ís is state policy they usually sidestep the issue by saying that there are "various tendencies and groupings in Iranian society' who find the Bahá'í offensive."
  • The document showed a "detailed plan" to ensure that the Bahá'í community is "rigorously controlled", including their "public and private meetings" as well as "their other activities". It was issued by the Commission on Ethnicities, Sects and Religions in Sari, which operated under the aegis of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, a body chaired by Iran's president and responsible for security matters.
  • For the village of Ivel, the home of one of the oldest Bahá'í communities in Iran, the persecution began in earnest in 1983 when they were first driven out when trucks and bulldozers moved in and destroyed fifty houses. They have made periodic visits to the village since that time to tend to their crops and herds. [DW 8Mar21; BIC News 10Mar21]
  • * Persecution, Iran; Sari, Iran; Iran; Ivel, Mazandaran; Iran
    Home divider Site Map divider Tags divider Search divider Series
    Chronology divider Links divider About divider Contact divider RSS
    smaller font
    larger font