Panel Discussion: Persecution of Baha'is in Iran
The UMass Baha'i Club is holding a panel discussion on the persecution of Baha'is in Iran. The panel will include Dr. John Woodall, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School with a long history of human rights activism and advocacy; Gladys Moore, the Dean of Religious Life at Mount Holyoke College; and a Baha'i couple currently living in Connecticut who will speak about their personal experiences as Baha'is in Iran.
The Baha'i Faith is a world religion that began in the mid-1800s in Iran. A central teaching of the Baha'i Faith is that all of the major world religions come from the same God and that each brought essentially the same eternal spiritual truths of love and peace at different points of man's existence. Baha'is believe Baha'u'llah is the newest in the line of messengers of God.
Since the early years of the faith, Baha'is have endured brutal and systematic persecution in Iran. Presently the situation has reached even greater urgency, as a new wave of persecution saw the arrest of seven national Baha'i leaders who are now on trial with unsupported charges of treason and heresy. Meanwhile, Iranian Baha'is are being denied higher education and their livelihood while their homes are raided, gravesites desecrated and Baha'i properties destroyed. These actions against a small, peaceful minority have deep implications on basic human rights and freedoms on a worldwide level.
The panel aims to bring awareness of this issue to the Five College area. The audience is invited to attend an interfaith prayer vigil for the Baha'is of Iran immediately following the event in the Cape Cod Lounge. The public is also encouraged to contact their state representatives about supporting the resolution concerning the situation of the Iranian Baha'is, and also, to ask their representatives to speak about this infringement of human rights and dignity.
For more information, call Kimya Hedayat-Zadeh at (413) 657-4287 or email her at mhedayat@student.umass.edu.
Rainn Wilson, the actor best known for his role as Dwight in The Office and a member of the Baha'i Faith, speaks out on the persecution of Baha'is in Iran in his article published on CNN.
Visit www.bahai.org for more information about the Baha'i Faith and more recent news articles on the persecution of Iranian Baha'is.