Tonight I would like to talk about the ongoing persecution of members of the Baha’i faith in Iran. I recently caught up with some members of the Baha’i faith from Rockhampton, and I want to thank Camelia and Mehraban for sharing some time with me. They shared the harrowing details of the ongoing persecution of members of their faith in Iran.
The Baha’i faith is one of the world’s newest religions. Established only in the 19th century, there are more than five million followers of the Baha’i faith around the world. Here in Australia, there have been Baha’i members of the community since 1920 and there are now over 350 different worshipping localities around Australia for the Baha’i faith. We’ve very lucky in this country to enjoy freedom of religion and, indeed, the freedom not to practise a religion at all.
In Iran, members of the Baha’i faith and many other faiths face a very different reality. There are estimated to be around 300,000 Baha’i living in Iran today. Baha’i is the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran but remains unrecognised by the Islamic republic. Instead, Iran’s current clerical rulers label the Baha’i faith a heresy, by reason of it being a post-Islamic religion. Iranian law and official state policy deny Baha’is many fundamental human rights including civil, political, economic and cultural rights to education, work, freedom of religion and freedom from arbitrary detention. Baha’is are not allowed to practice their faith or enjoy the rights they should be entitled to as normal Iranian citizens. In fact, discrimination against Baha’is is a matter of official state policy, which states that Iran’s Baha’is are to be treated in such a way ‘that their progress and development shall be blocked’. The Baha’is have a long history of persecution in Iran, especially since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The Baha’i community in Iran is subject to state sponsored persecution, affecting every one of its members across generations and over every phase of life until their ultimate death.
Iran’s persecution of minority groups came to the world’s attention in September last year, when a young Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, was detained in Tehran for failing to adhere to the strict dress code for women that is enforced by the Islamic republic. Unfortunately, this arrest was not the first instance where morality police used excessive force against a woman for not complying with the nation’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law. Sadly, within days of Mahsa Amini’s arrest she was admitted to hospital, still in the custody of authorities, and later died.
Mahsa Jina Amina’s untimely death in custody lit a fuse in Iran. What started as widespread condemnation of her murder triggered an eruption of widespread, pre-existing anger and unrest in the country, calling out the nationwide struggle for gender equality, freedom, human rights and secularism. The institutionalised oppression unified ethnic minorities such as the Kurds and Baluchi peoples, as well as the other religious minorities in Iran such as the Baha’i.
History shows that attacks on the Baha’i faith increase at times of national upheaval or crisis in Iran, when the authorities are seeking a convenient scapegoat to deflect from public discontent. In the current climate, the Baha’is remain easy targets and scapegoats, and there have been many examples recently of Baha’is being falsely accused in the Iranian media of instigating mass disturbances and committing acts of violence. Since the nationwide protests in Iran last year, there has been an escalation of violent attacks and human rights violations on Baha’is, including interrogations, beating and detentions without due process.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of Senator Claire Chandler, who is in the chamber tonight, thankfully, and other members of the Senate Standing Committees on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade for the work they have done on the inquiry. Human rights implications of recent violence in Iran, the report from the committee, was tabled earlier this year and documents in greater detail the issues that I’ve highlighted tonight. In testimony to that committee, the report says:
Professor Saul recommended that the government’s primary response to the violence and killing of women, girls and protestors in Iran should be to widen the regulations to capture other serious human rights violations …
As the committee concluded:
Australia has not only a moral obligation to take a stand against such behaviour, but a practical requirement to protect Australians from the dangerous and threatening behaviour of the IRI.
The recommendations in this report are designed to ensure Australia acts in accordance with our principles and with respect for human rights. It is entirely appropriate that the IRI regime, which has chosen to trample human rights and international norms in so many ways over such a long period of time, bears the consequences of its own actions in the form of being isolated from the international community. It is in Australia’s interests to be at the forefront of international efforts to make clear to the IRI, and to other rogue nations, that there will always be consequences for engaging in unlawful activities—
and the repression of human rights.
Once again, I would like to thank Camelia and Mehraban for spending time with me, and I commend the committee’s report.
