An Ordinary Meeting, A Normal Photo, and a Wave of Accusations and Protests

Following the meeting between Faezah Hashemi and Fariba Kamalabadi, one of the managers of the Baha'i community in Iran who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on baseless charges and had come on a short leave after eight years, a torrent of accusations (deviant, infiltrator, instigator, norm-breaker, seeking foreign support), labels (associating with infidels and the impure, supporting groups contrary to religion and faith, shameful act, anti-revolutionary and anti-ideological act) and protests from political officials and government propaganda agencies have been directed at Faezah. A group of merchants has also called for her trial. These protests, which are unified and collective (almost all news agencies and newspapers loyal to the Wilayat and close to military institutions), actually express the long-standing animosity of Shia clerics and Islamists towards Iranian Baha'is, revealing various forms of confrontation with this religion and its followers in contemporary Iran. This event is also a suitable tool for measuring tolerance and leniency in Iranian society. Political Reaction Immediately after the publication of this very ordinary photo between two prisoners, attacks on the head of the Expediency Council intensified (an opportunity for factional attacks arose), and in response to these attacks, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani condemned her action by writing a short text and publishing it in the Islamic Republic newspaper: "Faezah has made a serious mistake and must correct and compensate for it." (May 15, 2016) He immediately repeated the prevailing opinion of Shia jurists regarding Baha'is: "The deviant sect of Baha'ism is a colonial and deviant sect that has always been known for this deviation, and we have always disavowed and continue to disavow this sect." (same source) This opinion is not a jurisprudential or historical view but rather a stance of an organized religion against its religious rival and a form of religious propaganda. The Shia clergy wants to monopolize the religious market and has belittled and eliminated competitors in various ways: from pressuring the Qajar government for the massacre of Babis and Baha'is to declaring them impure during the Pahlavi era and after seizing power, as well as depriving followers of other religions and even Sunnis of their basic rights, to the slaughter of priests (Dibaj and Mikaelian), and from executing hundreds of Baha'is to imprisoning missionary Christians. This competition, of course, does not end with Judaism, Christianity, and Baha'ism but has also been directed against Sunni Muslims and even against Shia Muslims themselves. However, Faezah, due to the pressures of recent years from the government, has gone beyond these frameworks and not only does not listen to her father's advice but emphasizes the moral and humanitarian nature of her action: "I visited Ms. Kamalabadi because she was my fellow prisoner, and we lived together for six months, and after eight years she came on leave for five days, and this visit is a very ordinary and trivial matter. We are not animals. In life, during different periods, there are things that impose a series of moral and humanitarian duties on a person and establish a series of relationships... I did not know these people and had no connection with the Baha'i community before prison. The Islamic Republic, in fact, by imprisoning me, caused this familiarity and connections and opened another window in my life. I have often said I loved this prison very much, and it was a very valuable experience for me. I learned a lot there, understood many things, and this was one of the connections that were created there." (Interview with Euronews, May 15, 2016) The Islamic Republic has always refused to pay the cost of its actions. Officials do not realize that individuals imprisoned for political reasons do not necessarily adhere to the customs of government caste members. Political expediency of the government of Hope and Prudence Another political reaction was the stance of Rouhani's advisor against this meeting. Based on this type of political expediency, Faezah did not consider the consequences of her action, and this act does not help the Baha'is and Iranians. (Hosseini Ashna, quoted by Tabnak, May 16, 2016) For decades, protests against the violation of the rights of women, religious and ethnic minorities, students, lawyers, and cultural figures have been marginalized with this same logic. Yesterday's reformists and today's moderates tell women and Baha'is that protesting against your daily repression will put pressure on the moderate faction of the government, while the moderate faction has made no use of the opportunity of being in power to reclaim their rights. Issuance of quasi-jurisprudential rulings The anger towards this meeting has been such that Makarem Shirazi, who is referred to as a source of emulation, has called for Faezah to be prosecuted solely for meeting with an individual. He considers the accusation as "strengthening the enemies of Islam and the enemies of the regime" and declares this matter a crime from a religious perspective and subject to prosecution. (ISNA, May 16, 2016) This new fatwa distances itself from the traditional fatwa of Shia clerics regarding the impurity of Baha'is. Shia clerics, having taken power, have moved beyond traditional jurisprudence and issue fatwas based on governmental jurisprudence. In traditional jurisprudence, Baha'is are impure, and one cannot shake hands with them or eat their food, but meeting with Baha'is does not have a jurisprudential prohibition. However, in governmental jurisprudence, meeting also acquires the title of being religiously forbidden. Of course, the head of the judiciary does not fully agree with this view and refrains from threatening Faezah with legal action at this stage: "As the judiciary, we intervene where a criminal title arises, and if this norm-breaking reaches the level of criminal titles, we will take decisive action." More interesting than these fatwas and rulings is the fatwa of the head of the Basij Organization, who says, "Anyone who befriends Baha'is is himself a Baha'i." Of course, the first reaction of the protesting clerics to Faezah's meeting belonged to one of the members of the Hope list for the Assembly of Experts, Hashem Bat'hai: "Friendly relations with the members of the deviant sect of Baha'ism is treason to Islam and the revolution." (Tasnim, May 13, 2016) In response to the question of the religious ruling on this meeting, he reiterates the conspiracy theory in this regard: "Baha'ism is actually a product of England. England, in order to harm the school of Shi'ism—which is without prejudice the path of Islam, the Quran, and the Prophet Muhammad—produced Baha'ism." (same source) He further accuses Baha'ism of sorcery, drug use, dancing, and drinking in their gatherings: "In the Baha'i sect, they have sessions and gatherings at night where they occupy people's minds with sorcery and show the untruth as truth, and they believe that clerics talk about heaven and hell on credit, but we have heaven and hell in cash and encourage Shi'ites to participate in their gatherings... Members of the Baha'i sect use drinks, tea, or others in these gatherings, and they get high. They light a charcoal-filled brazier and claim that the gaps in this charcoal represent an image of apples and flowers in this brazier that they claim is heaven... In these gatherings, women and men dance together and consume alcohol without any concern." (same source) The question of how a baseless historical claim (my rival is a creation of the enemy) relates to religious law and what evidence these fabrications rely on is a question that Shia jurists evade answering. Reformist Security Reaction The reformist faction, which has been trying in recent years to eliminate any suspicion of distancing from the values and discourses of the regime, quickly attempts to portray Faezah's behavior and words regarding Baha'is as dangerous and irresponsible. The Etemad newspaper echoes the same security approach of other parts of the government regarding this meeting: "Baha'ism is fundamentally not a religion, nor a sect, nor even a national social movement; rather, we believe this sect was established fundamentally through foreign conspiracy and has presented itself as a religion in the world with the support of specific governments over the past decades and has managed to find a foothold in those countries by exploiting political, cultural, and social opportunities, and now its organizational part is considered by the Islamic Republic as a sect and an anti-security organization whose headquarters is in Israel, and we must be concerned about the organizational connection of Baha'is with the main enemy of Islam and Muslims." (May 16, 2016) The note from Etemad quotes its security friend (Abdollah Shahbazi, an employee of the Political Studies and Research Center affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence) stating that "no sovereign government accepts that part of its citizens strictly obey an organization whose center is located outside its borders." (same source) With this reasoning, all Catholics around the world are spies for the Vatican, and all Muslims living in Western countries are spies for Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Iran because they religiously obey the clergy in the Vatican, Al-Azhar, Qom, or Mecca and Medina. This point, of course, does not apply to Baha'ism, which is an Iranian religion. Moreover, the mere existence of a place of worship for the followers of a religion in a country does not equate to political loyalty to that government, a commodity that can only be sold in the shops of security forces. Interestingly, the author is aware of this security perspective and its conflict with religious and ethical views: "But can one ignore the negative consequences of such an action and act solely based on the appearance of religion and ethical principles?" (same source) The author of this note, relying on the security and non-legal stance of the regime towards a religion that, according to him, "considers any organizational connection between the Baha'i sect in Iran and its main organization in Israel a crime and recognizes some of these organizational elements as criminals due to their connection with the enemy," criticizes Faezah for her indifference to this matter while being a member of the government. He asks political rivals of the reformists not to attribute this action to the reformists. Of course, in order to distance themselves and maintain the seats of reformists in the government and parliament, the civil rights of individuals are completely swept under the rug.