Historical 1983 Open Letter Outlining Injustices against Bahá'ís in Iran

The following letter from 1983 deals with very much the same issues that the Bahá'ís in Iran are dealing with today.
http://bahai-library.com/nsa/ban.bahais.iran.html

THE BANNING OF BAHA'I RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
IN IRAN: AN OPEN LETTER

by

THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA'IS OF IRAN

September 3, 1983

PREFACE

On August 29, 1983 the Revolutionary Prosecutor General of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Siyyid Husayn Musavi Tabrizi, declared in a press interview that Baha'i religious organizations were illegal and participation in them was a criminal act. The decree outlawed the National Spiritual Assembly, governing body of the Iranian Baha'i community, and 400 local spiritual assemblies, as well as their committees and subsidiary institutions. In conformity with the teachings of their faith the Baha'is of Iran disbanded all their organizations.

The dissolution of organizations that the Baha'is call administrative institutions means much more than those who are unfamiliar with the role spiritual assemblies play in a community that has no clergy may imagine. The spiritual assemblies collectively perform the work of priest, teacher, advisor, trustee of funds, and keeper of records. They admit to membership, witness marriages, supervise the religious education of children, settle disputes among individuals, grant religious divorce, encourage good deeds and censure bad behavior. Thus spiritual assemblies are central to the life of the Baha'i community.

The document presented here is a letter written by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran in response to the statement of the Prosecutor General outlawing Baha'i administrative institutions. One will realize the degree of courage it took the members of the National Spiritual Assembly thus to address the Islamic Government when one recalls that seventeen of their predecessors on the National Assembly had been either abducted or executed by the same regime.

The letter, delivered to some 2,000 government officials and prominent personages in Iran, eloquently testifies to the heroism of its authors and the peaceful nature of the community they led. It exemplifies also the confidence and pride of those who firmly believe that the One unknowable God has decreed the ultimate triumph of truth and justice.

National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States November 1, 1983

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[page 1]

THE BANNING OF BAHA'I RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
IN IRAN: AN OPEN LETTER

(translated from Persian)

12 Shahrivar 1362

[September 3, 1983]

Recently the esteemed Prosecutor General of the Islamic Revolution of the Country, in an interview that was published in the newspapers, declared that the continued functioning of the Baha'i religious and spiritual administration is banned and that membership in it is considered to be a crime. This declaration has been made after certain unjustified accusations have been levelled against the Baha'i community of Iran and after a number of its members-ostensibly for imaginary and fabricated crimes but in reality merely for the sake of their beliefs - have been either executed, or arrested and imprisoned. The majority of those who have been imprisoned have not yet been brought to trial. The Baha'i community finds the conduct of the authorities and the judges bewildering and lamentable - as indeed would any fair-minded observer who is unblinded by malice. The authorities are the refuge of the people; the judges in pursuit of their work of examining and ascertaining the truth and facts in legal cases devote years of their lives to studying the law and, when uncertain of a legal point, spend hours poring over copious tomes in order to cross at and dot an i. Yet these very people consider themselves to be justified in brazenly bringing false accusations against a band of innocent people...

Read the whole letter here.