One Hundred and Sixty Years

Baha’i faith. But what is even more important is to understand what the persecution of Baha’is says about Iranian society as it struggles through a turbulent and difficult transition to a better and more just future. In other words, understanding the historic plight of the Baha’i community is also about understanding the greater plight of the Iranian nation, and its aspiration to build a modern identity built on recognition and respect for diversity rather than a self-definition based on hatred and self-deception. This book is intended to be a contribution to the contemporary dialogue among Iranians concerned with the future of their country, to better understand the roots of anti-Baha’i ideology and the function that it has served for those seeking authoritarian power. The book is divided in two parts, dealing with the history of persecutions from the Qajar era until the end of the Pahlavi era in the First Part, and dealing with the more recent history of persecutions under the Islamic Republic in the Second Part. In the First Part, Chapter One entitled the “Baha’i riddle” explores the views of the Iranian intellectuals and European Orientalists about this religion and goes on with the central role of the Islamic clergy in anti-Baha’i myth-making and hate-mongering through both the Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties. Chapter Two considers “Reasons for Persecution of the Baha’i Faith” including the relationship and differences between Islam and Baha’i philosophy in light of belief in the oneness of all religions and how the Baha’i philosophy relates to national identity in view of its espousal of world citizenship and its response to the Iranian encounter with the West and Westoxication. Chapter Three discusses “The Persecution of Baha’is during the Qajar era” and provides a glimpse of the repression and massacre of Baha’is in places such as Yazd and Khorasan. Chapter Four examines “Baha’is during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi” in light of his policy on religion and modernity, and the sacrifice of the successful and