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expanding Baha’i educational institutions in order to appease the
Islamic clerics’ opposition to the banning of
hijab
and other
traditional practices. Finally, Chapter Five considers “Anti-
Baha’ism during the reign of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi”,
recounting incidents of hate propaganda as a joint clergy-State
undertaking. This includes a discussion of the falsified evidence of
Baha’i collaboration with the Russian Empire and other incidents of
incitement to violence that resulted in murders and destruction of
Baha’i properties with impunity. The emergence of the Hojjatiye
anti-Baha’i movement and the role of eminent clerics such as
Ayatollah Boroujerdi and Hojatolislam Falsafi in inciting hatred can
also be traced to this period. The development of the conception of
Baha’is as unpatriotic and traitorous agents of foreign interests
rather than an enlightened and progressive community worthy of
equal rights is also discussed in light of Iran’s rapid modernization
and nation-building during this period. In short, Part One explains
the historic roots and political function of anti-Baha’i scapegoating
which was at the foundation of the Islamic Republic’s more virulent
persecution after the collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty.
Part Two explores the recent history of Baha’i persecution
beginning with the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Chapter One demonstrates that anti-Baha’i hatred and violence was
integral to the early policies of the Islamists in the final days of the
Shah’s reign, even before they assumed power. Chapter Two traces
these early incidents of murder and mob violence to discuss the
Baha’is as the first victims of persecution in the newly established
Islamic Republic under the Provisional Government of Mehdi
Bazargan followed by the administrations of Bani-Sadr and Rajaee.
Chapter Three sets forth the enshrinement of anti-Baha’i ideology in
the Constitution of the Islamic Republic which systematically
deprived them of all human rights solely on account of their
religion. Chapter Four recounts the arrest, torture, and execution of