Noticias Bahá’ís

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El reflejo de la mujer en los medios de comunicaci�n - enfoque de un panel
de debate

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Media portrayal of women is focus of panel

NEW YORK, 4 March (BWNS) � When Jan Floyd-Douglass decided to buy a new car,
she bypassed suitable models from eight different manufacturers � and then
wrote to tell them why.

“I love your car but I didn’t buy it because I don’t like your
advertisements because they demean women,” wrote Ms. Floyd-Douglass, who is
on the board of the Women’s National Commission in the United Kingdom.

She told the story during a panel discussion titled “Portrayal or Betrayal:
How the Media Depicts Women and Girls” held at the UN offices of the Baha’i
International Community. The event was planned in conjunction with the
annual session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women which
began on 1 March.

Along with the other panelists, she noted that sexualized images of women in
advertising are so commonplace as to seem innocuous.

“My message is, if we don’t actually do anything about this, we are
complicit in it,” said Ms. Floyd-Douglass.

Also on the panel was Sarah Kasule, director of the Mother’s Union for
Uganda, who said that the way women are portrayed in the African media can
be equally negative.

“They are depicted as symbols of sex. Or as something to do with making men
comfortable, or giving care,” she said.

This trend in the media is a result of both individual choices and
institutional forces, added Dr. Michael Karlberg, who is an associate
professor in the department of communications at Western Washington
University.

“On one hand,” he said, “people everywhere are choosing to consume media
that feeds base appetites that we have inherited from our animal nature. On
the other hand, media institutions have been constructed in ways that
purposefully stimulate, reinforce, and exploit these base appetites.”

The result is a “feedback cycle” that has created a media environment that
is “unjust, unhealthy, and unsustainable,” observed Dr. Karlberg.

He said any effort to address the problem must consider the structure of
media institutions.

“The assumption is that the media is just another commodity. But the media
is not just another commodity. It is a process that facilitates democratic
deliberations. It is a process that creates culture.”

Part of the problem, he said, is that the media’s real product is not
content but the delivery of an audience to advertisers. The result is that
the media strives to manufacture audiences in the cheapest way possible,
through a “high-sex, high-violence, high-conflict content. It doesn’t take
talent or research or investigative journalism. Yet it stimulates the
appetites, much the same way that a high-salt, high-sugar, and high-fat junk
food diet does.”

The discussion, held on 3 March, was moderated by Baroness Joyce Gould,
chair of the UK Women’s National Commission.

She said recent studies show that images demeaning to women are increasingly
used in the mass media and have an unhealthy impact on the psychological
development of both girls and boys.

“For girls, it is about being told they need to be more attractive to men.
And for boys, it is about looking upon girls as sexual objects,” said
Baroness Gould.

Dr. Karlberg spoke of efforts the Baha’i community is making to try to
counter the ill effects of exposure to such images in the media by offering
moral education for children and young people.

“Baha’is, like people everywhere, are struggling to raise and educate
children,” he said. “They are trying to do this in a way that cultivates
their inherent nobility, that releases their spiritual potential, and that
helps them recognize the deep sources of purpose, meaning, and happiness in
life.

“It is clear that such spiritual education can be a very important factor in
making children less susceptible to messages in their media environment. It
is also a very important factor in making children more likely to make
thoughtful choices about media consumption as they grow older.”

Some counter trends in Uganda may be helpful, said Ms. Kasule, who described
how literacy and education levels of women and girls are rising in that
country.

“There are many programs for girls to read and write. This is important
because they will be able to access information, to access media reports,
and then they can respond.

“So I believe things are changing for the better,” she said.

To read the article with photographs, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/761

For the Baha�i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

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La proxima fecha para el juicio contra los lideres baha’is sera el 11 de abril

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Next court date for Baha’i leaders will be 11 April

GENEVA, 19 February (BWNS) – A third court date has been announced for seven Baha’i leaders imprisoned in Iran, the Baha’i International Community has learned.

The trial proceedings – begun on 12 January after the seven had been incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison for 20 months – will continue on Sunday, 11 April, according to information conveyed orally to their attorneys.

Government-sponsored news media reported that at the first hearing, the seven were charged with espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic order, the establishment of an illegal administration, cooperation with Israel, sending secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the country, and corruption on earth.

The defendants categorically deny all accusations.

A second hearing, held on 7 February, was concerned mainly with procedural matters.

The seven are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. They were responsible for tending to the spiritual and social needs of Iran’s 300,000 Baha’is, after formal Baha’i institutions were dissolved in 1983.

The court proceedings have come at the same time as more Baha’is have been arrested in Tehran. About 13 individuals were rounded up on 3 January, with 10 of them still in custody, and another 13 were detained last week, with 11 of them still jailed.

There are at present more than 60 Baha’is in detention in various cities in Iran.

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

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Los bahais ofrecen modelo para toma de decisiones en Comision de la ONU

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Baha’is offer decision-making model at UN commission

UNITED NATIONS, 16 February (BWNS) - A new model of decision-making among
peoples of different cultures would contribute to integration “at this time
of transition to a new social order,” according to a new Baha’i statement.

The statement was prepared for the 48th United Nations Commission for Social
Development, which concluded on 12 February. The commission is the chief
U.N. body charged with following up on the World Summit on Social
Development held in 1995 in Copenhagen, where world leaders outlined
principles that would characterize a new “society for all.” These principles
included respect for diversity and participation of all people.

The Baha’i International Community said in its statement that it was
offering its experience in the method of consultation used by Baha’i
communities around the world - a key component in creating unity among
people.

The consultative process, the Baha’i statement said, rests on the
understanding that all human beings are essentially noble - “they possess
reason and conscience as well as capacities for inquiry, understanding,
compassion, and service to the common good.”

Mr. Ming H. Chong of Singapore, a delegate to the commission who presented a
summary of the Baha’i statement, said afterwards that understanding the
nobility of all humans prevents people from dismissing others as needy
rather than being in charge of their own development.

“If you start with (this) understanding, then you have a different
perspective, one that avoids labels like ‘marginalized’ and ‘poor,’” he
said. He explained that he was a child of immigrants to Singapore and had
learned that such labels create the wrong impression of entire groups of
people.

“Language shapes the way we think,” he said. “It creates mental pictures of
how we see the world. Some of these mental pictures are not always positive
- those that dehumanize migrants, for example.”

The Baha’i statement to the U.N. commission suggested that the human body
can serve as a model for comparing the integration of the world’s cultures
and peoples. “Within this organism, millions of cells, with extraordinary
diversity of form and function, collaborate to make human existence
possible. Every least cell has its part to play in maintaining a healthy
body,” the statement said.

This image can be used to envision the world’s peoples as one human family
and understand how each culture plays a part in the functioning of the
whole, Mr. Chong explained.

In consultation as practiced in Baha’i communities, great value is placed on
the diversity of perspectives and contributions that individuals bring to
the discussion.

“Actively soliciting views from those traditionally excluded from
decision-making not only increases the pool of intellectual resources but
also fosters the trust, inclusion, and mutual commitment needed for
collective action,” the Baha’i statement said.

A key feature of Baha’i consultation is that ideas belong to the group
rather than to individuals.

“Detachment from one’s positions and opinions regarding the matter under
discussion is imperative - once an idea has been shared, it is no longer
associated with the individual who expressed it, but becomes a resource for
the group to adopt, modify, or discard,” the statement said.

A diversity of opinions, however, is not sufficient - it “does not provide
communities with a means to bridge differences or to resolve social
tensions,” it continued.

“In consultation, the value of diversity is inextricably linked to the goal
of unity. This is not an idealized unity, but one that acknowledges
differences and strives to transcend them through a process of principled
deliberation,” the statement said. “It is unity in diversity.”

To read a longer version of the article, with photograph, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/758

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

Inglés en el Extranjero

GENEVA, 16 February (BWNS) – Countries from around the world have voiced strong concern at the United Nations Human Rights Council over Iran’s deteriorating human rights record.

In speeches yesterday and in documents filed with the Council, nations and human rights groups described the degree to which Iran has failed to live up to its obligations under international human rights law.

“The good news is that governments and organizations are rallying to defend innocent Iranians, who have over the last year seen their human rights so gravely violated,” said Diane Ala’i, the representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.

“The bad news is that Iran continues to ignore such appeals,” she said, speaking after yesterday’s session of Council, which specifically focused on Iran’s human rights record.

Muhammad Javad Larijani, secretary general of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, told the session that there is religious freedom in Iran and that no Baha’i is persecuted for his beliefs. If any Baha’is are imprisoned, he said, it is because of “illegal activities” as a cult.

“Put bluntly, Iran once again completely discredited itself before the eyes of the international community,” said Ms. Ala’i, noting that last week Iran arrested at least 14 more Baha’is.

Among those arrested, she said, was Niki Khanjani, the son of one of the seven Baha’i leaders who are currently on trial on false charges.

“As the Nobel laureate Mrs. Shirin Ebadi has recently stated in an open letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Iran is now trying to increase pressure on prisoners by taking their relatives hostage,” said Ms. Ala’i. “Jamaloddin Khanjani is 76. He has been incarcerated for almost two years – and then they arrested his granddaughter at the beginning of January and now, his son.”

“These are the desperate acts of a regime that is frantically lashing out to blame others for its troubles and to suppress any viewpoint that is different from its own ideology,” she said.

The majority of countries who spoke out against Iran focused on the violence following last June’s presidential election and also on the situation of the country’s religious minorities.

Brazil called for Iran to extend rights to all religious groups in the country, saying Baha’is should enjoy the same rights as everyone. Mexico said all minorities – particularly the Baha’i community – must be able to practice their religion.

“Romania and Slovenia devoted almost the entire allotment of their time to discussing the increasing repression of Iran’s Baha’i community,” reported Ms. Ala’i.

Human rights groups, in documents filed with the Council, made similar points.

“Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, individuals belonging to minorities in Iran are subject to an array of discriminatory laws and practices,” wrote Amnesty International in its statement. “Minorities suffering persecution include ethnic and linguistic minorities such as Kurds, Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Turkmen and Baluchis, and religious minorities such as Baha’is and the Ahl-e Haq.”

“The government systematically denies rights associated with freedom of religion to members of the Baha’i faith, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. In most cases, including the persecution of the Baha’i community, the government uses ’security’ as a pretext for detaining individuals and denying them basic due process rights,” said a statement from Human Rights Watch.

The session was part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a relatively new procedure that seeks to review the human rights record of all 192 United Nations member states once every four years. This year is the first time Iran has come up for review.

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

Inglés en el Extranjero

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Los lideres baha’is aparecen en el juzgado por segunda vez

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Baha’i leaders make second court appearance

GENEVA, 7 February (BWNS) - Seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders appeared in
court today in Iran for a second session of their trial.

The session was once again closed, and family members were not permitted in
the courtroom, the Baha’i International Community has learned.

The hearing, which lasted just over one hour, does not seem to have gone
beyond procedural issues. No date was given for any future sessions.

The seven were arrested nearly two years ago and have been held in Tehran’s
Evin prison since that time, spending the first year there without formal
charges or access to lawyers.

After several postponements, their trial officially began on 12 January,
when the seven were arraigned in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in
Tehran.

That session was also closed to the public, but accounts in
government-sponsored news media said the defendants were formally charged
with espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic order, the
establishment of an illegal administration, cooperation with Israel, sending
secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the
country, and corruption on earth.

All the charges have been categorically denied. The defendants are Mrs.
Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid
Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm.

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

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Entre las ruinas de Haiti, un nacimiento trae esperanza

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El servicio de noticias en ingles, The Baha’i World News Service ha
publicado el siguiente articulo acompa�ado por una coleccion de 30
fotografias. Se pueden ver en el siguiente enlace:

http://news.bahai.org/story/755

Amid wreckage in Haiti, new birth brings hope

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 5 February (BWNS) � Little Tina Rose Wome came into
the world on 28 January in a makeshift clinic, fashioned from a classroom at
the Anis Zunuzi Baha’i School on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

An entire team of visiting doctors and nurses was on hand for her arrival �
the first birth at the school in the 30 years since its founding.

The delivery was poignant in another way, too � Magdalah Wome had been
pregnant three times previously but none of her other babies survived
childbirth. Tina Rose is the first she has taken home -�a home which now is
no more than a tent pitched in front of the rubble that at one time was a
house.

International relief agencies have reported that dealing with the aftermath
of the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince on 12 January is one of the
biggest challenges they have ever faced. As many as 170,000 people are
believed dead, and the number of homeless may top one million.

“Whatever you see on television, it is 10 times worse,” said Dr. Munirih
Tahzib, a pediatrician from New Jersey who helped organize the medical team.
“We would meet people whose entire family had been killed and their house
destroyed. Yet they would just pick up and carry on. That is what kept us
going.”

Indeed, the inspiration provided by the Haitian population is a common
refrain in reports from the scene. “The Haitians are not just sitting back
with their hands out. They’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting � so humble
in its nature, it seems invisible,” Time magazine said. “They dig survivors
out of the wreckage by hand, not with big yellow machines.”

The 18 members of the particular medical team that welcomed Tina Rose into
the world were from the United States and Canada. They had come to Haiti to
deliver medical supplies and treat as many patients as possible during the
week that they were able to stay. Additional goals were to teach people how
to recognize and treat infection, and assess needs for sustainability.

The 18 visitors, many of whom were Baha’is, had made arrangements to set up
their tents in the yard at the Anis Zunuzi school and create a temporary
clinic in the classrooms that were still standing.

The directors of the school, Yves and Susanna Puzo, lost their home in the
earthquake but helped arrange for food and logistical support for the
medical team, which included two pediatricians, two orthopedic surgeons,
four obstetricians/gynecologists, an intensive care specialist, a hospital
doctor, a nurse, a respiratory therapist, and a fourth-year medical student.

Back home, members of the group have already had follow-up consultations
about how they can provide ongoing assistance to efforts by Haitians �
including the local Baha’is � to rebuild their country.

“We all learned the power of grassroots action,” said Dr. Tahzib.

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Una prestigiosa exposicion presenta “Nuevo Jardin”

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Prestigious exhibition presents “New Garden”

BRISBANE, Australia, 2 February (BWNS) - Traditional Pacific island bark
cloth stenciled with designs depicting a vision of a “New Garden” was one of
the artworks commissioned for a prestigious exhibition at the Queensland Art
Gallery.

The sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art - APT6 - is now well
into its four-month run and features works by some of the best-known artists
of the Pacific region.

Prominent New Zealand artist Robin White was invited to participate, with
organizers mentioning a possible collaboration with a tapa artist from Fiji.
Eventually Mrs. White proposed that she work with two Fijians, Leba Toki and
Bale Jione.

All three artists are Baha’is and used their vision of a future society to
inspire their work.

“What we wanted to do was to present our vision of what Fiji could be - and
what it will be,” said Mrs. White.

In Fiji, she explained, almost all of the world’s great religions are
represented by a significant portion of the population - Hindu, Muslim,
Buddhist, Christian, and a small but growing Baha’i community.

“That makes it special,” she said. “Somehow we wanted to get that idea
across.”

The tapa - or masi, as the Fijians call the craft of tapa and the plant from
which it is made - is traditionally made for a wedding, and the artists
indeed used that concept.

“The idea was not about a literal wedding between two individuals but rather
the idea of a marriage of cultures - namely the indigenous and Indian
cultures that constitute contemporary Fijian society - connected by bonds of
love and respect,” Mrs. White said.

In the end, many elements were incorporated into their tapa. For the main
piece, a vision of the Shrine of the Bab in the Holy Land and its
surrounding terraces was combined with images of importance to Fijians.

For Mrs. Toki, the mere act of a Fijian like herself collaborating with a
New Zealander to create artwork on tapa was a breakthrough.

“I knew that only the Fijians can do the tapa,” she said, remembering her
skepticism when Mrs. White first contacted her for an earlier project. “I
was thinking, ‘How can we work together?’”

For Mrs. White, it was during her travels in the Pacific that she had gotten
the idea of a collaboration. Already a well-known artist in other media, she
had known about the tapa produced in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. But when she
saw a particularly beautiful piece hanging in the transit lounge in the Nadi
airport, she decided she must learn the technique for making it.

In Fiji, she met Mrs. Toki at a Baha’i gathering and later at the Toki
residence noticed some beautiful tapa on the wall.

“Who did these?” Mrs. White asked.

When she discovered that Mrs. Toki herself was the artist, an idea was born.
At first Mrs. Toki was reluctant to work jointly - she had never heard of
the type of tapa she did being created by anyone other than Fijians. But
when she discovered that Mrs. White indeed was an artist, she was willing to
give it a go. And when they began collaborating, she found the relationship
rewarding.

“Working together is very powerful,” Mrs. Toki says now. “Different races,
both giving ideas.”

She said a pattern of consultation, action, and reflection - familiar to all
three women through their Baha’i activities - became a key part of the
creation of their artwork for the APT6 exhibition.

The trio completed their new work several months ago and traveled to
Brisbane in early December for the opening of APT6 and to participate in
stimulating conversations with other artists from throughout the Asian
Pacific region.

The exhibition runs through 5 April.

For a longer version of the article, and to see photographs of the art and
the artists, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/story/754

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/

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Los baha’is denuncian la falta de garantias procesales en el juicio en Iran

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Baha’is condemn lack of due process at trial in Iran

NEW YORK, 31 January (BWNS) - The Baha’i International Community has issued
a statement condemning the trial of 16 individuals in Iran yesterday as a
“violation of all internationally accepted standards of legal due process.”

The statement highlights the lack of proper legal representation for the
defendants and the use of unreliable “confessions” in the trial. One of the
16 on trial is a Baha’i.

“The use of coerced ‘confessions’ and the denial of adequate legal
representation reflect the Iranian authorities’ growing assault on human
rights,” said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha’i
International Community to the United Nations.

The complete statement follows:

The trial yesterday of 16 individuals in Iran, apparently accused of
participating in the Ashura demonstrations on 27 December, stands in
violation of all internationally accepted standards of legal due process.

While facts are unavailable to the Baha’i International Community concerning
15 of the defendants in the court proceedings, it can confirm that one
individual - identified only as “P.F.” in government reports - is a Baha’i.

The show trials in the aftermath of the June 2009 presidential election, at
which defendants have been forced to read statements incriminating
themselves, have completely discredited “confessions,” such as the one
purportedly made by “P.F.,” both inside and outside of Iran. It is well
known that such confessions are obtained while prisoners are under extreme
duress, often after being exposed to such appalling tactics as food and
sleep deprivation, fake executions, threats against their families, and
worse. Rather than accepting responsibility for the turmoil in the country,
the Iranian government organizes such show trials in order to lay the blame
on innocent citizens and others.

While it is claimed that the court proceedings are open, not even the
families of the defendants are notified of the trial of their loved ones.

The person identified as P.F., along with nine other Baha’is who were
arrested on 3 January in Tehran, has not been able to contact his family,
has been denied access to a lawyer, and was not allowed to choose his own
legal representation. The government-appointed lawyer who acted on behalf of
P.F. did nothing more than to accept the “confession” of his client and make
a pro forma request for leniency.

The Iranian government is well aware that it is a fundamental principle of
the Baha’i Faith that its followers strictly refrain from involvement in any
partisan political activity, whether local, national, or international.
Consequently, the arrest of ten Baha’is on 3 January, a full week after the
Ashura demonstrations, and the claims that Baha’is were behind the recent
anti-government turmoil have come as a complete surprise to the Baha’i
community. These fabricated accusations clearly appear to be not so much
about some Baha’is participating in the Ashura demonstrations. They point
instead to a scenario which has been concocted by the authorities to justify
placing further restrictions on the activities of the Baha’i community. This
is but the most recent tactic in the ongoing systematic campaign of
persecution that seeks to eliminate the Baha’i community as a viable entity
in that country.

We call on governments and fair-minded people throughout the world to join
us and raise their voice to protest against the blatant violations of human
rights in Iran, of which yesterday’s trial is only the most recent example.

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

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Los jovenes buscan una vida “coherente” a la hora de planificar su futuro

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Young people aim for a “coherent” life as they plan their future

SANTA ROSA DE COPAN, Honduras, 28 January (BWNS) - Having a belief system is
not so difficult, said 25-year-old Nava, participating in a recent
university seminar in Honduras. The challenging part is building your life
around your beliefs.

More than 1,500 young people addressed this challenge at recent Baha’i
gatherings in five countries - Honduras, Italy, Australia, England, and the
Philippines.

The youth are trying to examine their lives at a time when they have the
opportunity to develop a lifestyle and career path that incorporate the
values and activities which they believe can shape the kind of world they
want to live in.

Nava Kavelin, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, helped facilitate sessions for some
of the 60 university students from Central America who signed up for a
10-day seminar in Santa Rosa de Copan in early January.

Participants explored educational paths in light of their beliefs, said Ms.
Kavelin. Among the professions they discussed was advertising.

“We looked at the mass media and the messages it communicates. We talked
about how the media can paint people in a less-than-favorable light - yet as
Baha’is we believe in promoting the nobility of man,” Ms. Kavelin said.

“The question for university students becomes, how will I use my degree to
promote the values I agree with - and to not promote values that I don’t
agree with.”

Students of business and economics discussed how some business models are in
agreement with their principles and some aren’t, she said.

“The participants are learning to become owners of their own education
rather than passive recipients, looking critically at how the classes they
take can help them with their objectives,” Ms. Kavelin said.

“A coherent life”

Luke Bolton, 22, of New York was one of 300 young people from 39 countries
who attended the six-day conference in Italy, which was aimed at assisting
participants to see all aspects of their life as complementary elements
devoted to the service of humanity.

Since Mr. Bolton’s return home, he and colleagues at his office have
discussed the subject of not compromising your principles while working at
your job.

“One thing that resonates with people is living a coherent life,” he says.

Some of the participants at the conference in Italy, held in Verona in late
December, talked about having useful skills and good jobs - but still
feeling that their work is not related to the type of community-building
activities that Baha’is believe are vital to grassroots change in the world.

Those people, Mr. Bolton said, tended to feel that they need to devote more
of their time to service to the community. Some discussed how they could use
job skills - computer knowledge, for example - outside of work and apply it
to service.

“New vigor to the concept of service”

Service to humanity was at the crux of a message sent by the Universal House
of Justice to the more than 800 Baha’i youth who gathered in early January
at a conference in the Australian coastal city of Wollongong.

“Central to your role in the present day is to give new vigor to the concept
of service - being devoted to high ideals far removed from purely selfish
interests, oriented to advancement of society, and committed to the welfare
of humanity,” the House of Justice wrote to the youth.

The young people seem to be taking the guidance to heart.

“The conference helped me to raise my level of consciousness about the
individual and society,” Negin Sedaghat of Sydney said afterwards.

The presentations “challenged the youth to move beyond their frivolous
pursuits,” said another young woman.

“We are not just here to engage in idle talk but to put everything into
practice,” commented a third.

“Greater coherence and a life of service,” said Rewa Worley of Auckland, New
Zealand, summing up the message she was taking home from the conference.

Building capacity among youth

A key feature of the conference in England, held at the University of
Warwick in Coventry, was that the young people themselves were running it.

Bonnie Smith - who at only 16 is a veteran of dozens of Baha’i gatherings -
said the difference was noticeable.

“Suddenly a lot of youth I had never seen before were giving talks and
performances,” she said. “The idea was to give the youth skills that they
could take home with them.”

Aryan Ziaie, at age 20 one of the four main organizers, guessed that about a
third of the 346 registered participants were presenters or performers or in
some way contributed their skills to the event.

“The purpose of this conference was developing capacity,” he said. “It was
run by the youth - people who hadn’t done this before. It is a hallmark of
the success of the conference.”

A first-year law student at the London School of Economics, Mr. Ziaie said a
more typical conference might have two or three keynote speakers. This one
had many.

Even at his university, when he and his friends have serious discussions
about social change, the assumption seems to be that only a handful of
people will be the catalyst - “top down,” he said.

The mood at the conference was different, he said, with a “grassroots
sharing of experiences.”

“You saw people pledging their future to learning about how to effect social
transformation,” he said. “They are conscious of this, and they know where
to look for the guidance.”

The Baha’i youth seemed to have changed in the past year, he observed.

“You can tell by the level of conversations,” he said. “They share
experiences so that they can further refine their activities. They plan,
they act, and they reflect - they have been brought up with this dynamic.”

He said his own experience at the gathering was of less social chitchat and
more time spent in focused discussion.

“The vision was clearer,” he said.

For the Baha’i World News Service home page, go to:
http://news.bahai.org

________________________________________________

Copyright 2010 by the Baha’i World News Service. All stories and photographs
produced by the Baha’i World News Service may be freely reprinted,
re-emailed, re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by any
individual or organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha’i
World News Service. For more information, go to
http://news.bahai.org/terms-of-use/

———
La detencion de 10 baha’is causa preocupacion por otros encarcelados

Lea una traduccion automatica al espanol de esta noticia pinchando en el
cuadro a la derecha –>
——–

Detention of 10 Baha’is leads to fears for other prisoners

NEW YORK, 27 January (BWNS) - Concern is growing over the lack of
information about the status of 10 Baha’is who were arrested earlier this
month in Iran.

In addition to worry about their safety, there are fears that charges
against these 10 will be used to create false evidence in court against the
seven Baha’i leaders who have been held since 2008 and whose trial is set to
resume on 7 February.

“Our concern is that in the absence of any evidence against the seven
leaders, the authorities may be attempting to build a case by perhaps
forcing these newly arrested Baha’is to ‘confess’ that they were involved in
organizing December’s Ashura demonstrations under orders from their
‘leadership’,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i
International Community to the United Nations.

“Any such claim would be absurd, given that the seven leaders have been in
prison for the last two years,” she said.

Since their arrest on 3 January, statements have been made in Iranian
state-sanctioned media that the 10 possessed arms and ammunition in their
homes as part of an anti-government plot related to the December
demonstrations.

The 10 have virtually disappeared into Iran’s detention system, said Ms.
Dugal.

While it is not known whether any of these 10 were in fact present at the
Ashura demonstrations, any suggestion that they were central to the
organization of these events or that they possessed arms to be used against
the government is completely without foundation, she said.

“In the three weeks since these Baha’is were detained, their families have
had no contact with them, aside from a brief telephone message to one family
member on 11 January.”

While families have been unable to contact the 10, it has been learned that
they have been transferred recently to Gohardasht prison in Karaj.

“A cellmate of some of the Baha’i prisoners was recently released, and this
individual informed the families of this transfer,” said Ms. Dugal. “We
don’t know exactly what this means, but we do know that families tried to
bring clothes and money to the prisoners. The money was accepted by
authorities in Karaj, but not the clothing.”

The 10 Baha’is who were arrested on 3 January are Mrs. Leva Khanjani,
granddaughter of Jamaloddin Khanjani, one of the seven Baha’i leaders, and
her husband, Mr. Babak Mobasher; Mr. Artin Ghazanfari and his wife, Mrs.
Jinous Sobhani, former secretary of Nobel laureate and human rights attorney
Shirin Ebadi; Mr. Mehran Rowhani and Mr. Farid Rowhani, who are brothers; Mr
Payam Fanaian; Mr. Nikav Hoveydaie; and Mr. Ebrahim Shadmehr and his son,
Mr. Zavosh Shadmehr.

On 12 January, the formal arraignment of the seven leaders was held in
Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

According to accounts in government-sponsored news media, the seven have
been charged with: espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic
order, the establishment of an illegal administration, cooperation with
Israel, sending secret documents outside the country, acting against the
security of the country, and corruption on earth.

In court, the defendants explicitly denied all of these charges.

Ms. Dugal said the judge has reportedly indicated that the next session of
the trial on 7 February will be open and the families will be permitted to
attend. The first court appearance was closed to the public.

The seven “leaders” are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr.
Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli,
and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm.

This group of seven and the 10 Baha’is arrested on 3 January are among
hundreds of Baha’is who have been detained in the ongoing persecution of
Baha’is - a systematic campaign that has increased in severity in the last
few years.

To view the photos with the article:
http://news.bahai.org/story/751

For the Baha’i World News Service home page:
http://news.bahai.org

________________________________________________

Copyright 2010 by the Baha’i World News Service. All stories and photographs
produced by the Baha’i World News Service may be freely reprinted,
re-emailed, re-posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by any
individual or organization as long as they are attributed to the Baha’i
World News Service. For more information, go to
http://news.bahai.org/terms-of-use/