The Baha’is in Iraq: From Closures of Places of Worship to Negotiations Over the Constitution
31 Jul 2023
As long as the Baha’is do not harbour any political ambitions that threaten one of the regime’s parties, in relation to the values of their religion, they are accepted as a factional component that has no voice or influence. Their religion prohibits its followers from engaging in politics. Their acceptance ultimately serves the notion of the Iraqi mosaic that is used by many parties electorally and publicly.
Maha spoke out about her religion when she encountered the first act of discrimination in her life as a 10-year-old child. Maha was in the fourth grade of primary education in one of the schools in the Dora area, south Baghdad, when her teacher asked her why she did not wear the hijab. “I’m Baha’i,” Maha replied. The teacher remained silent and a strange expression came over her classmates’ faces.
The strained encounter between Maha and her teacher went unnoticed, but a similar conversation, which took place in another school decades ago, ended up with entire Baha’i families going to prison.
In 1973, a teacher of religion in a school in Al-Ma’mun area, west of Baghdad, had a conversation about the Baha’is and their beliefs using offensive language. One of the students confronted her, defending them, even though she was not Baha’i herself. This event took place three years after the issuance of the Law prohibiting Baha’i activities in Iraq – Law No. 105 of 1970.
Unfortunately, the daughter of Saadoun Ghaidan, the interior minister at the time, was a member of the class and witnessed the heated debate between the student and the teacher. She conveyed what happened to her father.
Ghaidan came the next day and asked the student what she knew about the Baha’is. She replied that she admired their ideas and had a deep knowledge of what they believed. The minister understood that the source of her admiration was her contact with her Baha’i neighbors and interpreted it as a kind of proselytizing of the Baha’i faith, which was banned according to Iraqi law. The minister reported his conversation with the student to Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr, then the President of Iraq. The latter issued an order to open an investigation into the matter. Following the investigation, the girl who had had the discussion with the interior minister and all the Baha’i girls at the school were arrested.
Every Baha’i named in the investigation, even the women were arrested. Some detainees spent more than three years in custody. This incident was only the beginning of the tragedy of the Baha’is in Iraq.
Law No. 105 of 1970 comprises nine articles which include the prohibition of the Baha’i religion, the closure of its temples and places of worship and the confiscation of funds and real estate intended for “Baha’i related purposes.” Article 6 of the law stipulates that “the violator of the provisions of this law shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of not less than ten years and by a fine or one of these two penalties.”
The reasons for the legislation as stated in the law are as follows: “Given that the Baha’i faith is not a recognized religion or faith, and in order to prohibit the promotion of the Baha’i faith or its favour by others, and to stop its activity and close its forums and centres located in Iraq and to dispose its money and assets, this law has been enacted”. The repercussions of the issuance of this law were not purely religious, but more of political nature based on suspicions and stereotypes that do not reflect the reality of the Baha’i religion, despite the latter’s prohibition of its adherents to pursue political work.
Roots and harassment
The roots of the Baha’i faith go back to 1844 when a young Iranian, named Ali Muhammad Shirazi, preached that a messenger from God would soon come to mankind. This young man called himself the “bab”. Many people began to follow the “bab,” one of whom was Mirza Hussein Ali Nouri, who was born in Iran in 1817.
In 1852 Nouri said that, while in prison, he saw a vision that he was the messenger who the “bab” had preached of and called himself “Baha’ullah “which means “the splendor of God” in Arabic. In 1863, Baha’ullah founded the Baha’i religion at the age of 46.
Baha’ullah was exiled several times during which time he wrote, The Kitáb-il-Aqdas “The Most Holy Book”, which is the most important book of the Baha’is. He died in 1892 in the Palestinian city of Acre and was buried there. After the death of Baha’ullah, he was succeeded by his son Abdel Bahaa, who spread Baha’i teachings around the world until he died in 1921 in the Palestinian city of Haifa. Shawqi Effendi, the son of Abdul Bahaa, continued to preach this new religion. He died in London in 1957.
Baha’is believe that all other religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism represent a stage of divine manifestation and believe that God is one and that He is the Creator of this world, known by multiple names in different religions. The Baha’is have three prayers: major, minor and medium. According to them, any of these prayers dispenses the other, according to the belief of this religion.
The number of Baha’is around the world currently stands at about six million. They undertake pilgrimages to the Baha’i World Center in the cities of Acre and Haifa, where the mausoleums of Ali Mohammed Shirazi and Bahaa El-Din are located.
Since its emergence, the Baha’i faith has been subject to suspicions that have caused its adherents the torment of exile, imprisonment and repression in a number of countries. One of these suspicions is an early accusation that they work for Israel. The reason behind this is the existence – in addition to the shrines – of one of their large administrative centres in Haifa, known as the “House of Justice”. The reason this centre was built there, however, was the exile of Baha’ullah, the founder of the Baha’i faith, to nineteenth century Palestine.
Suspicions continued, as the Baha’is were also accused of working for the Russians and the British government. The originators of these hypotheses rely on certain facts, such as the Russian embassy in Iran intervening directly to release Baha’ullah after he was accused of trying to kill the Shah. The Baha’is do not deny this incident, but they attribute it to personal reasons, as Baha’ullah’s sister’s husband, who was an employee of the Russian embassy, intervened and convinced the Russian ambassador to intervene to save Baha’ullah, and instead of imprisonment to be sent to exile to Baghdad in 1852.
Suspicions did not abate, however, and culminated in the mixing of the political with the religious with the issuing of the law prohibiting Baha’i activity. Its story began after the military coup in Iraq in 1963 with the assassination of Abd al-Karim Qasim, the arrival of Ba’athists and nationalists to power, and Abd al-Salam Arif becoming the President of Iraq.
The government in Iraq at the time was influenced by Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities were not friendly to the Baha’is and the Egyptian constitution still only recognizes Islam, Christianity and Judaism, while Baha’is’ identity cards are marked with a blank: (_) in the category of religion.
In 1960, the Egyptian authorities decided to close all Baha’i centres and forums in Egypt and prevent Baha’i activity. Influenced by this, the Iraqi authorities began collecting information about the Baha’is and raised the issue of the Baha’i faith in one of the cabinet sessions.
From this point, restrictions began until the Legal Codification Council issued a decision on 6th August 1963, in which it considered “all contracts issued by the Baha’i Central Forum invalid, including Baha’i marriage contracts. It also stipulated the Baha’i faith is not recognized in Iraq, neither as a religion nor as a sect’.
But there was no order at that time to close the rest of the administrative forums and centres, so Baha’i public activities such as prayer and celebration of holidays in Baghdad and other areas continued.
The Baha’is have seven holidays: the Highest Feast is the nineteen days of fasting that begin on 2nd March, the Nawruz on 21st March, the feast of Radwan from 21st April to 2nd May, the Declaration of the Bab on 22nd and 23rd May, the Ascension of Baha’ullah on 29th May, the Martyrdom of the Bab on 9th July, and Birth of the Bab on 20th October.
The decision to invalidate Baha’i contracts was enforced with the “National Safety” law, a law issued by the Presidency of the Republic of Iraq in 1965, based on Article 48 of the Interim Constitution. The Council of Ministers approved this law, which gives security institutions broad powers without reference to judicial orders. Thus, the law became a tool to liquidate political opponents, as it allows the security authorities to deal with any institution and exercise practically absolute powers, such as arrest, search, censorship and dispersal, among others.
The Ministry of Interior was able to issue a decision to close all Baha’i forums after they were discredited and accused of treason and described as a “Trojan horse.” The Ministry of Interior raided the “Jerusalem Hangars” in Baghdad, Basra and Diyala, places where Baha’i gatherings are held, and all their books, documents and printers were confiscated. There was then some liaison between the Iraqi and Egyptian authorities to issue a law prohibiting the Baha’i faith in Iraq as in Egypt. But Musleh Naqshbandi, the Iraqi Minister of Justice at the time opposed the issuance of this law as it contravenes the Constitution.
Baha’is continued to believe that the draft of the prohibition law was a failure, unless a formal law was passed and they continued to be registered in the 1965 census. During al-Bakr’s rule, after the coup of 17th July 1968 and the Ba’ath Party’s taking control of power, the Baha’is submitted a request to Al-Bakr in 1969 seeking the reopening of their temples and the restoration of their administrative buildings.
“Since its declaration in Iraq more than 120 years ago, its followers have not engaged in any political activity against governments in Iraq,” the request stated. The authorities not only ignored the request, but in 1970 passed the Prohibition of all Baha’i Activity Act which turned the lives of Baha’is in Iraq upside down. “Every person is prohibited from promoting or favouring Baha’is or belonging to any forum or entity that works to spread or advocate for Baha’is in any way,” Article 1 of the law states. The wording of this article was what most worried Baha’is on a legal level because it contained ambiguous language, creating a source of fear as to how these floating concepts would be interpreted by the security forces. This was exemplified three years later in the incident of the school located at Al-Ma’mun area.
From a small to a big prison
Dhia Yacoub, 70, a retired Baha’i engineer, recounts that after the Al-Ma’mun school incident, they had to gather up all Baha’i religious books in compliance with the prohibition law, which were confiscated by the security forces. The Baha’is of Iraq were then unable to use their books until 2003.
Dhia remembers how his father, sister, father-in-law and some of other relatives were arrested after the school incident, when certain Baha’is mentioned their relatives’ names, while lacking experience of the caution needed with the security services. They considered that they were not covering up a crime and had nothing to hide; this, however, culminated with a large number of Baha’i men and women being arrested.
Dhia’s father was treasurer of the Baha’i Forum in Basra, and he was sentenced to more than ten years in prison, but he was released with the rest of the Baha’is as part of an amnesty after they made pledges not to engage in any Baha’í activity. At the same time, Dhia asserts that the rejection of the Baha’is was a political act, not social, as they had the sympathy and support of their neighbours, who even participated in the celebration of the release of their parents.
Political and administrative harassment did not stop, however. Some released Baha’is encountered many problems getting back their jobs. Dhia quotes one of his relatives who could not return to her former life. She said, “I got out of a small prison into a large prison.”
Impending erasure
The law that banned Baha’i activity created issues with the personal status laws, so the Iraqi authorities submitted a proposal to leave the category of religion blank. This was based on the recommendations of the Legal Codification Bureau, since documenting the name of the Baha’i religion in the Baha’i population registration books, who numbered at the time 961 according to the registry, would be considered a recognition of the Baha’i religion thus violating Law no. 105.
At that time, the Iraqi authorities found no solution except what had been passed in Egyptian law, which was to prohibit the Baha’i faith and not to recognize them as a people. Thus, they adopted and applied some of the paragraphs of the Egyptian law such as the following: Firstly, not to leave the “religion” field in the identity card or civil registry blank; and the second religion of the parents should be recorded in a certificate submitted by the holder. Thus, the authorities in Iraq removed the word Baha’i from the civil status identity cards and replaced it with the father’s religion or one of the grandparents who belonged to a recognized religion in Iraq.
Secondly,a procedure stated that family cards may not be granted, if their only supporting documentation is a marriage certificate according to Baha’I rituals. This measure prevented Baha’is from adding their wives to civil ID cards, unless one of them submitted a marriage contract according to one of the recognized religions.
This procedure remained in place, until a law was issued to freeze any registration carrying the word Baha’I in the field of religion and no attached tasks could be processed until the subject of the registration showed proof of his adoption of one of the recognized religions.
Because Dhia is a Baha’I who was born in the pre-law period, he had an ID card that included the word Baha’I in the religion field. Yet this was dropped after the Prohibition Law and this situation has continued until the present time. Therefore, Maha (from the school incident) and all Baha’is born after the Prohibition Law were registered as Muslims. “I belong to a faith that is subject to erasure,” Maha says, “identity is an important thing and I feel it is wrong not to register as a Baha’i but this is not the biggest crisis.”
After 2003
There is a perception that the situation of Baha’is in Iraq is better than the rest of the surrounding countries, especially in light of the repression they are subjected to in Iran, Yemen or Egypt, but this perception is not accurate and there are many unseen problems.
Like many Iraqis, Baha’is were cheered by the change of the regime. They thought that their story of oppression and non-recognition would end, especially with the expression of slogans of freedom, democracy and diversity. Accordingly, they began moves to gain official recognition and sought to solve outstanding problems and issues, such as unregistered marriage contracts, due to the law which froze documents about four decades ago.
They actually began reopening their forums and centres, encouraged by the emergence of political entities and religious and cultural organizations and held elections for members of local forums in 2003 in Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk, Najaf, Diyala, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The Baha’is were keen to legally conduct their activities after 2003, and to receive at least official government acceptance. Therefore, they notified the authorities of their steps, such as the elections of forums and the reopening of institutions. They also reported their activities to Jalal Talabani, the late Iraqi President, in 2006.
On the institutional level, the Baha’is contacted the Ministry of Human Rights in order to inform it of the existence of a religious component called “Baha’is”. They also provided it with a set of Baha’i religious books and writings that define the Baha’i religion and its concepts. Furthermore, they submitted a request to the Minister of Justice to repeal Law 105 and the ‘freezing’ law and demanded the inclusion of the Baha’i faith under the auspices of the Office of Awqaf.
The Central Baha’i Forum in Iraq also approached Jawad Al-Polani, former Minister of Interior, to reconsider the ‘freezing’ law. Additionally, some Baha’is issued identity documents that include “Baha’i” in the field of religion.
Unfortunately, however, it was not the happy ending that the Baha’is have been anticipating for so long, as they encountered a series of obstacles that were deliberately put in their way. The laws of the previous regime still applied and the Cabinet Secretariat issued a document prohibiting the inclusion of the Baha’i religion in the restrictions in compliance with Law 105.
Dhia recounts how during that period they worked hard and made strenuous efforts driven by the power of optimism and the energy of hope, but their efforts were in vain. This rejection, which involved not only religious but also political factors, began to emerge with many officials refraining from meeting Baha’is, unless they were part of a delegation representing other minorities.
The “list of rejecters” as described by Dhia, includes presidents, such as Jalal Talabani and Fouad Masum, who even refrained from appearing in a group photo with the Baha’is representatives. The list also includes leaders of political parties, such as Ammar al-Hakim and Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Former Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kazimi, rejected a request to meet with a Baha’i delegation, according to Dhia, who was part of these efforts.
It is not difficult to determine the political reasons for this rejection. It is known that Iran has authority over many Iraqi parties, therefore many Iraqi officials avoid upsetting the Iranians who are known to be anti-Baha’i. Dhia says that the only person who received Baha’is as a solo delegation was Jawad Al-Khoei, grandson of the late religious authority, Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei.
Jawad al-Khoei is known to be only marginally aligned with the pro-Iranian political position. This may clarify the political motives for his agreement to receive the Baha’is, unlike other officials.
In addition to the laws of rejection and non-recognition inherited from the previous regime, the current Iraqi constitution added new stones in the wall of isolation for Baha’is. The second article of the constitution states that “This Constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and guarantees the full religious rights to freedom of religious belief and practice of all individuals such as Christians, Yazidis, and Mandean Sabeans”.
Although the function of the word ‘like’ in the article, is an instrument of inclusion, not exclusion, and that the legal article includes all faiths and religions not mentioned in it, the non-recognition of Baha’is is administratively applicable unless they are explicitly mentioned as a provision in the Constitution. This reflects the contradiction of the Iraqi legislator’s intention who affirmed this article.
Accept the situation… Activity with caution
Maha, representing the vision of the younger generations of the Baha’is of Iraq, believes that it is not a problem that the steps of change are slow, as it guarantees them safety and avoids the harm of direct confrontation and consequential double rejection.
Maha’s generation reaped the fruits of the struggle of previous Baha’i generations and benefited greatly from the post-2003 endeavors, because it gave them an understanding and knowledge of what the current regime is and ways to deal with it. Thus, Baha’is rely on a method of cautious activity and vocalize gently, as long as they are guaranteed a margin of freedom in which they can establish something tangible.
This margin of freedom does not reflect the breadth of the horizon of the Iraqi political system, or the extent of its acceptance of the other because it is a regime whose parties, which are from one religion, are fighting political battles that in the first years of US-led occupation resulted in a civil war that torn the country.
As long as the Baha’is, whose religious teachings prohibit the use of politics, do not harbour any political ambition that threatens one of the parties in the regime, they are accepted as a factional component that has no voice and no influence, but ultimately serve the image of an Iraqi mosaic with many parties electorally and a diverse population.
Therefore, the position of the Iraqi regime is lenient with the Baha’is, contrary to the positions of the surrounding countries, only because the parties of this regime are preoccupied with other conflicts upon which the Baha’is, as a human and social bloc, have no influence. Their numbers are not attractive to the candidates of the elections and they do not have parliamentary representation.
The credibility of this status quo is that this unintended leniency does not extend to administrative and legal transactions, that erase Baha’is from documents and deny them the right to express their beliefs. This is why Maha’s generation wants to maintain the current situation, at the very least, without creating confrontations that their consequences will work against them.
Forums and holidays
There is no official statistics on the number of Baha’is in Iraq, and estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 people. They are not governed by demographic borders. They are the people of a geographically dispersed religion and spread in many provinces, including Baghdad, Kirkuk, Basra, Diyala, Najaf and the provinces of KRG.
Baha’i is characterized by its administrative system. It consists of three types of institutions designed to make decisions related to the life and goals of the group. These institutions are the “The Universal House of Justice”, the “Local Spiritual Assemblies” and the “National Spiritual Assemblies”, and they are elected by the Baha’i population.
The Local Spiritual Assemblies is formed by administrative staff of nine members, representing Baha’is at the local level, who are elected each year on the first day of Eid al-Radwan. The elected members remain in their posts for one year until their successors are elected.
The Local Spiritual Assemblies are held in each region where there are nine Baha’is, based on the text in the “The Most Holy Book”, “God has written for every city to make a house of justice and in which souls gather on the number of Baha’is.”
As for the National Spiritual Assemblies, it is a similar entity to the regional councils, but it is wider, created by the Baha’is for national and regional representation and its members are selected through indirect elections.
The Universal House of Justice sits at the top of the pyramid of the Baha’i institutions. It is the supreme world body that manages the affairs of the Baha’i faith. Baha’ullah, in his book “The Most Holy Book” stipulated the establishment of this institution. The House of Justice is made up of nine members and they are elected every five years by all members of the National Spiritual Assemblies.
No exaggerations
Maha states that she was deprived of attending Baha’i forums in the first years after the US-led occupation, firstly because of security reasons and secondly because of the difficulty of holding these forums at the time, in addition, the participation was limited then to young males.
But the situation is different now, and this is what gives Maha and her generation a feeling of satisfaction as it is a generation that looks positively at the half filled cup, and knows that its tragedy is part of the general Iraqi tragedy, so it does not exaggerate resentment or optimism, but rather tries, as much as possible, to exploit the current situation to their advantage.
This report was completed as part of a program organized by the AUB and supported by IMS.
Read More
“His gaze was intrusive; it pierced my soul”: On the Struggles of Divorced Women in Navigating Courts and Governmental Institutions
“She Brought a Fatwa from Khamenei and Al-Azhar, But It Went Nowhere”: The Struggles of Trans People in the Iraqi Health Sector
“Everyone has a Right to the Kids Except their Mother”: On Women Fighting for the Custody of Their Children
Iraqi Prisoners Blackmailed to Pay To Obtain Release Papers After Completing Their Sentence
Maha spoke out about her religion when she encountered the first act of discrimination in her life as a 10-year-old child. Maha was in the fourth grade of primary education in one of the schools in the Dora area, south Baghdad, when her teacher asked her why she did not wear the hijab. “I’m Baha’i,” Maha replied. The teacher remained silent and a strange expression came over her classmates’ faces.
The strained encounter between Maha and her teacher went unnoticed, but a similar conversation, which took place in another school decades ago, ended up with entire Baha’i families going to prison.
In 1973, a teacher of religion in a school in Al-Ma’mun area, west of Baghdad, had a conversation about the Baha’is and their beliefs using offensive language. One of the students confronted her, defending them, even though she was not Baha’i herself. This event took place three years after the issuance of the Law prohibiting Baha’i activities in Iraq – Law No. 105 of 1970.
Unfortunately, the daughter of Saadoun Ghaidan, the interior minister at the time, was a member of the class and witnessed the heated debate between the student and the teacher. She conveyed what happened to her father.
Ghaidan came the next day and asked the student what she knew about the Baha’is. She replied that she admired their ideas and had a deep knowledge of what they believed. The minister understood that the source of her admiration was her contact with her Baha’i neighbors and interpreted it as a kind of proselytizing of the Baha’i faith, which was banned according to Iraqi law. The minister reported his conversation with the student to Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr, then the President of Iraq. The latter issued an order to open an investigation into the matter. Following the investigation, the girl who had had the discussion with the interior minister and all the Baha’i girls at the school were arrested.
Every Baha’i named in the investigation, even the women were arrested. Some detainees spent more than three years in custody. This incident was only the beginning of the tragedy of the Baha’is in Iraq.
Law No. 105 of 1970 comprises nine articles which include the prohibition of the Baha’i religion, the closure of its temples and places of worship and the confiscation of funds and real estate intended for “Baha’i related purposes.” Article 6 of the law stipulates that “the violator of the provisions of this law shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of not less than ten years and by a fine or one of these two penalties.”
The reasons for the legislation as stated in the law are as follows: “Given that the Baha’i faith is not a recognized religion or faith, and in order to prohibit the promotion of the Baha’i faith or its favour by others, and to stop its activity and close its forums and centres located in Iraq and to dispose its money and assets, this law has been enacted”. The repercussions of the issuance of this law were not purely religious, but more of political nature based on suspicions and stereotypes that do not reflect the reality of the Baha’i religion, despite the latter’s prohibition of its adherents to pursue political work.
Roots and harassment
The roots of the Baha’i faith go back to 1844 when a young Iranian, named Ali Muhammad Shirazi, preached that a messenger from God would soon come to mankind. This young man called himself the “bab”. Many people began to follow the “bab,” one of whom was Mirza Hussein Ali Nouri, who was born in Iran in 1817.
In 1852 Nouri said that, while in prison, he saw a vision that he was the messenger who the “bab” had preached of and called himself “Baha’ullah “which means “the splendor of God” in Arabic. In 1863, Baha’ullah founded the Baha’i religion at the age of 46.
Baha’ullah was exiled several times during which time he wrote, The Kitáb-il-Aqdas “The Most Holy Book”, which is the most important book of the Baha’is. He died in 1892 in the Palestinian city of Acre and was buried there. After the death of Baha’ullah, he was succeeded by his son Abdel Bahaa, who spread Baha’i teachings around the world until he died in 1921 in the Palestinian city of Haifa. Shawqi Effendi, the son of Abdul Bahaa, continued to preach this new religion. He died in London in 1957.
Baha’is believe that all other religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism represent a stage of divine manifestation and believe that God is one and that He is the Creator of this world, known by multiple names in different religions. The Baha’is have three prayers: major, minor and medium. According to them, any of these prayers dispenses the other, according to the belief of this religion.
The number of Baha’is around the world currently stands at about six million. They undertake pilgrimages to the Baha’i World Center in the cities of Acre and Haifa, where the mausoleums of Ali Mohammed Shirazi and Bahaa El-Din are located.
Since its emergence, the Baha’i faith has been subject to suspicions that have caused its adherents the torment of exile, imprisonment and repression in a number of countries. One of these suspicions is an early accusation that they work for Israel. The reason behind this is the existence – in addition to the shrines – of one of their large administrative centres in Haifa, known as the “House of Justice”. The reason this centre was built there, however, was the exile of Baha’ullah, the founder of the Baha’i faith, to nineteenth century Palestine.
Suspicions continued, as the Baha’is were also accused of working for the Russians and the British government. The originators of these hypotheses rely on certain facts, such as the Russian embassy in Iran intervening directly to release Baha’ullah after he was accused of trying to kill the Shah. The Baha’is do not deny this incident, but they attribute it to personal reasons, as Baha’ullah’s sister’s husband, who was an employee of the Russian embassy, intervened and convinced the Russian ambassador to intervene to save Baha’ullah, and instead of imprisonment to be sent to exile to Baghdad in 1852.
Suspicions did not abate, however, and culminated in the mixing of the political with the religious with the issuing of the law prohibiting Baha’i activity. Its story began after the military coup in Iraq in 1963 with the assassination of Abd al-Karim Qasim, the arrival of Ba’athists and nationalists to power, and Abd al-Salam Arif becoming the President of Iraq.
The government in Iraq at the time was influenced by Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities were not friendly to the Baha’is and the Egyptian constitution still only recognizes Islam, Christianity and Judaism, while Baha’is’ identity cards are marked with a blank: (_) in the category of religion.
In 1960, the Egyptian authorities decided to close all Baha’i centres and forums in Egypt and prevent Baha’i activity. Influenced by this, the Iraqi authorities began collecting information about the Baha’is and raised the issue of the Baha’i faith in one of the cabinet sessions.
From this point, restrictions began until the Legal Codification Council issued a decision on 6th August 1963, in which it considered “all contracts issued by the Baha’i Central Forum invalid, including Baha’i marriage contracts. It also stipulated the Baha’i faith is not recognized in Iraq, neither as a religion nor as a sect’.
But there was no order at that time to close the rest of the administrative forums and centres, so Baha’i public activities such as prayer and celebration of holidays in Baghdad and other areas continued.
The Baha’is have seven holidays: the Highest Feast is the nineteen days of fasting that begin on 2nd March, the Nawruz on 21st March, the feast of Radwan from 21st April to 2nd May, the Declaration of the Bab on 22nd and 23rd May, the Ascension of Baha’ullah on 29th May, the Martyrdom of the Bab on 9th July, and Birth of the Bab on 20th October.
The decision to invalidate Baha’i contracts was enforced with the “National Safety” law, a law issued by the Presidency of the Republic of Iraq in 1965, based on Article 48 of the Interim Constitution. The Council of Ministers approved this law, which gives security institutions broad powers without reference to judicial orders. Thus, the law became a tool to liquidate political opponents, as it allows the security authorities to deal with any institution and exercise practically absolute powers, such as arrest, search, censorship and dispersal, among others.
The Ministry of Interior was able to issue a decision to close all Baha’i forums after they were discredited and accused of treason and described as a “Trojan horse.” The Ministry of Interior raided the “Jerusalem Hangars” in Baghdad, Basra and Diyala, places where Baha’i gatherings are held, and all their books, documents and printers were confiscated. There was then some liaison between the Iraqi and Egyptian authorities to issue a law prohibiting the Baha’i faith in Iraq as in Egypt. But Musleh Naqshbandi, the Iraqi Minister of Justice at the time opposed the issuance of this law as it contravenes the Constitution.
Baha’is continued to believe that the draft of the prohibition law was a failure, unless a formal law was passed and they continued to be registered in the 1965 census. During al-Bakr’s rule, after the coup of 17th July 1968 and the Ba’ath Party’s taking control of power, the Baha’is submitted a request to Al-Bakr in 1969 seeking the reopening of their temples and the restoration of their administrative buildings.
“Since its declaration in Iraq more than 120 years ago, its followers have not engaged in any political activity against governments in Iraq,” the request stated. The authorities not only ignored the request, but in 1970 passed the Prohibition of all Baha’i Activity Act which turned the lives of Baha’is in Iraq upside down. “Every person is prohibited from promoting or favouring Baha’is or belonging to any forum or entity that works to spread or advocate for Baha’is in any way,” Article 1 of the law states. The wording of this article was what most worried Baha’is on a legal level because it contained ambiguous language, creating a source of fear as to how these floating concepts would be interpreted by the security forces. This was exemplified three years later in the incident of the school located at Al-Ma’mun area.
From a small to a big prison
Dhia Yacoub, 70, a retired Baha’i engineer, recounts that after the Al-Ma’mun school incident, they had to gather up all Baha’i religious books in compliance with the prohibition law, which were confiscated by the security forces. The Baha’is of Iraq were then unable to use their books until 2003.
Dhia remembers how his father, sister, father-in-law and some of other relatives were arrested after the school incident, when certain Baha’is mentioned their relatives’ names, while lacking experience of the caution needed with the security services. They considered that they were not covering up a crime and had nothing to hide; this, however, culminated with a large number of Baha’i men and women being arrested.
Dhia’s father was treasurer of the Baha’i Forum in Basra, and he was sentenced to more than ten years in prison, but he was released with the rest of the Baha’is as part of an amnesty after they made pledges not to engage in any Baha’í activity. At the same time, Dhia asserts that the rejection of the Baha’is was a political act, not social, as they had the sympathy and support of their neighbours, who even participated in the celebration of the release of their parents.
Political and administrative harassment did not stop, however. Some released Baha’is encountered many problems getting back their jobs. Dhia quotes one of his relatives who could not return to her former life. She said, “I got out of a small prison into a large prison.”
Impending erasure
The law that banned Baha’i activity created issues with the personal status laws, so the Iraqi authorities submitted a proposal to leave the category of religion blank. This was based on the recommendations of the Legal Codification Bureau, since documenting the name of the Baha’i religion in the Baha’i population registration books, who numbered at the time 961 according to the registry, would be considered a recognition of the Baha’i religion thus violating Law no. 105.
At that time, the Iraqi authorities found no solution except what had been passed in Egyptian law, which was to prohibit the Baha’i faith and not to recognize them as a people. Thus, they adopted and applied some of the paragraphs of the Egyptian law such as the following: Firstly, not to leave the “religion” field in the identity card or civil registry blank; and the second religion of the parents should be recorded in a certificate submitted by the holder. Thus, the authorities in Iraq removed the word Baha’i from the civil status identity cards and replaced it with the father’s religion or one of the grandparents who belonged to a recognized religion in Iraq.
Secondly,a procedure stated that family cards may not be granted, if their only supporting documentation is a marriage certificate according to Baha’I rituals. This measure prevented Baha’is from adding their wives to civil ID cards, unless one of them submitted a marriage contract according to one of the recognized religions.
This procedure remained in place, until a law was issued to freeze any registration carrying the word Baha’I in the field of religion and no attached tasks could be processed until the subject of the registration showed proof of his adoption of one of the recognized religions.
Because Dhia is a Baha’I who was born in the pre-law period, he had an ID card that included the word Baha’I in the religion field. Yet this was dropped after the Prohibition Law and this situation has continued until the present time. Therefore, Maha (from the school incident) and all Baha’is born after the Prohibition Law were registered as Muslims. “I belong to a faith that is subject to erasure,” Maha says, “identity is an important thing and I feel it is wrong not to register as a Baha’i but this is not the biggest crisis.”
After 2003
There is a perception that the situation of Baha’is in Iraq is better than the rest of the surrounding countries, especially in light of the repression they are subjected to in Iran, Yemen or Egypt, but this perception is not accurate and there are many unseen problems.
Like many Iraqis, Baha’is were cheered by the change of the regime. They thought that their story of oppression and non-recognition would end, especially with the expression of slogans of freedom, democracy and diversity. Accordingly, they began moves to gain official recognition and sought to solve outstanding problems and issues, such as unregistered marriage contracts, due to the law which froze documents about four decades ago.
They actually began reopening their forums and centres, encouraged by the emergence of political entities and religious and cultural organizations and held elections for members of local forums in 2003 in Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk, Najaf, Diyala, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The Baha’is were keen to legally conduct their activities after 2003, and to receive at least official government acceptance. Therefore, they notified the authorities of their steps, such as the elections of forums and the reopening of institutions. They also reported their activities to Jalal Talabani, the late Iraqi President, in 2006.
On the institutional level, the Baha’is contacted the Ministry of Human Rights in order to inform it of the existence of a religious component called “Baha’is”. They also provided it with a set of Baha’i religious books and writings that define the Baha’i religion and its concepts. Furthermore, they submitted a request to the Minister of Justice to repeal Law 105 and the ‘freezing’ law and demanded the inclusion of the Baha’i faith under the auspices of the Office of Awqaf.
The Central Baha’i Forum in Iraq also approached Jawad Al-Polani, former Minister of Interior, to reconsider the ‘freezing’ law. Additionally, some Baha’is issued identity documents that include “Baha’i” in the field of religion.
Unfortunately, however, it was not the happy ending that the Baha’is have been anticipating for so long, as they encountered a series of obstacles that were deliberately put in their way. The laws of the previous regime still applied and the Cabinet Secretariat issued a document prohibiting the inclusion of the Baha’i religion in the restrictions in compliance with Law 105.
Dhia recounts how during that period they worked hard and made strenuous efforts driven by the power of optimism and the energy of hope, but their efforts were in vain. This rejection, which involved not only religious but also political factors, began to emerge with many officials refraining from meeting Baha’is, unless they were part of a delegation representing other minorities.
The “list of rejecters” as described by Dhia, includes presidents, such as Jalal Talabani and Fouad Masum, who even refrained from appearing in a group photo with the Baha’is representatives. The list also includes leaders of political parties, such as Ammar al-Hakim and Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Former Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kazimi, rejected a request to meet with a Baha’i delegation, according to Dhia, who was part of these efforts.
It is not difficult to determine the political reasons for this rejection. It is known that Iran has authority over many Iraqi parties, therefore many Iraqi officials avoid upsetting the Iranians who are known to be anti-Baha’i. Dhia says that the only person who received Baha’is as a solo delegation was Jawad Al-Khoei, grandson of the late religious authority, Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei.
Jawad al-Khoei is known to be only marginally aligned with the pro-Iranian political position. This may clarify the political motives for his agreement to receive the Baha’is, unlike other officials.
In addition to the laws of rejection and non-recognition inherited from the previous regime, the current Iraqi constitution added new stones in the wall of isolation for Baha’is. The second article of the constitution states that “This Constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and guarantees the full religious rights to freedom of religious belief and practice of all individuals such as Christians, Yazidis, and Mandean Sabeans”.
Although the function of the word ‘like’ in the article, is an instrument of inclusion, not exclusion, and that the legal article includes all faiths and religions not mentioned in it, the non-recognition of Baha’is is administratively applicable unless they are explicitly mentioned as a provision in the Constitution. This reflects the contradiction of the Iraqi legislator’s intention who affirmed this article.
Accept the situation… Activity with caution
Maha, representing the vision of the younger generations of the Baha’is of Iraq, believes that it is not a problem that the steps of change are slow, as it guarantees them safety and avoids the harm of direct confrontation and consequential double rejection.
Maha’s generation reaped the fruits of the struggle of previous Baha’i generations and benefited greatly from the post-2003 endeavors, because it gave them an understanding and knowledge of what the current regime is and ways to deal with it. Thus, Baha’is rely on a method of cautious activity and vocalize gently, as long as they are guaranteed a margin of freedom in which they can establish something tangible.
This margin of freedom does not reflect the breadth of the horizon of the Iraqi political system, or the extent of its acceptance of the other because it is a regime whose parties, which are from one religion, are fighting political battles that in the first years of US-led occupation resulted in a civil war that torn the country.
As long as the Baha’is, whose religious teachings prohibit the use of politics, do not harbour any political ambition that threatens one of the parties in the regime, they are accepted as a factional component that has no voice and no influence, but ultimately serve the image of an Iraqi mosaic with many parties electorally and a diverse population.
Therefore, the position of the Iraqi regime is lenient with the Baha’is, contrary to the positions of the surrounding countries, only because the parties of this regime are preoccupied with other conflicts upon which the Baha’is, as a human and social bloc, have no influence. Their numbers are not attractive to the candidates of the elections and they do not have parliamentary representation.
The credibility of this status quo is that this unintended leniency does not extend to administrative and legal transactions, that erase Baha’is from documents and deny them the right to express their beliefs. This is why Maha’s generation wants to maintain the current situation, at the very least, without creating confrontations that their consequences will work against them.
Forums and holidays
There is no official statistics on the number of Baha’is in Iraq, and estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 people. They are not governed by demographic borders. They are the people of a geographically dispersed religion and spread in many provinces, including Baghdad, Kirkuk, Basra, Diyala, Najaf and the provinces of KRG.
Baha’i is characterized by its administrative system. It consists of three types of institutions designed to make decisions related to the life and goals of the group. These institutions are the “The Universal House of Justice”, the “Local Spiritual Assemblies” and the “National Spiritual Assemblies”, and they are elected by the Baha’i population.
The Local Spiritual Assemblies is formed by administrative staff of nine members, representing Baha’is at the local level, who are elected each year on the first day of Eid al-Radwan. The elected members remain in their posts for one year until their successors are elected.
The Local Spiritual Assemblies are held in each region where there are nine Baha’is, based on the text in the “The Most Holy Book”, “God has written for every city to make a house of justice and in which souls gather on the number of Baha’is.”
As for the National Spiritual Assemblies, it is a similar entity to the regional councils, but it is wider, created by the Baha’is for national and regional representation and its members are selected through indirect elections.
The Universal House of Justice sits at the top of the pyramid of the Baha’i institutions. It is the supreme world body that manages the affairs of the Baha’i faith. Baha’ullah, in his book “The Most Holy Book” stipulated the establishment of this institution. The House of Justice is made up of nine members and they are elected every five years by all members of the National Spiritual Assemblies.
No exaggerations
Maha states that she was deprived of attending Baha’i forums in the first years after the US-led occupation, firstly because of security reasons and secondly because of the difficulty of holding these forums at the time, in addition, the participation was limited then to young males.
But the situation is different now, and this is what gives Maha and her generation a feeling of satisfaction as it is a generation that looks positively at the half filled cup, and knows that its tragedy is part of the general Iraqi tragedy, so it does not exaggerate resentment or optimism, but rather tries, as much as possible, to exploit the current situation to their advantage.
This report was completed as part of a program organized by the AUB and supported by IMS.
