Serious Business

Within hours after the House of Representatives passed House Resolution 1008 the government of Iran has issued another lie about the Baha'i in the birthplace of the Baha'i Faith:
NEW YORK — The Baha’i International Community categorically rejects statements by an Iranian prosecutor that seven Baha’is detained in Tehran have “confessed” to operating an “illegal” organization with ties to Israel and other countries.
“We deny in the strongest possible terms the suggestion that Baha’is in Iran have engaged in any subversive activity,” said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations. “The Baha’i community is not involved in political affairs. Their only ‘crime’ is the practice of their religion.”
“The seriousness of the allegations makes us fear for the lives of these seven individuals,” she said.
She was responding to Iranian newspaper reports of statements by Hasan Haddad, deputy prosecutor general for security at the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.
Ms. Dugal said that seven Baha’is arrested earlier this year were members of a committee that helped attend to the needs of the 300,000 Baha’is in Iran.
“That is no secret – the government knew perfectly well about the existence of this committee long before its members were arrested, just as the government knows perfectly well that these people are not involved in any underhanded activity,” she said.
Ms. Dugal said the detentions are part of a well-documented, decades-long campaign to stamp out the Baha’i community in Iran, and that the latest accusations follow the same pattern as previous unfounded charges.
“Suggestions of collusion with the state of Israel are categorically false and misleading. The Iranian authorities are playing on the fact that the Baha’i world administrative center is located in northern Israel,” she said.
“The Iranian government completely ignores the well-known historical fact that the Baha’i Faith was centered in Iran until 1853 when the authorities there banished the Baha’i prophet-founder, who was forced into exile and eventually imprisoned in Acre on the Mediterranean coast under the Ottoman Turkish regime. That area happens to be in what is now Israel.”
Ms. Dugal said many Baha’is in Iran – including members of the coordinating committee before their imprisonment – are frequently detained for questioning about their activities. The Baha’is, she said, have nothing to hide and try to answer truthfully whenever they are interrogated.

30 Days in Haifa: Day 1/4

We arrived at midnight on the 28th and a wonderful surprise greeted us at the airport in Tel Aviv ... Lucia and Roya wisked us away to Bahji in time for the Ascension of Baha'u'llah observance.

It was a spectacular evening. Temp about 70, no breeze, perfect night sky, and a truly wonderful program.

The Wolfe's were also there, but they got away before we could all pose. :-(

Tomorrow, the Terraces!

IRANIAN BAHA'I LEADERS BEING HELD INCOMMUNICADO; GROWING CONCERN FOR THEIR FATE

Six Baha'i leaders who were arrested nearly two weeks ago are being held incommunicado, without access to lawyers or relatives, and the Baha'i International Community is increasingly concerned about their fate.
"Although initial reports indicated they were taken to Evin prison, in fact we don't know where they are, and we are extremely concerned," said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations.
"What is clear is that none of their fundamental rights are being upheld. They have had no access to family members or counsel. We don't even know if they have been before a judge or whether they have been formally charged.
"All we know is what a government spokesperson said last week, which is that they were arrested for 'security reasons,' a charge that is utterly baseless.
"We appeal to the international community, human rights groups, and people of conscience, as well as the news media, to continue their efforts to press the Iranian government so that the rights of these people as detainees be upheld and that they be allowed access to counsel and general communication with the outside -- as a minimum step," said Ms. Dugal.
The six, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Baha'is in Iran, were arrested on 14 May 2008 in an early morning sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Baha'i leaders were rounded up and killed.
A seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in early March in Mashhad after being summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence office there.
The whereabouts of none of the seven are known, said Ms. Dugal.
"We understood that the six were taken to Evin prison -- the seventh remaining in Mashhad -- principally because some of the government agents who arrested the six on the 14th had documents indicating they would be taken to that notorious place," she said.
"However, in light of the fact that relatives have made repeated attempts to learn more about the fate of the seven, and in all cases have been met with evasion and conflicting stories from government officials, we must now say that we don't know where they are -- and that our level of concern for their fate is at the highest," Ms. Dugal said.
Arrested on 14 May were: Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. All live in Tehran.
Arrested in Mashhad on 5 March was Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, who also resides in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was summoned to Mashhad by the Ministry of Intelligence, ostensibly on the grounds that she was required to answer questions related to the burial of an individual in the Baha'i cemetery in that city.
Last week, Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham gave a press conference at which he acknowledged the arrest and imprisonment of the six. News reports quoted Mr. Elham as saying on 20 May that the six were arrested for "security issues" and not because of their religious beliefs.
Those assertions -- the only public statement by the government about the seven -- were immediately rebutted by Ms. Dugal.
"The group of Baha'is arrested last week, like the thousands of Baha'is who since 1979 have been killed, imprisoned, or otherwise oppressed, are being persecuted solely because of their religious beliefs," Ms. Dugal said on 21 May.

One Week To Go

Seven Days and counting...yep...seven long days until we take wing to visit Lucia, Geoffrey, Roya, Nathan, and a whole host of other friends.

It will be a long week.

Taleh was sad to see us go, but I think she got caught up in another vision...her cute self.

Actually, this image was taken by Katrina way after we saw them last week packing for Cincinnati. She is such a cutie bug!

Iran Govt 'violates human rights' - ABC News

The Government of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of a systematic violation of human rights.
The Defenders of Human Rights Centre in Tehran has criticised the Government's treatment of dissidents, journalists, student activists, labour unionists and women as well as its increased use of the death penalty.
The condemnation is in the annual report of the group, formed by five prominent lawyers and headed by the 2003 Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
It says the lack of a real and effective observance of human rights deepens the gap between the people and the Government and breaks the pillars of peace, stability and development in the country.

Six Bahá'í leaders arrested in Iran; pattern matches deadly sweeps of early 1980s

Six Bahá’í leaders in Iran were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison May 14 in a sweep that is ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Bahá’í leaders were summarily rounded up and killed.
The six men and women, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Bahá’ís in Iran, were in their homes Wednesday morning when government intelligence agents entered and spent up to five hours searching each home, before taking them away.
The seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in early March in Mashhad after being summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence office there on an ostensibly trivial matter.
“We protest in the strongest terms the arrests of our fellow Bahá'ís in Iran,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations. “Their only crime is their practice of the Bahá’í Faith.”
“Especially disturbing is how this latest sweep recalls the wholesale arrest or abduction of the members of two national Iranian Bahá’í governing councils in the early 1980s -- which led to the disappearance or execution of 17 individuals,” she said.
“The early morning raids on the homes of these prominent Bahá’ís were well coordinated, and it is clear they represent a high-level effort to strike again at the Bahá’ís and to intimidate the Iranian Bahá’í community at large,” said Ms. Dugal.
Arrested yesterday were: Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. All live in Tehran. Mrs. Kamalabadi, Mr. Khanjani, and Mr. Tavakkoli have been previously arrested and then released after periods ranging from five days to four months.
Arrested in Mashhad on 5 March 2008 was Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, who also resides in Tehran. Mrs. Sabet was summoned to Mashhad by the Ministry of Intelligence, ostensibly on the grounds that she was required to answer questions related to the burial of an individual in the Bahá’í cemetery in that city.
On 21 August 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran were abducted and disappeared without a trace. It is certain that they were killed.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran was reconstituted soon after that but was again ravaged by the execution of eight of its members on 27 December 1981.
A number of members of local Bahá’í governing councils, known as local Spiritual Assemblies, were also arrested and executed in the early 1980s, before an international outcry forced the government to slow its execution of Bahá’ís. Since 1979, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been killed or executed in Iran, although none have been executed since 1998.
In 1983, the government outlawed all formal Bahá’í administrative institutions and the Iranian Bahá’í community responded by disbanding its National Spiritual Assembly, which is an elected governing council, along with some 400 local level elected governing councils. Bahá'ís throughout Iran also suspended nearly all of their regular organizational activity.
The informal national-level coordinating group, known as the Friends, was established with the knowledge of the government to help cope with the diverse needs of Iran’s 300,000-member Baháí community, which is the country’s largest religious minority.

Is there a Doctor Present?

There IS another doctor in the House, joining the ever growing list of distinguished doctors of medicine that it has become our fortune to have married into (joining Mssr's Lameh, Khazeh, and Ghaneh Fananapazir).



The newest Dr. Fananapazir, as he expects the children to call him, is Dr. Nafeh (MY SON-IN-LAW!). He is a doctor of pediatrics. He graduated Friday from Vanderbilt University before a giantic crowd of about 2,000 well wishers there to witness the event (as well as to see the other 900 or more graduates, but they were of lesser importance).:-)

Yes, you are right, that is Nafeh waving on the jumbotron for all to see. Hi, Nafeh, you looked great!

Dr. Nafeh was "hooded" in a medical school ceremony, and true to his nature, kneeled in submission to be knighted (he also had to genuflect or the presenting Dr. couldn't have reached his neck!).









The doctors Fananapazir (Katrina also received her Nurse Practioner degree and was graduated Friday! WhooooHoooo) will now relocate to Cincinnati where Nafeh will begin his residency.

As is the Tyson family tradition, we try to involve as many family members as possible. In that this was an out-of-body experience for some (Lucia, Geoffrey and Roya) who are in Israel rode along with someone their own (current) size, Jameh.

Rosana, Alicia and Brian Green, Amelia, Brian and I, were happy to be a part of the big event, supporting Dr. Nafeh, Katrina, Jameh and Taleh. We know a lot of others wanted to be here and we missed everyone!

We all shouted a loud Huzah three times for Nafeh! (Well, we wanted too, we actually just gave him hugs and smiles. :-)

Please visit the Fananapazir blog for more details of this very exciting day.

So many countries, so little time...

Let me say how much I appreciate the enthusiasm y'all displayed in my latest poll, "How many countries will we fly over en route to Haifa later this month? The choices were, 30, 15, 3, and 1. 58% percent said 15, 17% said 3, 17% said 1, and 5% said 30. I also appreciate the depth of study that some undertook, as well as some intricate questions (such as, "do we count the departing country AND the destination country, too? and "do we count roud-trip?"). Thanks for all the work. However, the answer is: ONE! “The world is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” - Baha'u'llah.
Good luck on the next poll. :-)

But then again, who is counting?

OK, it may be that I am getting a little ahead of myself, but to my figuring we (Rosana, Brian and I) have 26 days 8 hours and 20 minutes before we leave for Haifa. So much to do for this mega trip and so little time. The "to do" lists are endless!

Two Days, 10 Hours

A very bright sun ball emerged this morning in Nashville, welcoming my next-to-next-to-last day in Tennessee.

Spring is here...a lot of the pollen is gone...and Ridvan is blessing all of us.

It Can Get Worse

Well, everyone, I know that I have been tardy and have not updated my blog in a little while. I will catch up, I promise. In the meantime, this is what it looks like in Lafayette, Tennessee two months after the tornado with the imposition of torrential rains and flooding.