Iran’s Dismal Human Rights Record Exposed in Wilmette Conference

Iran’s dismal human rights record against women, labor and minority religions including the Baha’i Faith will be under the spotlight at a Human Rights Day conference at Wilmette’s Baha’i Temple, 1 to 4 p. m., Saturday, Dec. 10th.

Sponsored by Amnesty International USA and Chicagoland Baha’i assemblies, national experts will outline the denial of basic freedoms in Iran and worldwide efforts for change. It’s free and open to the public.

According to Amnesty International, Iran has a terrible record of human rights violations including extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture, unfair trials, stoning, abuses against women and limits on movement, belief, expression, assembly and association. Iran persecutes certain ethnic and religious minorities and has sentenced seven Baha’i national leaders to 20 years in prison on false charges of espionage for Israel and “spreading corruption on earth” following secret trials and minimal access to lawyers.

Wilmette conference speakers include prominent Iran experts — former New York Times Reporter Nazila Fathi, Baha’i Director of External Affairs Anthony Vance, international union authority Danny Postel and Amnesty International USA Iran Country Specialist Elise Auerbach. A new film, “Education Under Fire,” will recount the historic roots of Iran’s official persecution of the Baha’i religion and recent stepped-up efforts to pursue Iranians of Baha’i Faith.

Nazila Fathi was a journalist for the New York Times and Time Magazine and current Neiman Fellow at Harvard University on technology and the Internet shaping human rights and civil rights. She was formerly Fellow at Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg Institute on women’s rights. Fathi holds a master’s degree from Harvard and bachelor’s from Tehran Azad University.

Anthony Vance is director of external affairs for the Baha’is of the United States in Washington and was deputy secretary-general of the Baha’i World Center in Israel. Earlier, he was program manager for the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Botswana and Egypt, and spent many prior years with a law firm. He holds JD, MBA and bachelor’s degrees from Harvard University.

Danny Postel is expert on international labor rights including Iran. Based in Chicago, he’s an international editor, writer for prominent publications, and college journalism and language teacher. His articles have appeared in openDemocracy, Chronicle of Higher Education, American Prospect, Chicago Tribune, Guardian, Nation, New Humanist, Progressive and Washington Post.
Elise Auerbach is Iran country specialist for Amnesty International USA. She received a PhD from the University of Chicago’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

The Human Rights Day Conference takes place at landmark Baha’i Temple, located at Sheridan Road and Linden Avenue in Wilmette, in the lower-level Foundation Hall. Because of construction, the site is not handicapped accessible. Free parking is available on neighboring streets and the Baha’i parking lot across Sheridan Road. There’s paid parking at the CTA lot at 4th and Linden, Wilmette, about three blocks away — the last stop on the CTA Purple Line.

Saeid Khadivian is an extremely eloquent speaker with over 20 years of service in the administrative structure of the Baha’i Faith in California, Texas, and Taiwan. He has conducted seminars with over 500 people in attendance, still talked about today by those who attended. The Bahá’í Club is honored to sponsor a rare public seminar and discussion. In addition to providing a brief introduction to the Bahá’í Faith, Mr. Khadivian will speak about the Bahá’i response to current events and the Faith’s attempt to create unity in a rapidly changing world. Topics of particular interest to the University community will include the attempt of the Bahá’í Faith to reconcile science and religion, the vital importance of higher education, and the principle of gender equality.

This exciting presentation will take place in Parkes Hall, Room 122, just south of the Chicago Ave/Sheridan Road corner at the Arch.

Please contact the Bahá’í Club at BahaiEventsChicago@gmail.com with questions.

http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/affiliates/the-protest/baha-i-means-unity-to-students-1.257921

Thanks to all of the students for making this a good year on campus, filled with Study Circles, Firesides, and more.   Look for exciting events to kick-off the fall of 2011!

The Northwestern Baha’i Club hosted the lecture, titled “Documenting the Role of Americans in A World Birth.” Walker spoke to an audience of about 10 NU students and Evanston residents about the founding principles of Baha’i and the fundamental beliefs of its historical authority figures…

To read the full article, follow this link:

http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/presentation-explains-celebrates-baha-i-history-1.2468876

The public is invited to this event at Northwestern University’s Alice Millar Chapel, Sheridan Road and Chicago Avenue, at 7:00 p. m., Thursday, Dec. 9.

More than 500 members of Amnesty International Group 50 Evanston, Baha’i assemblies from Evanston, Wilmette and Chicago, and the general public are expected. The forum will feature journalist and human rights activist Omid Memarian and University of Chicago Professor Frank Lewis, as well as Persian music and poetry and a call to action.

The Evanston forum will discuss the dismal state of human rights in Iran today, the imprisonment of seven Iranian Baha’i leaders, and the energetic international calls for their release. The seven were recently convicted on false charges, including two capital offenses: espionage for Israel and “spreading corruption on earth.” They were arrested in early 2008, spent their first year in prison without formal charges or access to lawyers, convicted in a closed trial and eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison. Their ordeal triggered vast international reaction including strong statements of concern from the European Union, the United States, Brazil, India, and Canada. Learn more at http://iran.bahai.us.

Evanston forum speaker Omid Memarian is a news analyst, writer and blogger on Iranian and Persian topics. He received Human Rights Watch’s highest honor for courageous activism. Memarian is a Rotary Peace Fellow and former visiting scholar at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He has written for the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post and other media, and blogged since 2002 in English and Persian/Farsi.

Evanston forum speaker Frank Lewis is associate professor of Persian language and literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He’s deputy director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago and a respected author and speaker on Persian topics. Lewis’s current interests include works in Persian language and literature, medieval Islamic mysticism, Arabic literature, Sufism, translation studies and Iranian religion.

Listen to Omid Memarian interviewed on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio’s Worldview on Dec. 9, 2010.

Like and Share on Facebook.

Download a poster-flyer

In the coming weeks we will list upcoming events and contact information.  Make sure you check back in a couple weeks for updated information.

Reflections on the Life of the Spirit

This course has touched the hearts of many from the most remote villages to the most populated cities! It is designed to enhance spiritual identity, offer skills in study of Sacred Texts, enrich prayer life and offer insights on the meaning of life and death. Participants learn that true life is the life of the spirit. Skills learned include those needed to hold devotional meetings in your home and neighborhood.

Arising to Serve

This course shares principles and teachings that frame Bahá’í community life. These principles include the Oneness of Humanity, the Equality of Women and Men, Universal Education and Justice. Through the example of sharing concepts with new Bahá’ís, this course helps the participant to understand the joy of sharing the Bahá’í teachings, and trains participants with practical skills to do so with interested individuals. The course also offers training in how to introduce spiritual principles into our daily conversations with others.

Teaching Children’s Classes – Grade 1

“Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.”

This course is of benefit to all, as we all have interactions with the children in our lives. These children are the most precious treasure a community can possess. The course offers skills in spiritual parenting, understanding the nature of children and in conducting classes for children with love, understanding and the discipline necessary to create a proper learning environment. Participants are trained to offer children’s classes in their home and neighborhood and gain some experience with Lesson Plans appropriate for five to seven-year-olds.

Twin Manifestations

This course addresses the lives of the Twin Manifestations – the Herald of the Bahá’í Faith, the Báb, and the Author of the Bahá’í Revelation, Bahá’u'lláh. Through it participants gain spiritual insights into the potency of the short and dramatic Ministry of the Báb, the magnitude and significance of the spiritual forces released by Bahá’u'lláh in this Day and the promise this new Revelation holds for humanity.

Teaching the Cause

This course is an exploration of the subject of teaching – an act of particular spiritual significance that involves both “being” (giving attention to one’s inner condition) and “doing”. It addresses developing effectiveness in teaching through a posture of learning – action, reflection on experience and turning regularly to the Writings for insights and guidance. Participants become familiar with personal and collective teaching approaches and design a personal teaching plan.

Owen Hein taught history at ETHS for 37 years before retiring in 2004

It took 10 years for Owen Hein to join the Baha’i Faith. Ten years to study it from every angle and conclude that, more than any other religion, it spoke to his passion – eliminating racial inequality.

“Baha’u'llah said, ‘Close your eyes to racial differences and welcome all with the light of oneness,’” Mr. Hein told those who gathered recently at Transitions Bookplace in Chicago to hear his account of becoming a Baha’i in 1992.

Mr. Hein’s personal campaign to end racial injustice began when he was 15 and his United Church of Christ youth group went to Chicago to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“His speech about breaking down barriers changed my life,” Mr. Hein says.

Growing up west of Chicago in an all-white suburb, he picked up the vibe that racism didn’t exist. After listening to the Rev. King, Mr. Hein realized it did and made the commitment to work for racial equality.

His efforts garnered him several awards at Evanston Township High School, in Evanston, Ill. where he taught history for 37 years before retiring in 2004. He recently was named one of the 2007 Vision Keepers at the recent Interfaith Action of Evanston’s annual awards dinner. Presenters said award recipients “grace every life they touch and encourage all of us to reaffirm our own visions.”

When Mr. Hein entered the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1959 he brought with him more than bedding and books. He brought his dedication to righting the wrongs that stretched back to slave times in the United States.

First, he joined the United Church of Christ student group, and then the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee).

“If African-Americans walked into most stores in Urbana-Champaign in the early ‘60s, they were treated as invisible,” Mr. Hein says. “Store owners who would serve blacks were asked to put a sticker in their window. But they wouldn’t because they thought it was too controversial.”

When SNCC leaders asked whites to leave the organization so blacks could succeed on their own, Mr. Hein wasn’t offended. He merely took his efforts elsewhere. He didn’t know it at the time, he says, but his perseverance was in line with the Baha’i writings:

“Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, to abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronizing attitude towards the members of the other race. . . to persuade them through their intimate, spontaneous and informal association with them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions. . .”

After receiving his master’s degree in history, Mr. Hein accepted a teaching position at Evanston Township High School, which, he says, “looked like the perfect place to be at the time because of its desegregated school system.”

“Evanston was very segregated then,” says Mr. Hein, who is a resident of the town just north of Chicago. “Blacks had a separate hospital and YMCA.” At the school he pioneered global humanities studies, spent a lot of time “talking to black kids,” taught the history of Africa and slavery, and was the faculty advisor to the black prom – yet another form of segregation.

“The kids thought I was cool,” he says with a smile.

Nevertheless, he says, he lacked a spiritual home. In college he drifted away from the United Church of Christ because “congregants were saying the church was the primary salvation of the individual soul, and I was looking for something that would also save the world.”

Taking his own lead in teaching global studies, Mr. Hein began investigating a variety of world religions. He tried each one on, but couldn’t find a perfect fit. Then he discovered the Baha’i Faith. To his delight, he learned that it views the world’s major religions as part of a single, progressive process through which God reveals His will to humanity.

Mr. Hein says he became a Baha’i mostly because of the Faith’s core beliefs in unity and eliminating prejudice.

“Baha’u'llah said when you fall in love with God, prejudice disappears,” he says. “The Baha’i Faith gives us a passageway to the oneness of humanity.”

Mr. Hein has been using that passageway as a volunteer at Carepoint, a Chicago-area family services center that educates people on how to prevent HIV and avoid substance abuse.

When helping those less fortunate, Mr. Hein says he keeps the following words of Baha’u'llah in mind:

“Blessed is the man who hath detached himself from all else but Me, hath soared in the atmosphere of My love, hath gained admittance into My Kingdom, gazed upon My realms of glory, quaffed the living waters of My bounty, hath drunk his fill from the heavenly river of My loving providence, acquainted himself with My Cause, apprehended that which I concealed within the treasury of My Words, and hath shone forth from the horizon of divine knowledge engaged in My praise and glorification. Verily, he is of Me. Upon him rest My mercy, My loving-kindness, My bounty and My glory.”

Visit bahaitemple.org for more information.

View more Baha’i videos on the U.S. Baha’i YouTube Channel.