An Update: Personal, Egypt & Iran

This past week has been full of events on many fronts, both personal and public. On a personal level, I would like to share the arrival of our first grandchild in San Francisco, a peaceful and happy baby girl who looks up to a future full of peace and harmony. More specifically to a future when people are not segregated based on their color, race, religion, ethnicity, class, political orientation, nationalism, or culture. A future when all people share the same opportunity regardless of where they are or who they are, and where people feel comfortable in their homelands without intimidation or alienation caused by ugly and divisive political and social rhetoric .

Regarding the recent news from Egypt, most significant is the decision of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court on 20 October to postpone its final verdict on the question of issuing ID cards to the Baha'is until its next session of 3 November 2008.

As was posted before, "the State Council of the Supreme Administrative Court has produced a judicial memorandum requesting the Supreme Administrative Court to issue a final judicial judgment that affirms the [29 January 2008] ruling of Cairo's Administrative Court, which allowed placing dashes '--' for the Baha'is of Egypt in the religion section, since neither the Ministry of Interior nor the Attorney-General appealed the decision of the Administrative Court."

It is hoped and expected that the Supreme Court will abide by the decision of its own State Judicial Council. This will surely ease some of the serious difficulties encountered by the Baha'is of Egypt on a daily basis, simply because of their inability to possess identification documents and birth certificates.

Additionally, Egypt's National Council for Human Rights, a government-appointed official organization, has just proposed to the government the passing of a law that forbids discrimination based on religion, a law that would ensure equal treatment for all Egyptian citizens regardless of their belief.

As to Iran, a revealing piece of information has just made the world aware of a document vindicating the Baha’i youth prisoners in Shiraz. The youth, named: Raha Sabet, Haleh Rouhi and Sasan Taqva, have by now completed 10 months of their four-year sentence and continue to be incarcerated in the prison facility of the Ministry of Intelligence (known as Pelak 100), which is reserved only for interrogations and temporary arrests.

The two-page document, belonging to the office of the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], discovered in relation to the humanitarian activities of the 54 Baha’is in Shiraz arrested on 19 May 2006 on the charge of “participating in activities against state security,” showed that these individuals are indeed innocent. Of interest, the document's date is 16 June 2008, but it remained a secret until now, and the Iranian authorities did nothing to correct its wrongdoing and release these innocent youth. In order to read the entire translated (very revealing) document and view the original one, please refer to this site, named Iran Press Watch.