Bahai Solidarity in the Face of State-led Persecution

In this episode, Manaeha and Matt interview Roja Fazaeli and a member of the Baha'i community. We will be referring to him as “A”, as he has requested to remain anonymous in light of the possible threat to himself and his family this interview might pose.
Roja Fazaeli is an Associate Professor in Islamic Civilisation, Near & Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity College Dublin. A is a refugee of the Baha'i community living in the US. We are going to provide an overview of what the Baha'i faith is and who its people are. We start with an explanation of Bahaism and its emergence in Iran, then we go to why the Iranian state sees the Bahai as such a fundamental threat to its regime, still acknowledging that the state is different from its people, and there is hope for Baha'is especially within the younger generations to resist anti-baha’i propaganda. We end with ways the Bahai create community in their daily lives, a way they can resist the horrible oppression and constant persecution they face. Now this episode might contain a lot of jargon that you might not be familiar with, but we encourage you to push yourself to stick around anyway. The least we can do is listen and validate the struggles the Baha’i community is facing.

References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzQogs8kLCg
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/267123
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtA19ecoqvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIj0OJvVW9k&
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmNWatW17kc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwU_egPuVa4
http://iranpresswatch.org/post/23047/truth-behind-iranian-state-tvs-dramatic-report-bahai-kindergartens/
https://iranbahaipersecution.bic.org/
https://www.bahai.org/