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‌Iranian Baha’is and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
Abstract
‌Iranian Baha’is and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), one of the most significant events in Iranian history after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, motivated nationalistically and religiously most Iranians to go to the battlefields. Baha’is were an oppressed and isolated community that was not persuaded to participate in the war. The government policies were also based on the Baha’is segregation that included separating them from others even in military bases. This paper examines ‌Iranian Baha’is’ engagement in the Iran-Iraq War based on the power relationships between the Baha’i community and the Islamic Republic of Iran in the context of sociopolitical changing conditions of the country where the Iranian government acted as an oppressor and Baha’is were oppressed. On an official level, this research investigates the Islamic government's statements and acts to restrict the Iranian Baha’i community after the Revolution as well as analyses, recommendations, and instructions of the Iranian Baha’i representatives to their followers about the Iran-Iraq war. On an unofficial level, as the main part of this research, the ordinary Baha’is acts towards the Iran-Iraq war will be studied. Both official and unofficial levels show a unique power relationship between a rejected minority group and the dominant Islamic authority after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Two main questions of this research are why and how the Islamic Republic of Iran restricts the Baha’i community, and how Iranian Baha’is, as an oppressed banned community, act in a national crisis like the Iran-Iraq war. The methodology of this research is based on dividing the time frame of the Iran-Iraq war into three phases: beginning, middle, and ending. The beginning of the war was the phase of sociopolitical instability in Iran, its middle was the stage of the people’s strong ties to the Islamic government, and its ending was the time of people’s denial of the war. Although the ways of the Islamic government exercising its power and the Baha’i community of resistance differed from phase to phase, always the government’s dominant power determined the Baha’is reaction to the Iran-Iraq war.
Discipline
History
Sociology
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
None