Coincidentally…
It seems that I have become very sensitive to what is going on around me these days. It maybe due to leaving this special place in two weeks. I know I have mentioned this before but that’s the word that comes to mind when people ask me how I am feeling so close to my departure from the Holy Land: Grateful, grateful for being able to practice my faith without any fear of retribution.
I was intently staring at some email on my screen when Colleen said that more Baha’is in Iran have been arrested. My heart just stopped for a sec and I had this very uneasy feeling.
In my last year of Uni one of my assignments for my media class was to make a video about an issue of social justice – famine, poverty, racism… My friends and I decided to do it about the situation in Iran and how Baha’i students of our age were denied education simply based on their beliefs. We collected a lot of information from the net, from various documents that had already been prepared to raise awareness and we interviewed students. From the information obtained, was a very poignant picture of a man who had been martyred. I remember that picture pretty well because of some Farsi words that had been inscribed on him after his death. The video would then be screened for all the students at Uni and a special screening would take place with General Romeo Dallaire as the guest of honour. Coincidentally, he was also the one who drew parallels between the Genocide in Rwanda and the alarming situation of the Baha’is in Iran.
A few months ago, I went to a talk given by a certain lady that had lived in Iran and who had also faced persecution for being a baha’i. As she was about to depart the Holy Land a last talk was organised so that the friends could hear of her story and of her courage in the face of trials and thus inspire us youth. Her story was very moving and many of us cried that night – for me it was the first time that I was hearing someone speaking firsthand about the persecution that the Bahais undergo in Iran. After telling her story, part of which was about her husband who had been imprisoned and later executed she showed us pictures of him before and after being executed and of her house after it had been searched. Of the pictures of her husband was the picture that I had used for my video project.
Yesterday again six of them were arrested in early-morning raids at their homes in Teheran, Iran.
http://news.bahai.org/story/632
Welcome to the Tenth International Baha’i Convention
So this is what has been happening in Haifa for the last week or so. This is also why I haven’t responded much to anyone’s emails, or facebook messages or sms in the last couple of weeks. Tomorrow is already the last day of an event that has been in preparation for a very long time now. I think in some ways it makes a great conclusion to my service here at the Baha’i world centre where I have been serving for the last 11 months. As I am preparing myself to leave Haifa, I can’t help but feel grateful, grateful to have had the bounty to be surrounded by so much beauty, grateful for all the learning living at the Baha’i World Centre brings, grateful to have been allowed to serve a Cause so dear to me.
I’m digressing…Convention was another AMAZING experience:
In a global procession, ballots are cast for the Universal House of Justice
29 April 2008
HAIFA, Israel — In a ceremony that combined spiritual dignity with global diversity, a thousand Bahá’ís from 153 countries cast ballots today in an election to choose the nine members of the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Bahá’í Faith.
For nearly three hours, delegates to the 10th International Bahá’í Convention filed decorously, one by one, onto a majestically adorned stage, each dropping a ballot into a simple wooden box.
The votes will be tallied overnight and the results announced here tomorrow.
The event was a study in globalism, a hallmark of the Bahá’í Faith, which has some five million followers and is established in virtually every nation.
Delegates were called by name, in alphabetical order by country. Many proudly wore traditional or native dress, an acknowledgment of their belief in the concept of unity in diversity.
The result was colorful and joyous, as women in bright ethnic dresses or simple pantsuits mixed with men in Western business suits or gaily decorated tribal costumes.
The balloting process began with prayers, followed by brief remarks from Penny Walker, chairman of the convention.
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Members of 166 National Spiritual Assemblies submitted ballots, with 153 countries represented in person at the convention. Delegates from Canada are pictured… »
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Dr. Penny Walker, an International Counsellor of the Baha’i Faith and chairman of the convention, opens the convention and begins giving instructions for voting.
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At the front of the stage where delegates voted were red roses sent by the Baha’is of Iran, who face persecution in their country because of their religion and… »
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Head chief teller Thelma Khelghati of Guinea reads the names of each delegate as they bring their ballots forward.
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Those casting ballots were the members of the Baha’i National Spiritual Assemblies of the world.
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About a thousand delegates out of the 1,494 members of National Spiritual Assemblies around the world were in attendance for the election. The others had sent… »
“We gather together here with hearts full of excitement at the achievements of the Bahá’í world in the last year, and with hearts full of gratitude to Bahá’u’lláh for making it possible that this extraordinary assembly of His followers, from every corner of the earth, could come together in the Holy Land, to elect the Universal House of Justice, the supreme body of our Faith,” said Dr. Walker.
Dr. Walker, who holds the position of International Counsellor in the Bahá’í Faith, outlined the voting procedure, in which the delegates write down the names of nine men they feel are most qualified to serve on the Universal House of Justice.
“As you know, the Bahá’í electoral process is finally spiritual in character, a unique feature of our divinely ordained administration,” she said. “Let us remember the words of Shoghi Effendi, which urged us to approach this task of election with selflessness and detachment, … ‘with a purity of motive, a freedom of spirit and a sanctity of heart.’”
