# Behind Iranian Lines

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-21 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: John Simpson, Behind Iranian Lines, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Alrn &y the same author
> JOHN SIMPSON
> áDisappeared: Voices from a Secret War
> JOHN SIMPSON AND JANA BENNETT
> 
> BEHIND IRANIAN
> LINES
> 
> FONTANA/Collins
> To all the good friends in London, Paris and Tehran
> who know that this is addressed to them.
> Contents
> 
> Introductory                              7
> 
> 1    The Exile                                14
> 2    The Revolutionary Crowds                 32
> 3    Returning                                53
> 4    The Streets of the City                  68
> 5    Power to the Mullahs                     90
> 6    Divorce, Crime and Islamic Punishment   116
> 7    Imperial Echoes                         134
> 8    The Great Satan                         150
> 9    The Pebble on the Ground                176
> First published in 1988 by Robson Books Ltd               10   Godly Pastimes                          197
> This revised edition first published in 1989 by Fontana Paperbacks   11   Cruelties                               212
> 8 Grafton Street, London WlX 3LA                                                                 237
> 12   On the Road
> Copyright© 1988 John Simpson                         13   Half the Body of Society                260
> 14   City of God                             279
> All photos ©Tira Shubart with the exception of
> the photo of Tira, which is ©John Simpson.
> 15   The War of Attrition                    299
> 16   A Paradise Full of Luxuries             323
> Printed and bound in Great Britain                     17   Surviving the Revolution                346
> by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, Glasgow
> 18   Leaving                                 363
> 
> CONDITIONS OF SALE
> Valedictory                             377
> This book is sold subject to the condition                     Bibliography                            385
> that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise,                 Index                                   391
> be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated
> without the publisher's prior consent in any form of
> binding or cover other than that in which it is
> published and without a similar condition
> including this condition being imposed
> on the subsequent purchaser
> 230 á BEHIND IRANIAN LINES                                                                                                CRUEL TIES á 231
> 
> branches of what might be called British intelligence, but no         d the Baha'is, who a~e under ins~c~ons to ~bey t~e la~s of the
> them is known as 'the BIS'; the most familiar is the                lfl ntry in which they hve, have maintained their beliefs with great
> Intelligence Service, which is usually known by its initials, SIS   C0'1 ge in the face of torture and death. And yet several thousand
> its alternative (though no longer accurate) name, Ml6. Roger c'     :;:ers of the Faith in its earlier form were killed in Persia in the
> as an experienced journalist, must have known this. As it ha          • teenth century, while since the 1979 Revolution nearly two
> however, there is something called the BIS: the British Info        ::dred Baha'is have been executed, and about eight hundred
> Service, which has nothing whatever to do with espiona              i.,aye been imprisoned.
> provides information abroad about British life and industry.            Part of the reason lies in the origins of their religion. It began in
> It had been widely expected that the broadcast would             die sou them Persian city of S~ir~z in the 1840s ~s a de~elopme.nt of
> prelude to Cooper's release, or else at the worst that he wo        51U'a Islam, just a~cept~ble withi.n the boun~anes of its teac~ings,
> charged with espionage. Neither happened. Perhaps a                 111(1 preaching the imminent coming of the Hidden Imam. But it was
> agreement about his case within the regime prevented his            wry soon accused of heresy, and its central figure, Sayyed Ali
> or perhaps the authorities were angered by the realization          Mohammed, who was styled the 'Bab' or Gate (that is, the gateway
> had turned his carefully worded confession into a message           90 communication with the Hidden Imam) was sentenced to death
> was not, after all, confessing to anything. Roger Cooper rem á      •&heretic in 1848. His execution took place in Tabriz in 1850, and
> .Evin Prison, awaiting the decision of a judicial system which       Edward Granville Browne, who was fascinated by the Babis and
> to have found him an embarrassment.                                 their Faith, relates the story, accepted by many Baha'is, that the
> Mbis vanished unhurt after the first volley from the firing-squad,
> In 1982, when he was in Britain, Roger Cooper wrote an influ         though he was later found and killed at the second attempt.
> pamphlet for the Minority Rights Group, a London-based h                 In 1863 Mirza Hosayn Ali Nuri announced that he himself was
> rights organization, about the persecution of members of             Baha'ullah, the Universal Manifestation of God foretold by the Bab.
> Baha'i Faith in Iran. He had been, he wrote, initially sceptical     He was exiled to Acre, which was then part of the Turkish province
> the publication of his report might help the Bahci'is; but he        ol Syria, and laid the foundations of the modem Baha'i Faith in his
> persuaded eventually that it would. His authorship of the pamp       writings there. Its Shi'ite origins had long since ceased to be
> which received wide attention, may well have added                   recognizable, and although the Baha'is teach that all revealed
> difficulties once he was arrested. He wrote of it as follows:        ttligions are true, they maintain that theirs is the one most suited to
> the modem age. That in itself is total heresy in Islam, which believes
> Although, whether in English or Persian, it is almost certain      that Mohammed is the 'Seal of the Prophets' and that Islam is the
> banned in Iran, where mere possession of anything that co         llnal revelation: to suggest that it can be improved upon is the worst
> considered 'Baha'i propaganda' is a dangerous offence, it,         jorm of spiritual error.
> be of use to those who meet or have dealings with Iranians a          The Baha'is, however, pressed on with their Faith, stressing the
> ... Official and unofficial Iranian attitudes towards Baha'        need to improve society through universal education, world peace,
> largely (but not exclusively) based on misconceptions, so          and the equality of the sexes, and through living pure and loving
> attempt to correct these, and thereby perhaps moderate atti        lives. They have no priesthood, and no public ritual. Anyone can
> is surely worthwhile.                                              become a Baha'i without ceremony, and the choice is a free one;
> but once made, it is adhered to. There are few if any cases in Iran of
> It is always difficult for Westerners to understand the reasons             a'i giving up their religion, even under torture. Their courage
> depth of feeling that exists in Iran against the Baha'i Faith.            the face of persecution has always brought them new converts;
> religion of peace and tolerance, it has never advocated viol          nowadays there are believed to be between 150,000 and 300,000 of
> Iran or anywhere else, it avoids any forms of political involv        them in Iran. But they are greatly disliked by most Iranians, who
> 232 á BEHIND IRANIAN LINES                                                                                               CRUEL TIES á 233
> 
> refuse to accept that their Faith constitutes a real religion, and    saha'is, under Muslim law, are mahdur al-damm: those whose
> believe - in the face of all the evidence - that the Baha'is          blood can be shed with impunity. The official media vilify the
> especially favoured by the Shah and were linked with the corru        saha'is as corrupt and treacherous, and as agents of Zionism; but
> under his regime; that their religion was instigated and enco         the Imam Khomeini himself, though bitterly opposed to the Baha'i
> by the British, as a means of undermining the authority of            faith, has never attacked it as he has the Kurds or the Mojaheddin.
> Islamic clergy in Iran; and that they are today under the con         As with so many other things in Iran the persecution is neither
> Israel.                                                                 fficially sponsored nor officially condemned; the initiative is left
> The Shah certainly allowed the Baha'is a measure of prot           :nth the more violent of the mullahs and the local Komitehs, and
> and some members of the Faith grew rich under his rule.               nothing is done to curb their excesses.
> long-serving prime minister, Amir Abbas Hoveyda, w                       The National Spiritual Assembly which constitutes the leadership
> executed after the Revolution, was always regarded as a               of the Baha'i Faith in Iran, and the Local Spiritual Assemblies from
> because his father had been one; but each individual B                which it is elected, have been an especial target. In August 1980 all
> required to affirm his membership of the Faith, and Hovey             nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly, together with
> not, regarding himself instead as a Muslim. When the Shah             two officials, disappeared. A little over a year later the nine who
> Iran into a one-party state in 1975, the Baha'is, being forbidd       replaced them were arrested and executed. In 1981 two members of
> associate with political groups, were often penalized fortheir        the Local Spiritual Assembly of Shiraz were executed, and in
> to join his Rastakhiz Party.                                          January 1982 six members of the Local Spiritual As~embly of Tehran
> The supposed links with the British are fictitious. Various B      and the woman in whose house they were meetmg were shot. In
> scholars, Edward Granville Browne among them, found                   June 1983 seventeen Baha'is, including seven women and three
> religion interesting and attractive, and devoted study to it. A       teenage girls, were arrested in Shiraz. Several of them, both men and
> Baha, the son of Baha'ullah, was given a British knighthood in        women, were tortured in an attempt to get them to renounce their
> for having supported the British cause in Palestine against the T     faith or to provide video-taped confessions that they had been spies
> during the 1914-18 War. But the Baha'i Faith owed nothi               and that the Baha'i Faith in general was involved in espionage for
> British help or British involvement. It arose as an indepe            Israel. They refused. All seventeen were hanged.
> entity and has become one of the world's fastest growing religi           The regime as such may not have instituted this pogrom against
> The choice of site for the Baha'is' international headqu            the Baha'is, but it has taken administrative measures against them
> what is now Israel was an historical accident; when Baha'ullah         which amount to full-scale persecution. As a community, they pay
> obliged by the Turks to settle in Acre in 1868, the foundation of      great attention to the education of their children, which helps to
> Israeli State still lay eighty years in the future. It is true that    explain why the Baha'is have been so successful in Iranian life. For
> the Revolution Iranian Baha'is, as well as being expected to           some years schools have been instructed to demand evidence that
> to Israel to visit their World Centre in Haifa, were required to       children belong to one of the formally recognized religions (Islam,
> donations to it; but the funds have never been used for poll           Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity) before they can be
> purposes in Israel.                                                    enrolled. Baha'i wedding services are not accepted as lawful by the
> Given the Persian's weakness for conspiracy theories, howe          Islamic Republic, so that individual members must either deny their
> is not difficult to see how even those who have no love for the Is     Faith and marry according to the rites of a recognized religion, or
> Republic are prepared to regard the Baha'is as a subversive            they must live in what the state regards as sin: an offence which
> Before the Revolution, in the atmosphere of nationalism whi            theoretically renders them liable to whipping, or even stoning to
> Shah fostered, the Baha'is were unpopular for the intema               death.
> nature of their doctrines; since the Revolution, they have p á            By July 1982 the government had dismissed all the Bahci'is it
> penalty for being heterodox at a time of fierce religious orth         employed in the civil service, and no longer paid the retirement
> 234 á BEHIND IRANIAN LINES                                                                                                             CRUEL TIES á 235
> 
> pensions of Baha'is. In 1985 it went even ftirther by announcing - á              Baha'is, they started again, and his father obtained a government
> that civil servants who were Baha'is would be required to repay the á             job which, as a result of hard work and intelligence, he did well. But
> full amount of the salaries they had received during their enttre                 he was continually passed over for promotion; the discrimination
> working lives; many, unable to pay, had been imprisoned. But these:               may not have been so savage under the Shah, but it was certainly
> administrative measures, cruel as they are, seem gradually to be.                 there. In the end the father decided to give up and become a farmer.
> taking the place of the more brutal persecution of the Baha'is; aa
> with other aspects of life, the fire has diminished somewhat during'                The first day in 1968 all you could see was stones and desert. The
> the latter part of the 1980s. Nevertheless hatred of the Baha'is is nof             mountains were up there and the village was down there. But my
> something which was introduced by the Islamic Republic, and á                       father made a success of it. He was one of the few people who did
> will not fade altogether.                                                           make a success of farming there.
> But by 1978 all you could see round about was other people's
> 'Being a Baha'i must be like being a black in America.' The feeling;
> property. The boom had come, and people had made a lot of
> of being discriminated against of being despised, of being pe á
> money in building. So they wanted to tum my father's farm into a
> tually in danger of random attack, was real enough, though the.
> residential area, because it was more profitable for the
> analogy would have been more exact if the speaker had likened
> developers. They didn't like us being there anyway. We weren't
> himself and his family to Jews in a mediaeval city. All his life he had
> welcome in the village, and sometimes they'd tum all the
> been treated by ordinary Muslims as an outcast: as someone to he
> loudspeakers from the mosque in our direction.
> avoided where possible, and a convenient scapegoat at moments of'
> Then the Revolution came, and the company that supplied us
> social and political tension.
> .f{;_
> with our animals couldn't send them to us any more, because
> I remember one time when we were in a village. I was seven or:&.                  they'd all died. After that we had to try to import our animals, and
> eight. We had a driver, and we gave him some ice to take home to    f .:          that meant we needed permits. But the permits took a long time
> coming. That meant we weren't earning much money, and the
> his family because it was a very hot day. I went with the driver.á~á•
> when he took the car home and gave the ice to his wife. I saw her t}á             bank wanted its loans back.
> throw the ice out and shout out something about Baha'is.          :~á.              In the end they took the farm away from us, and all our
> t:
> Sometimes my father would come home and say he had met.~áá                     furniture got stolen. All my father's clothes went, and all the
> so-and-so, and after they had shaken hands he would see him go~á                  things from my childhood: you know, toys and books. And that
> off to wash his hands. It was a ritual washing, like when a dog .;                was how we lost our heritage.
> passes a Muslim in the street before prayers. Other times whená::"
> you went to someone's house you knew that after you left they                   The father's problems grew. He used to be stopped all the time in his
> would wash out the chair you had sat on, and the cup you had                    car, and the Revolutionary Guards came to arrest him several times.
> used. It was always worse in smaller places where there was more                He was unable to obtain a ration-book since they were distributed
> ignorance and the mullahs had more power. Some people used to                   by the mullahs, and the family had to buy all its food at top prices on
> tell their kids not to play with us. I remember that.                           the black market. They moved to their house in Tehran; and in 1982
> they decided they would have to leave the country altogether, since
> He is a young man, serious and well-educated in the way Baha'is                   the farm had gone and they had no money except what they could
> usually are. His family is haute bourgeoisie, but the money has been.             get from selling their furniture and jewellery.
> heavily depleted by the exactions and losses incurred through years
> of public and private pressure. These are not the first troubled times              The time when they just confiscated things or you could just pay
> the family has been through, and the young man's parents both.:                     money to keep out of gaol was over. Now they wanted people.
> knew poverty when they were young. But, again in the way of the                     Father went into hiding for two months, and he didn't contact my
> 236 á BEHIND IRANIAN LINES
> 
> mother the whole of that time - it was too dangerous. The Pian
> was for her to get out to Pakistan, and then he would join her a                                           12
> week later.
> Well, she made it. You could get out quite easily then to PalQs.•
> tan through Baluchistan, if you paid money. They don't lilce.                                  On The Road
> Baha'is much in Pakistan now, because they're pretty stro
> Muslims too; but she got out all the same. It wasn't until shew~
> safe that she found out my father had been arrested. There'd beeQ               But when he [the Persian muleteer] is fairly started he
> a raid on the house, and they took him away. She wanted to        go            becomes a different man. With the dust of the city he
> back, of course, but it would have been suicide. They'd h                       shakes off the exasperating manner which has hitherto
> executed her for sure.                                                          made him so objectionable. He sniffs the pure exhilarating air of the desert, he strides forward manfully on the
> broad interminable road (which is, indeed, for the most
> The father was charged with helping his wife to escape, with sen                   part but the track worn by countless generations of
> money out of the country, and with Zionism. The case dragged on                    travellers), he beguiles the tediousness of the march with
> several years, and there was never any result. Now it has fallen intO              songs and stories, interrupted by occasional shouts of
> abeyance; but at any moment, if the authorities chose, he could~                   encouragement or warning to his animals. His life is a
> arrested again and brought to trial. He has no money of his own tO                 hard one, and he has to put up with many disagreeables;
> live on, and for them to send him money from abroad would be                       so that he might be pardoned even if he lost his temper
> dangerous. Instead, he has to exist on the generosity of relatives. His            oftener than he usually does.
> wife and son talk to him occasionally on the telephone, they in their                                              Edward Granville Browne,
> new life and he in the old. During those difficult, strained calls they                                    A Year Amongst The Persians, 1893
> never mention the case against him; and the only way they have of
> judging whether he is in any trouble is from his tone of voice.         á
> There are many Baha'is in worse conditions: their pensions                We had skirted round the southern edge of Qom, and had left
> stopped, obliged to pay back enormous sums to the governmen~.                behind us the well-constructed freeway which links the holy city
> imprisoned, perhaps tortured. Those who have survived best are               with Tehran and enables the civil servants to consult the ayatollahs,
> the people who work for themselves - taxi-drivers, small busi                and the ayatollahs to make the journey to the capital to check that
> nessmen, craftsmen. The richer Baha'is help the poorer ones. They"           their instructions are being carried out. South of Qom the road had
> are not like the early Christians, rejoicing in martyrdom; but since         reverted to its pre-Revolutionary self: a narrow ribbon of black
> they only have to make a simple statement to cease being Bahci'is,           tarmac, two lanes wide, across the dry yellow landscape. We were
> and thereby cut their links with the most important part of their            driving too fast, but that was something I had long grown used to;
> lives, the simple statement remains unmade.                                  my first extensive experience of long-distance driving in Iran had
> been on this road in February 1979, a week or so before the
> It's difficult to understand, maybe, if you aren't a Baha'i. It's a       Revolution took place, and Mahmoudi, then as now, was the driver.
> system of living. For us, working in a spirit of service isn't any           He settled now behind a grey Paykan which contained at least
> different from praying. Being a Baha'i is a progressive thing -           seven human beings, and maybe more: two of the women on board
> kind of like going to school, except it never ends. It doesn't matteráá   may have had small children on their laps. In front of them was a line
> how many Baha'is are in gaol, or even killed, it'll carry on.             of four other cars. We were perhaps five yards behind the grey
> we certainly don't want to convert anybody. We just want                  Paykan. I tried nervously to read Mahmoudi's speedometer, but it
> make them understand.                                                     seemed to function irregularly, dropping back or surging forwards
>
> — *Behind Iranian Lines (Used by permission of the curator)*