June 15. On this date in 1979, the Universal House of Justice wrote a letter to all National Spiritual Assemblies, updating them on ongoing developments to the Bahá’í community in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.

June 15. On this date in 1979, the Universal House of Justice wrote a letter to all National Spiritual Assemblies, updating them on ongoing developments to the Bahá’í community in the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.

The Universal House of Justice
Department of the Secretariat
15 June 1979
To all National Spiritual Assemblies
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
Further to the letter of the House of Justice to you of May 23rd, the situation in Persia continues to be a cause for deep concern and the friends and Holy Places in the country are in serious danger. We have been directed by the House of Justice to inform you of the following developments in the Cradle of our Faith.

1. An order has been issued by the authorities requiring the Umaná Company to cease functioning under its Bahá’í manager and to operate henceforth under a new non-Bahá’í management. This company holds on behalf of the Bahá’í community all the properties of the Faith, including the Holy Places. This step is ominous in its implications as it forebodes total confiscation of all our properties, including Bahá’í cemeteries. A similar step has been taken in respect to the Bahá’í hospital in Tehran, known as the Mítháqíyyih Hospital.
2. As a result of the recent disturbances, local revolutionary committees in Iran have instigated, in rural areas, the looting of the homes of several hundred Bahá’í families and the deprivation of their means of livelihood. Although a partial restitution of these properties has taken place, adequate compensation for the losses sustained by the Bahá’ís has yet to be made.
3. Efforts are made to silence the religious conscience of the Bahá’ís, as they are threatened with dismissal from their jobs and loss of their retirement allowances if they refuse to recant their Faith.
4. Shirkat-i-Nawnahálán, a commercial company of sixty years’ standing, in which over 15,000 Bahá’ís have shares and investments, is occupied, its assets frozen, and its staff prevented from work, and denied their salaries. This action contradicts public proclamations of the new regime as well as accepted international standards.
5. The proposed drafts of the new constitution as published in the press recognize three religious minorities but omit mention of the Bahá’ís, in spite of the fact that they are the largest religious minority in the country.
6. The true aims and principles of the Faith are being maliciously misrepresented by a group of fanatical Shí‘ah fundamentalists, established over twenty years ago, and one of whose chief aims has been and is to harass the Bahá’í community in Iran. This group is presently spreading false allegations against the Bahá’ís, unjustly accusing them of being enemies of Islam, agents of Zionism and political tools of the previous regime. Such allegations have aroused the passions of uninformed mobs, and created misunderstandings with the authorities. As the Bahá’ís are not a recognized entity in Iran, they have no opportunity to deny or disprove these false accusations.…

One of the Persian friends has also written to the House of Justice a eulogy of the spirit of his fellow-believers at this moment of deep agitation and turmoil in the Cradle of our Faith. A copy of extracts from his letter is enclosed.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Department of the Secretariat