Kavian Milani

KAVIAN MILANI: The Iranian government, like all totalitarian regimes, follows a mechanism of divide and conquer. So basically by persecuting any population, you're going to focus their attention on their own defense and their own well-being, and so really people will not be thinking of other people. 

ALEISA FISHMAN: Dr. Kavian Milani is a practicing member of the Baha'i faith, a physician, and an advocate for human rights. When Milani was growing up in Iran, his father was killed by the regime because of his faith. Today Milani draws on the Baha'i ideals to fight tyranny and to break the cycle of divide and conquer that is at the heart of all dangerous regimes, including the Nazi regime.

Welcome to Voices on Antisemitism, a podcast series from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum made possible by generous support from the Elizabeth and Oliver Stanton Foundation. I'm Aleisa Fishman. Every month, we invite a guest to reflect about the many ways that antisemitism and hatred influence our world today. From his office in Virginia, here's Dr. Kavian Milani.

KAVIAN MILANI: The Baha'i faith began in 1844; it emerged from a background of Shia Islam and it teaches equality of men and women, world peace, eliminating the extremes of wealth and poverty. So, basically the Baha'i have a very strong presence when it comes to social action, and being involved in society and trying to help the plight of others. And part of my work on human rights comes from my experience as a Baha'i in Iran.

The Baha'is in Iran are under economic stress. They're under legal duress. They're really third-class citizens. The Supreme Leader has just recently said that the Baha'is are to be avoided; that they are unholy. In school, Baha'i children can be put on the side. Baha'i marriages are not recognized. So there is a lot of structural prejudice. 

The Baha'is in Iran are also open to all kinds of kind of arbitrary arrests. Cases are fabricated with ease. And my first interaction, first exposure to that kind of violence was when our house was raided. My dad was a psychiatrist, successful, 39 years old. My brother and I were home, the door opened up, armed men came in the house. They recognized that my dad and mom were not home, and I guess they targeted to come at that time. They began to push us around and go after my dad's files. My brother began to cry. They pulled a gun, a revolver to his head, and locked him in the bathroom. I called my mom, and my mom says, "Don't move guys, we're coming." By the time they got there, these guys had already packed the car and left.

That year, my dad was elected to serve on the National Assembly of Iranian Baha'is. Baha'is don't have any clergy, so Baha'is appoint a democratic entity. And on August 21, 1981, those nine people were taken to an unknown place, and we never heard from them again. The assumption is that they were tortured, threatened to recant their faith, to come out in public against the Baha'i and for the ideological position of the government, and faced their execution, I'm sure, at some point after that. You know, for us it was hard; we lost our father. A lot of other family members were arrested. My mom actually was pregnant at the time that my dad was executed. So this is the situation of the Baha'i, the ongoing struggles for the Iranian Baha'i community. 

I mean, if you think about, for example, the Holocaust in Germany. What led to the set of circumstances that a bunch of people that actually had hundreds of years of Christian discourse and peace, to basically let go of that and do what they did? In the case of the Iranian people, I think that what has happened is that the Iranian government is pushing these barriers down the peoples' throats, but after 30 years now I think the Iranian population is saying, "Ok, these Baha'is could not have been that bad." But the Iranian government is not going to change the official policy; there's no way, because that is an existential question for them. I mean, if the Baha'is are allowed to exist, that means that they cannot exist. And so, the Iranian government is pushing these barriers down the peoples' throats, but people are rejecting it. And I think the Baha'i ideals have won the day basically, in this situation.

ALEISA FISHMAN: Voices on Antisemitism is a podcast series of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Join us every month to hear a new perspective on the continuing threat of antisemitism in our world today. We would appreciate your feedback on this series. Please visit our Web site, www.ushmm.org.