The Story of a Baha'i Incest Victim
by Karen Bacquet

This is a situation that I’ve been acquainted with since March of last
year. After long consideration of how to publish it, I have, in the
end, opted to tell the tale with identities disguised.

“Shirin” is a young Baha’i woman of Iranian descent, living in a country
in the developing world. Her father was, at the time this story began,
Chairman of the NSA in that country. I have called her non-Baha’i
friend “Buddy”, rather than give him a name that would indicate ethnicity.

Shirin claims that her father forced her into an incestuous relationship
from the time she was 13 years old. At 18, in the year 2000, she ran
away, but he found her again, and again made advances. She told him
that if he didn’t stop, she would publicly accuse him. He then
threatened to institutionalize her. Frightened by this accusation, and
desperate to stop the abuse, she made a videotape telling her story.

The next day, Shirin disappeared.

Her friends found this videotape and began asking questions about where
she was, and eventually staged public protests demanding to know her
whereabouts. Shirin’s disappearance was widely publicized; the story
appeared in at least two newspapers, and appeared nightly on t.v. while
she was gone -- and she and her family gave an interview after she
reappeared. Her friend Buddy was at the forefront of efforts to find
her, and he reports that a Continental Counsellor told him that it was
none of his business where she was, and discouraged her friends from
seeking her. At one point, it was claimed that she had gone to another
country. This person is no longer a Counsellor, but has been on the
special commission set up to deal with the case, and is currently on the
NSA, so I cannot tell if her removal from office was as a result of
mishandling the initial crisis, or not.

Shirin told me that her grandmother phoned her and asked her to come
over, reporting a family emergency, but when she arrived, her father was
there with armed men, falsely claiming to be policemen, who accused her
of being involved with drugs. She was taken to a drug rehab facility,
and kept there for over two weeks. A drug test was taken, which proved
negative. Shirin told me that the conditions there were crowded and
unhygienic, and I have evidence that this facility has been involved in
at least one other kidnapping.

Then, the police arrived at the facility, and asked her if she was there
against her will. While they were willing to release her, they were
generally unsympathetic, and she described her experience with them as
“another hell”. A forensic examination was done on her, as well as
another drug test. However, one of the cops scolded her for her
accusations, saying that even if he abused her, she should stay silent
because “he’s still your dad.” The district attorney refused to
prosecute the case, citing lack of evidence.

According to Shirin, two Baha’i Counsellors, and an NSA member who
headed up the special commission set up to deal with her case tried to
persuade her to return to her father’s home. It was this aspect, more
than anything, that convinced me to take up this case. I was utterly
horrified and appalled. No decent human being, on hearing a young girl
accuse her father of sexually abusing her, would essentially tell her to
shut up and go home. At best, this reveals a profound ignorance
concerning the realities of incest, and at worst, a callous disregard
for Shirin’s safety.

I asked why they were so set on her going home, she was, after all, 18
and in college, and an age at which young people often begin living on
their own. She said that the only reason they gave was that the
Universal House of Justice wanted it. Shirin resisted this pressure,
and continues to live on her own, but complains of harassment from her
family, and that they have done everything they can to blacken her name
in the Baha’i community.

The Baha’i administration seems to have had three concerns: that no
more bad publicity about the Baha’i Faith occur because of this case,
that Shirin be reconciled with her family and the Baha’i community, and
that she be able to move on with her life after this incident.
Strangely, they blame her for the publicity that occurred while she was
locked away. During the period last spring while I was in contact with
Buddy and Shirin, a Counsellor and NSA members were still trying to get
her to forgive her family. I have been told of two NSA members who
appear to be willing to believe the charges of abuse -- and that was
only after long exposure to the case and the behavior of this family.
(One of them, after telling Shirin that she believed she was abused, was
removed from the special commission and forbidden to have contact with
her.) Nothing in the evidence indicates that her accusation against her
father was at all taken seriously by the NSA as a whole or the UHJ.

The UHJ has taken a distant attitude, regarding it primarily as a
private family difficulty. The only action taken against Shirin’s
father was that he was asked to resign from the NSA. This, apparently,
was not intended as a sanction, because he was again elected in 2003,
and the UHJ asked him to resign again. Haifa also provided funds for
Shirin’s psychotherapy, for at least a year, and possibly longer. I was
told that this had ended by last summer, and her doctor continues to
treat her pro bono.

In March of last year, Buddy contacted me, at first asking questions
about Baha’i administrative procedure. As time went on I agreed to help
in publicizing the case.

I was only in contact with Shirin through a handful of emails, but I was
in continuous contact with Buddy through most of the spring and summer
of 2003, and again during these past few weeks. My impression of
Shirin is that she was bright and articulate, although angry and
frightened. Shirin constantly spoke of her need for justice, even
begging me to seek it on her behalf if her family kidnapped her again,
or killed her. The impression that Buddy gave was conflicting: He
would depict her as vulnerable, depressed and anxious, and unable to
cope with stress. Yet, when he reported her actions, I saw someone with
tremendous strength -- Shirin was able to resist the pressures from her
family, from numerous highly-placed Baha’i officials, and to go before
the NSA with a list of demands in her hand. I don’t think I’ve ever
seen anyone stand up to the administration in the way this young girl
has. Experts in sexual abuse say that victims seldom lie about what
they experienced, especially over a sustained period of time. Her
psychiatrist reports that she is making excellent progress in her
therapy, and is performing at the top of her class at University.

Besides helping Shirin in her quest for justice, I felt that publicity
would be a kind of protection for her -- that her family would not dare
hurt her in any way, if they knew that I would broadcast any
disappearance far and wide. It was largely publicity that got her
released from the drug rehab center in the first place, and I thought
publicity would serve as a way of ensuring that nothing further would
happen along these lines. I was quite frank in my opinion that the
possibility that she would get any substantial action from the Baha’i
institutions was remote. I couldn’t guarantee her justice; I could only
promise that the injustice with which she was treated would not remain
unknown.

I’ll state here publicly that, even now, if Shirin is again forcibly
institutionalized or she should disappear or any harm come to her, I
will place all evidence I have on this case on my website.

It is only right that the Baha’i institutions should take a strong stand
against child sexual abuse, and avoid even the appearance of
countenancing such a horrible crime, and it was in protest against their
lack of action, and the pressures they were placing on Shirin, that I
intended to publicize the case.

While preparing for the article, I continually emphasized the need for
solid evidence, and was given a great deal of material. Aside from
collecting evidence for my article, Shirin put her efforts into
recording conversations that would reveal the wrongdoing on the part of
her father, family, and Baha’i officials. This was entirely her idea,
although I sympathize with this desperate attempt, on the part of a
powerless person, to be heard and taken seriously. I should make it
clear, here, that my role was primarily supportive, and I left all major
decisions in her hands. My view is, that when you are dealing with
someone struggling with a feeling of powerlessness, that you must try to
give them a sense of confidence and control. I explicitly asked Shirin
what she wanted, what “justice” would mean to her, and told her that I
would not do anything that she didn’t want me to do.

A little over a week ago, Buddy sent me an urgent message saying that
Shirin was preparing to confront the NSA with her collection of tapes.

Shirin went to the NSA with a list of demands that are basically
calculated to force the NSA to keep her family away from her, including
what amounts to a restraining order, and financial arrangements that
would make the NSA the middle-man between Shirin and her father. She
told them she had audio tapes of her conversations with the Counsellors,
NSA members, and her family members, and implied that they would be
released to the media if action was not taken. From what I’ve been told
of their contents, these audio tapes can be used to both to prove the
abuse, and the mishandling of her case by Baha’i officials.

Both Shirin and Buddy seem to have quite exaggerated expectations about
what the NSA could do for her. The NSA cannot guarantee that her family
would stay away from her; they are not a police force. The Baha’i Faith
is a religious organization that only has control over the membership
status of adherents; these kids are treating it as if it were a civil
court. Her mistake, in my opinion, is in naively believing that taking
her complaint through Baha’i channels, as Baha’is are exhorted to do,
will somehow result in justice. Buddy is clearly confused by the
administration’s charge of blackmail. In his mind, Shirin has simply
brought evidence to a body empowered to make a decision. But through
the broken English in his emails reporting on their response, I am
already seeing the familiar terminology of Baha’i denial, where
“ill-intentioned persons” are simply trying to bring the Faith into
disrepute out of inexplicable malice.

Shirin particularly wanted me to say that she loves the Baha’i Faith,
and Baha’u’llah, but that her family and NSA have done such terribly
wrong things to her that she must speak out about what has happened.

The current situation is that Shirin is planning to release her story to
the media within the next few days, and the NSA working out its own
strategy, which involves a legal complaint against Shirin, and getting
other NSAs to write letters of support to this country’s government. The
position of the Faith is somewhat precarious, and the government could
simply dissolve the Assembly in the wake of a scandal such as this. The
last meeting she had with the NSA was very brief, and it seems to be
taking the view that it should present itself as not attaching too much
importance to the situation, although the evidence clearly indicates the
contrary. Buddy also reports that at least some NSA members are looking
for a way to have her declared insane and committed to an institution.

I believe Shirin’s story. Although I am no expert in such matters, her
account, and even her behavior is quite consistent with that of other
sexual abuse victims I have known. I also find it very hard to believe
that a young girl would fabricate such a story, at such tremendous
personal cost, and maintain it for over three years. There is no doubt
in my mind that she is an incest victim that has been further victimized
by a corrupt criminal justice system, and a Baha’i administration that
is more concerned about its reputation than the well-being of this young
woman.

Karen Bacquet