Truth and Reconciliation: A Conversation Between a Baha'i Survivor of Human Rights Abuses and a Former Member of the Hojjatieh Association
(November 29, 2012) - In this video, filmed
on October 27, 2012 in The Hague, the Netherlands, IHRDC captured a
conversation of truth and reconciliation between Ruhi Jahanpour – a
Bahá’í who was imprisoned for her beliefs in the Islamic Republic of
Iran during the 1980s – and Abbas Mazaheri – a former member of the
Hojjatieh Association, which Mazaheri admits perpetrated serious human
rights abuses against Iran’s Bahá’í community.
On the day of the film, Jahanpour was in The Hague to testify
at Iran Tribunal – a people’s court set up to prosecute crimes against
political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran’s prisons in the
1980s – and Mazaheri, who was moved to tears by Jahanpour’s testimony
and the memories of the abuses he and the Hojjatieh subjected Bahá’ís
to, approached Jahanpour and asked for her forgiveness. The dialogue
between Jahanpour and Mazaheri raises powerful questions of what it
means to be a victim and victimizer and what type of conversation about
responsibility and accountability is needed for societies to heal from
past abuses.
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