United States House of Representatives member Jill Tokuda (Hawai`i District 2) has co-signed US House Resolution 925 condemning the state sponsored persecution of the Bahá’í religious minority in Iran and Iran’s continued violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Representative Tokuda’s support for the resolution came following requests from members of several Bahá’í communities in different parts of the Hawaiian Islands and an in-person meeting with a representative of the Hawai`i Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs (OPA), Tadia Rice, at the U.S. Capitol in June.
Ms. Rice responded to a request from OPA to visit the Washington Offices of Hawai`i’s US House of Representatives members Jill Tokuda and Ed Case and US Senators Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz. Rice was in Washington from June 7-9th as part of a delegation of Hawai`i’s Black Chamber of Commerce, who along with the other Hawai`i based Chambers of Commerce, were invited by US Senator Mazie Hirono to participate in a forum showcasing Hawai`i businesses and culture. Rice was able to meet with each of Hawai`i’s four congressional representatives and/or their staff to invite their support of Resolution 925 or a similar resolution in the US Senate.
Ms. Rice also participated in an invitational breakfast sponsored by the US Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs to showcase “A Common Endeavor”, a Baháʼí contribution to the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
The US House of Representatives and US Senate have passed resolutions supporting the rights of the Bahá’í community in Iran over the course of several decades. Hundreds of Baha’is in Iran have been executed and thousands imprisoned or otherwise persecuted since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. However, this persecution has occurred since the birth of the Bahá’í Faith in Iran in the middle of the 19th century. In recent months, the persecution of Bahá’ís has intensified and Bahá’í communities throughout the world are appealing to their respective governments to raise their voice in support of their co-religionists in Iran.
