Responding to Decades of Religious Persecution: The Case of the Bahá'ís in Iran

The International Law Discussion Group in conjunction with the Edinburgh Bahá’í Society present:

Responding to Decades of Religious Persecution: The Case of the Bahá'ís in Iran

Speaker: Dan Wheatley, Senior Diplomatic Officer, Bahá’í Community of the UK

About the event:

The Bahá’í community in Iran has faced repression since its inception in the country over 150 years ago. Since the 1979 revolution this peaceful religious minority community has been subjected to policies of systematic denial of rights which aims to extirpate a viable Bahá’í presence in the country. Their persecution has included executions, torture and imprisonment. This presentation will review the Bahá’i experience as a target for abuses of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights; the response of the international community; and the community’s response without violence to these pressures, as an example of constructive resilience under conditions of oppression.

About the speaker:

Dan Wheatley worked on global governance issues in British Parliament for five years and is currently employed by the Bahá’í community of the UK as Senior Diplomatic Officer. His work covers defence of Bahá’í communities facing persecution, and discourses in UK society. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the London programs of Arcadia and Syracuse universities, lecturing on British social history and multiculturalism. He guests lectures on a regular basis at other institutions of higher education. In 2014 he received the Syracuse University London program Teaching Prize.

In 1987 he was awarded a Mountbatten Scholarship to study at a United World College in Swaziland, Africa before going to Kent University where he read a B.A. in Classical Civilization and an M.A. in International Relations. He has published a number of essays on human rights and global governance for such organisations as the Foreign Policy Centre, the Federal Trust and George Ronald Publishing.

In July of 1998 he attended the inter-governmental conference to establish the International Criminal Court. He has administered two all party Parliamentary Groups and regularly works with MPs, Peers, civil servants and Government Ministers.

This event is free, open to all with no registration required.