In a letter to Dr. Hassan Rohani, the Iranian president, a number of Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi health practitioners highlighted the extremely dangerous health conditions of the Gonabadi Dervishes on hunger strike in Evin and Nezaam-e Shiraz prisons and urged him, as an agent of the law, to prevent the self-willed forces from suppressing the Dervish Sufis and those who are in prison because of their ideologies and protect the prisoners’ health.
According to Majzooban Noor, the physicians, specialists, and nurses who have signed the letter asserted that the Sufis went on hunger strike in reaction to the ill-considered remarks made by Seyyed Mahmood Alavi, Mr. Rohani’s Minister of Intelligence: “On the one hand, Mr. Younesi, your advisor on ethnic groups and minorities, attributes attacking Sufis in Qom and burning and demolishing their place of worship to the inaccurate information given to the security forces in the previous government. On the other hand, instead of easing the present conditions, your Minister of Intelligence feeds the ignorance of those who are too obsessed with the material world and use religion as a tool to achieve their own inhuman goals. A consequence of his actions is reinforcing the violation of another of the imprisoned Sufis’ rights: living a peaceful life and maintaining their health. Therefore, they have gone on indefinite hunger strike and have written their wills and testaments stating that they have put their fates in the hands of God.
In a seminar attended by officials of Department of Education from around the country, Mr. Alavai had put Sufism and atheism together as synonyms and had urged teachers to prevent students from becoming Sufis and atheists.
The full text of the Sufi health practitioners’ letter to the Iranian president:
In His Great Name
Mr. Rohani
Esteemed President
We wish you health in your body and soul.
Like your Minister of Intelligence, you may also consider the signatories of this letter atheists because we are Sufis and belong to the Alavi, Jafari, and Razavi path, and think that our prayers will not be answered; however, we are physicians and, therefore, entitled to praying to God for your well-being, although he is the real cure-all.
Mr. President
May you always be in good health. Know, however, that at this very moment nine Gonabadi Sufis, who are our spiritual brothers, your fellow Muslims, and Shiites who follow the path of the infallible Imams and other great leaders of Islam, are at risk of serious disease and death because they are on hunger strike in prisons in Iran.
Their hunger strike is a reaction to their unanswered objections to injustices and unfair and unlawful treatment of Sufis for the last 10 years. They have declared to not stop the strike until and unless the pressures under which self-willed shallow extremists have put them, and for which our country is paying dearly, end.
Mr. Rohani
When the health of mind and soul is at risk, physical health is no longer important. The unfair remarks made by your Minister of Intelligence had several tragic consequences. They rekindled the painful memories of savage attacks by the ignorant on Sufis and how the security apparatus of the previous government and the judges then and now supported the self-willed forces, ignited the flames of another round of Sufi arrests and imprisonments, and started a new wave of Sufi defamation exacerbating the rage and storm within the Iranian sea.
On the one hand, Mr. Younesi, your advisor on ethnic groups and minorities, attributes attacking Sufis in Qom and burning and demolishing their place of worship to the inaccurate information given to the security forces in the previous government. On the other hand, instead of easing the present conditions, your Minister of Intelligence feeds the ignorance of those who are too obsessed with the material world and use religion as a tool to achieve their own inhuman goals. A consequence of his actions is reinforcing the violation of another of the imprisoned Sufis’ rights: living a peaceful life and maintaining their health. Therefore, they have gone on indefinite hunger strike and have written their wills and testaments stating that they have put their fates in the hands of God.
Esteemed lawyer
We physicians, the spiritual brothers of the imprisoned Sufis and followers of the same path, have taken an oath to do our best to protect patients’ bodies and lives. Therefore, we need you, as a key upholder of the Constitution, to protect the rights of the imprisoned Sufis suffering injustice and mortal risk. We need you to prevent the self-willed forces from oppressing ideological prisoners and to protect their health and lives by providing them with security from psychological suffering. This can be effected through a prevention of security-oriented approaches toward Sufis, putting an end to their inhuman oppression and suffering. In this way, you can stop their hunger strike.
Thanks