Iran’s Gonabadi dervishes held a protest on Sept. 28 against what they claim is the poor treatment of dervish political prisoners and a “news boycott” by domestic media.
According to Mazjooban Noor, a website dedicated to publishing news about the Gonabadi dervishes, at least 1,000 people joined the protest outside of the Ministry of Justice building in Tehran. The protesters stood side by side and locked hands in what was described as a peaceful gathering.
Seyed Kazem Mousavi, who introduced himself as a “representative of the justice minister,” Moustafa Pour-Mohammadi, met the protesters and asked them to continue their protest inside the ministry building and to clear the street. However, according to Mazjooban Noor, many of the protesters refused, saying that their only voice is that of the people in the street and that Iran’s domestic media is conducting a “news boycott” of their protests.
After a brief negotiation outside, Mousavi convinced some family members of the prisoners to enter the ministry building. The families conveyed their outrage over the sentencing of the Gonabadi dervishes, their treatment while in prison — particularly of those on hunger strike — and the general lack of media attention to their cases.
According to Mazjooban Noor, a conversation ensued between the family members and Mousavi about citizen rights, an issue that was promoted by President Hassan Rouhani early on in his administration but has rarely come up since. The families said that some government officials do not even consider Gonabadi dervishes to be Muslim, while Mousavi rejected that idea.
Not all such protests have ended peacefully, however. On Sept. 21, Gonabadi dervishes staged another protest in front of the Tehran prosecutor’s office. According to BBC Persian, various witness accounts said that the protesters were attacked by security officials with tear gas and several protesters were wounded.
Today, Oct. 1, Mazjooban Noor reported that hundreds of Gonabadi dervishes were arrested on their way to a protest against the Sept. 21 attack on protesters. Farhad Nouri, one of the administrators of Mazjooban Nour’s website, told BBC Persian, “The pressure on dervishes is such that they are all living in a big prison. This is why they decided to spontaneously and peacefully to migrate to Evin [prison].” Over 2,000 dervishes joined a campaign called “Migration to Evin Prison,” which holds that the rights of dervishes be respected or all dervishes should be arrested.
Over the last several years, Gonabadi dervishes have come under pressure from the authorities and many have been arrested in various cities across Iran, including Qom, Shiraz and Esfahan.
Political dissident Mohammad Nourizad and Tehran University professor and analyst Sadegh Zibakalam are some of the few prominent Iranians to have shown support for the Gonabadi dervishes in Iran. In an open letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Zibakalam asked exactly which laws the dervishes have broken that they be treated in such a manner. In May, Nourizad was arrested along with a number of of activists and dervishes in Shiraz after holding a public meeting.
Al-monitor
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Another article about peaceful gatherings of Dervishes:
http://www.tpnn.com/2014/09/22/800-dervishes-arrested-in-tehran/