Seeking Refuge

8/4/2019 Seeking Refuge

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harassed,

imprisoned

vilified forbidden

expelledon accountoftheir

religion

OCTOBER 2008 nCHARLOTT

seeking refugeA small group ofIranian refugees, oncepersecuted for theirreligious faith, havecarved out a place inCharlotte. But it hasntbeen easy

By Tamela Rich

ChrisEdwards

Bahareh wears a pendantwith a photo of her latehusband, Arash. She is oneof several Bahswho havesought refuge in Charlotte.


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fter her nut-brown eyesand cover-model lips,the next thing younotice about Bahareh isthe rectangular photoframed in gold that she

wears as a pendant. Its about the samedimensions as a commemorative post-age stamp. Against a nondescript neutral

background is a head-and-shoulders shotof a thin, dark-haired man in a g ray, open-neck shirt. It could have been taken anytime in the last forty years. He looks to

be in his twenties or thirties. Somehow,you can tell he is a foreignerif he hadbeen photographed in America, the pho-tographer would have coaxed some toothout of him. But this young mans photo

was taken in Iran, where, for adherentsto the Bah Faith, there isnt much togrin about.

Bahareh, who longs to earn a Ph.D.and teach in an Iranian university someday, wears this pendant of her husband,

Arash, who was killed two days after their2004 wedding. Does she wear it like anamulet to ward off potential suitors? Tohonor his memory? And what kind of lifeprepared this vibrant young woman totell you her husband was killed cominghome from their honeymoon, withoutshedding a tear or even becoming stoic?

Her religion, she says, smiling, teachesher to be happy under all circumstances.

She keeps the trace of her smile formost of the three hours she speaksabout her life in Iran, where the policecan throw a person in jail for being seenin public with a member of the oppositesex who is not a relative. About life in atheocracy that wont recognize the high-est-achieving math and science studentif that student is not a Muslim. Aboutthe same government that wont allowan adherent to the Bah Faith to attenda state university or work for the govern-ment. About the courts that wont forcean employer to pay her fathers wages

because hes Bah. About a womanwho, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution,needed to marry to protect herself from

being raped.Bahareh flew into Charlotte from

Turkey this January, a twenty-three-year-old widowed refugee fleeing anuntenable life in the Islamic Republic ofIran. Shes one of the 13,000 Iranians

who seek refugee status each year. Shejoined fifty other Bahs who have cometo Charlotte from Iran with help from theHebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in

the past ten years.Its time to meet your new neighbors.

Say immigration in Charlotteand people likely think illegalimmigration. Bring up legalimmigration, and talk may turn to thegreen card lottery or skilled workershere on a visa. But heres another formof legal immigration: refugees fleeingpersecution in their homelands.

No central agency or institutiontracks the number of refugees living inCharlotte, because people are free to live

wherever they choose once they land inthe U.S. The 2006 census report showsCharlottes foreign-born population,including refugees and asylum seekers,at about 14 percent of the 650,000 total.Each year, between 1,200 and 1,800 refu-gees settle in Charlotte.

Catholic Social Services (CSS) helpsmore refugees settle in Charlotte thanany other organization. Since 1975, thegroup has aided close to 10,000 refugees.Cira Ponce, CSSs refugee resettlementoffice director, says Vietnamese refu-

Parvez lost his job as Managerof Corporate Planning for asubsidiary of the NationalIranian Oil Company in 1980for being Bah. He was amember of the elected assem-bly (now illegal) of his statecapitol, and was therefore sum-moned by the RevolutionaryCourt to recant his religion. Heescaped through Pakistan in1982 and arrived in the U.S. in1983 with his wife and one ofhis daughters.

Because he refused to limit hisphoto shoots to same-sex gath-erings, photographer Behnamcouldnt get his license to practicefrom Iranian authorities. (Bahshave no prohibition on the socialmixing of men and women.)Behnams wife, Masoumeh(bottom), left a secretarial posi-tion with a private company inIran, and became her husbandsphotographic assistant whenthe couple sought refuge inTurkey. Soon after the couplesold Behnams photographicequipment and made their wayto Charlotte. Just three days afterthey arrived, they were rescuedby boat from the Doral apart-ments off Monroe Road whenthey flooded.

Shekeepsthetraceofhersmileformostofthe

threehoursshespeaksaboutherlifeinIran,wherethepolicecanthrowaper-soninjailforbeingseenin

publicwithamemberoftheoppo-sitesexwhoisnotarela-tive.Aboutawomanwho,afterthe1979Islamic

Revolution,neededtomarrytopro-tectherselffrombeingraped.


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gees and those from Somalia and theformer Soviet Union have dominated theCSS caseload since 2001. The HebrewImmigrant Aid Society, a much smallergroup, has brought about 700 refugees toCharlotte in the last dozen years.

Bahs leave the Islamic Republic ofIran because of the way the state enforc-es apostasy laws. Zoroastrians, Jews, andChristians are protected religious minor-

ities. But Iranian Muslims are forbiddento adhere to any religion besides Islam.Iranian apostasy laws target Muslims

who convert to Christianity, Muslimsects with beliefs outside those endorsed

by the govern ment, and Bahs, whosereligion emerged in 1844, some 1,200

years after Islam.Every nineteen days, on the first day

of each Bah month, Bahs around theworld celebrate what they call Feasts,where they pray, consult about commu-nity affairs, and enjoy fellowship. Bahsin Iran lost the right to observe Feast

with the revolution of 1979. The world-wide faith has no clergy and is admin-istered instead by elected assemblies,

which were disbanded by governmentalorder in 1983. Bahs are not allowed toelect leaders, organize schools, or con-duct other religious activities.

It gets worse. The United StatesCommission on International ReligiousFreedom is a government panel thatadvises the president and Congress. Ina report from earlier this year, the panelstated, Since 1979, Iranian authoritieshave killed more than 200 Bah lead-ers, thousands have been arrested andimprisoned, and more than 10,000 have

been dismissed from government anduniversity jobs.

This spring the Iranian governmentrounded up seven Bah organizers, and

word of their treatment and whereaboutshas not been forthcoming. It is for fear of

what might happen to their relatives stillliving in Iran that we choose not to pub-lish the last names or cities of origin ofthose interviewed for this story.

Ellen Dubin started her careerin refugee resettlement in theearly 1990s as a volunteer with

the Charlotte Jewish Federation, whichhelped Jews from the former SovietUnion start their lives anew here. Withher success, HIAS headquarters recog-nized Charlotte as a good place to reset-tle refugees. It established a Charlotte

branch and made her its director.Ask Dubin why the Hebrew Immigrant

Aid Society is working with Christians,Muslims, Bahs, Zoroastrians, and those

with no stated religious preference, andshell say that HIAS helps Jews and othersin need. Today, its mostly the others. Inthe past ten years, 42 percent of HIASclients come from Southeast Asia and 18percent from Africa. Of the approximate-ly fifty Iranians HIAS has helped settle inCharlotte, there were one Jew and twoChristians, the rest Bahs.

For most of the last ten years Dubin hasoperated out of her home and car, bring-ing more than 700 persecuted people outof their homelands and into Charlotte.She has stories of meeting clients andconducting business in parking lots andhotel lobbies in a hundred-mile range ofCharlotte, although they usually meet in

apartments and the HIAS classroom forteaching English as a Second Language(ESL). This year, she and her full-timestaff of four, plus three part-timers,moved into their own office space onMonroe Road, where they work to placeclients in housing and provide them witha jump start for living and working inCharlotte.

According to the Commission onInternational Religious Freedom, thingshave been more difficult for Bahs sincePresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cameto power three years ago. Bahs have

been harassed, physically attacked,arrested, and imprisonedyoung Bahschoolchildren in primary and secondaryschools increasingly have been attacked,

vilified, pressured to convert to Islam,and, in some cases, expelled on accountof their religion.

Felora arrived in Charlotte last

year, receiving refugee statuswith her son, Nima, now fifteen,

after he was repeatedly harassed inschool. Felora, thirty-seven, says teach-

Neda and her father Farshidarrived in 2005 with Nedasmother and brother. Farshid wasdenied entrance to a technicalinstitute at the time of the revolu-tion and didnt want his childrento suffer to make their lives inIran without the benefit of edu-cation and job availability as he

had to.

Poran lost her job as a sixthgrade teacher at the time of therevolution and arrived herein 1986 after being smuggledout with her two daughters,one of whom has cerebralpalsy. Almost interceptedat the Pakistani border, thethreesome spent two nights inthe mountains awaiting safepassage. While living in Iran,Poran was warned not to putthe proceeds of her home salein the bank because Bahbank accounts were often

seized by the government. Ina cruel twist of fate, though,the person who vowed to keepPorans money safe neverreturned it to her.

Raana came here with her hus-band and son in 2005 becausethey couldnt keep jobs in Iran.Diagnosed with metastasizedbreast cancer while waiting forsettlement in Charlotte, her con-

dition worsened and HIAS esca-lated her resettlement so that shecould get American medical treat-ment. She was accompanied by aTurkish physician on the trip andpicked up in an ambulance at theairport. Treatment continues here.

Whatdo

BahBelieve?According to the official Web site of the Bahs

of the United States (www.bahai.us):

The Bah Faith is the youngest of the worldsindependent monotheistic religions. Founded

in Iran in 1844, it now has more than 5 mil-lion adherents in 236 countries and territories.

Bahs come from nearly every national, ethnic,and religious background, making the Bah

Faith the second-most-widespread religion in

the world.

Bahs view the worlds major religions as a partof a single, progressive process through which

God reveals His will to humanity. Bahaullah(1817-1892), the Founder of the Bah Faith, is

recognized as the most recent in a line of DivineMessengers that stretches back beyond record-

ed time and includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha,Zoroaster, Christ, and Muhammad.

The central theme of Bahaullahs message isthat humanity is one single race and that the

day has come for humanitys unification into oneglobal society. While reaffirming the core ethical

principles common to all religions, Bahaullahalso revealed new laws and teachings to lay

the foundations of a global civilization. A newlife, Bahaullah declared, is, in this age, stirring

within all the peoples of the Earth.


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ers told Nimas classmates that Bahsare unclean and made other slights againsthim and his faith. Classmates bullied Nima

with impunity, once nearly breaking histhumb, another time throwing him intoa wastewater ditch. Felora, who herself

wasnt permitted to ride the bus to schoolas a child, explains with soft-spoken digni-ty that she had no choice but to take flight

with Nima, leaving her husband and fam-ily behind. Today Felora works as a seam-stress while Nima attends a local publichigh school and works in a sandwich shop.

Feloras husband owns a decal printing

and production company in their home-

town. Before Felora left the country, aneighbor called complaining about hissubversive business activities. Whenthe government sacked the home-based

business and found American flag decals,Feloras husband and her brother, who

worked in the business, were detained fortwo days. Family members, in town forthe brothers wedding, feared the groom

wouldnt live to speak his marriage vows.When the men were released, the

authorities told them that under no cir-cumstances could they make Americanflags in the future, no matter the terms of

their business contract. Feloras husband

is trying to wind down his business to fundhis flight from Iran so that he can join hisfamily in Charlotte.

At one time, the Iranian governmentdid not permit Bah children to attendschools, but now they are targeted foreducation in schools with strong andimposing religious ideology. Higher edu-cation is denied to Bahs as a matterof national policy. A 1991 memorandumpublished by the Supreme RevolutionaryCultural Council stated, They must beexpelled from universities, either in theadmission process or during the course of

their studies, once it becomes known thatthey are Bahs.

Bahareh, like thousands of otherBahs, was denied the opportunity to sitfor the entrance examination required foradmission to Iranian universities, so sheenrolled in the Bah Institute for HigherEducation (BIHE), founded in 1987. It wasthere she met her husband, Arash, whosepicture she wears today.

After Bahareh and Arash quietlymarried at home four years ago,they drove to the northern part

of Iran to visit a Bah holy site for theirhoneymoon. The government does not

recognize Bah marriage certificates,and the young couple planned to affirmtheir marriage before a government offi-cial after their return. They never hadthat opportunity. Driving along a hillyconstruction site, a bulldozer operatorscarelessness allowed a massive boulderto smash into the drivers side of theirthirty-year-old borrowed car. Arash wascrushed instantly, covering the unscathedBahareh in his remains. When they tookme to the hospital they thought I must

be injured badly, she recalls. But whenthey washed me, we realized I was fine.

Because their marriage wasnt legal, thegovernment denied Bahareh widows ben-efits and the money to bury her groom.

Attorneys for the construction companybullied witnesses to the accident notto testify on behalf of the young Bahcouple, threatening that the government

would retaliate against them if they did.The family pooled its resources, preparedthe body for burial, and interred him inone of the Bah cemeteries that had not

been desecrated in the north of the coun-

try. The government has razed or allowedthe desecration of Bah cemeteries andholy sites in many cities.

Dubin keeps a map of the world pinnedto the wall of her modest office. She oftenlooks at it while answering questions abouther work or when she explains that theonly two countries where the UNCHR cer-tifies Iranians as refugees are Austria andTurkey. At the time of the revolution, many

were smuggled out through Pakistan, butthat route is now closed. Some refugees

will be assigned to Canada or Australia,but most will be assigned to the United

States. The U.S. State Department vetsthe refugees while they wait in their gate-

way cities. After they arrive, the Office ofHomeland Security keeps tabs on them.

Dubin emphasizes that refugees andasylum seekers are more scrupu-lously examined and monitored

than any other group that comes to theU.S. The thorough vetting entitles them to

work for an indefinite time here. That is, ifthey can find work.

Laleh, a twenty-eight-year-old with

a masters degree in civil engineeringfrom BIHE, is one of the lucky few whoeventually found a professional job here,although it took her nearly a year. Shecame to the U.S. after it became clear thather degree was meaningless in Iran, whereshe interned at two Iranian engineeringfirms. When she pressed her employers totake her on the payroll, the firms said theycould not employ a Bah for fear of beingharassed by the government.

Depressed and eager to repay her familyfor her education costs, Laleh decided thatleaving the country was her only option.

My father should be retired bysays, casting her eyes to her lap.

Recently, after a year in Charsisting on an $8-an-hour part-tthe airport, Laleh got a job at aning firm. She was a week from lostamp eligibility. The day after sed to work, her apartment was fthe August storm. Her firm put hotel. After working a few monhopes to visit her sister, who Texas as a refugee in mid-July.

Laleh is fortunate. She speakvery well. Most Farsi-speakin

have difficulty finding even sulevel jobs in Charlotte before thsubsidies run out. It generally taCarolina refugees about eight use up their meager benefits states refugee assistance programember households earn $181If there are two: $236. A complation determines food-stamp

but its less than $175 per persoResettlement organizations likeCSS supplement the state prog

various efforts of their own, butin short supply.

HowtoHelpHIAS continually needs: Furniture and household items for the refugees

including beds, mattresses, sofas, chairs, andother furnishings

Cash donations, gift cards, and food vouchers Large vans to transport refugees to community

events Volunteers to: drive refugees to and from job

and health care appointments, help set up newapartments, teach clients to ride the bus (do

you know how?), pick up furniture donations,tutor, help with record keeping and light office

duties, coach clients for the citizenship test


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Unlike Los Angeles, which has thelargest concentration of Iraniansin the country, Charlotte doesnthave a critical mass of Farsi-speakingneighborhoods or businesses where refu-gees can earn their keep while learningEnglish. HIAS and CSS offer basic ESLcourses free to clients, as does the pub-lic school system for school-age children.CPCC offers classes free of charge througha certain proficiency level. But according toBahareh and others, its impossible to learnthe language within the span of their initialfinancial support package.

Bah refugees have found a toeholdin the Charlotte economy by working atthe airport in positions like dish washingand housekeeping where limited Englishproficiency isnt a barrier, but its a tougheconomy, and hours are in short supply.The seventeen-year-old son of one Bahfamily dropped out of high school to joinhis parents and sister at the airport so that,

between the four of them on part-timewages, they could make ends meet.

Baharehs youngest brother, seven-teen-year-old Sina, started learningEnglish while they were in Turkey await-ing resettlement and then took ESL class-es at his Charlotte-Mecklenburg highschool. He speaks English well enough to

make sandwiches at a local Subway shopowned by a Bah couple that immigrat-ed before the revolution.

Baharehs parents and anotherbrother dont speak English well, althoughthey increasingly understand whats spo-ken. They cannot find work. CombiningBaharehs thirty hours at the airport withSinas wages, the two of them cant supportthe entire family. Thats why theyre leaving.

As of this writing, the family plans torelocate to Sacramento, California, whereBahareh will start the fall semester atcommunity college and Sina will starthigh school. A Sacramento-based IranianBah who they know through connectionsin Turkey offered to loan the family thefunds to move and to help them find jobs.

Bahareh called social services agenciesin California and verified that the safetynet there is more generous than in NorthCarolina. Two other Bahs left Charlottefor California in July after trying their bestto make ends meet for six months.

Bahareh says some of her extendedfamily was settled in Australia andCanada, which she says provide

more support for refugees than the U.S.does. She says the extra support allowsrefugees to acculturate and learn the lan-guage before attempting self-sufficiency.Dubin explains America subscribes tomore of an up-from-the-bootstraps men-tality. Overall, the N.C. legislature isrefugee and immigrant friendly but alsoexpects them to [find] work as quicklyas possible and not be a burden on thestatejust as citizens are expected to

work, she says. This encouragem entof early employment is tough on educa-tion-focused refugees like Bahareh, who

aspires to a Ph.D. in sociology. This sum-mer she took twelve credit hours of class-es at CPCC, an impressive load for a com-pressed summer session.

Still, life in Charlotte beats the heck outof life in a repressive theocracy. For thefirst time in their lives the Iranian refu-gees here are free to observe the every-nineteen-days Feasts. The CharlotteBah community, which numbersroughly 300, has organized itself intoquadrants, and most Feasts take place inBah homes in each quadrant, while holydays are commemorated in larger rent-ed venues. Although most are American

born, Charlotte Bahs come from sev-eral countries, and the Feasts are flexible

in allowing for prayers in all languages.During community consultation, Baharehand other bilingual Bahs help those whospeak Farsi to participate fully.

Laleh, the engineer, still thinks of Americaas the land of opportunity, but knowing

what her fellow Bah refugees face tryingto make a go of it in Charlotte, shes glad shehas a good education and speaks English. IfBahareh had her wish, the U.S. and NorthCarolina would do a better job by its newarrivals. At the risk of sounding ungratefulfor the opportunity shes been given by theUnited States to start her life anew, she crit-icizes the social policies that she believesforce refugees into dead-end work beforethey can speak the language or navigate

within their new country. She was repeat-

edly advised to work two or three jobs fora few years before going to college, and herfamily was denied some forms of monetarysupport because shes fluent in English andphysically able to carry such a workload. Butthis tough-minded young woman replies,People who go to work never go to school.

And Bahareh is going to go to school.

Tamela Rich is a freelance writer in Charlotte.

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