Zia Shahri, a member of the NSA of Norway, was convicted and imprisoned for sexually assaulting a foreign woman with a declared mental age of 8. The Baha'i community remained silent and concealed the case until it was eventually exposed by another Baha'i.
Despite the gravity of the situation, the Baha'i administration never issued a public apology. When the topic was raised in a Telegram group, several prominent Baha'i teachers attempted to justify, deny, or defend the incident, rather than express remorse or accountability.
What makes this even more disturbing is that Zia Shahri had been teaching "ethics" and Ruhi classes for years. God knows how many Baha'i and non-Baha'i children and youth may have been at risk, yet the community chose silence to protect its image.
Instead of sending counselors or psychologists to speak with and investigate the children who had attended his classes, the Baha'i institutions opted for secrecy and suppression preserving the sanctity and reputation of the Assembly above all else. The victim's family was foreign and non-Baha'i, which is likely why the case reached court.
Had the victim been a Baha'i child, the same silence and cover-up would have prevailed. In the Baha'i system, issues are expected to be reported only to the UHJ, which consistently handles such matters in secrecy and often protects powerful insiders.
This is precisely why such scandals occur. The obsession with preserving reputation over justice creates an environment where abuse can flourish unchecked...
Shared on email: Name withheld on request.
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