Cases of bloody persecution from Iran, Russia, and China show how brave women persecuted for their beliefs can be. Female Tai Ji Men dizi are equally brave.
by Willy Fautré*
*A paper presented at the webinar “Tai Ji Men Women: Fighting for Justice and Conscience” co-organized by CESNUR and Human Rights Without Frontiers on 25 November 2024.
Many anonymous women are courageous and dedicated defenders of religious freedom around the world. Whatever the risks, they practise their faith, openly or discreetly, because it is what their conscience dictates them to do. At the cost of their freedom and sometimes of their life, they follow their conscience whatever the injustice they have to go through.
In Iran, hundreds of Baháʼí women have been arrested and sentenced to heavy prison terms just for teaching in private the basic principles of their religion to the next generation of their community.
In October, Suzan Eid Mohammadzadegan and Niusha Badiei Sabet, two Baháʼí female citizens, were sentenced to a total of ten years in prison, along with additional social restrictions.
In the court’s ruling, each was sentenced to five years in prison. Additionally, both women have been banned from all educational and training activities for eighteen months. They were convicted of “engaging in educational or promotional activities contrary to the sacred Sharia of Islam.”
Both were arrested on August 15, 2023, at Mohammadzadegan’s residence in Babol by agents of the security forces, who did not present a judicial warrant.
The head of the judiciary had previously justified the closure of two schools and ten educational and sports centers by claiming these institutions were promoting the Baháʼí faith.
One of the two women, Niusha Badiei Sabet, 39 years old, who is a psychologist and translator from Tehran, has faced previous arrests and judicial encounters due to her faith.
In Russia, aged female Jehovah’s Witnesses have been put in prison for years for studying the Bible in private houses. 127 Jehovah’s Witnesses are currently serving long prison terms in Russia, a number of them being women of all ages.
A few days ago, on 14 November 2024, a criminal case was initiated against Tamara Bratseva who is 68 years old. She was accused of organizing activities of an extremist organization banned in 2017, the peaceful movement of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
According to the investigation, “from September 2021 to August 2024, she had been holding meetings via video-conference, where with the participation of followers she promoted the ideas of a religious organization and the study of extremist materials, attracting new participants.” In fact she was holding Bible studies online and it is known that Jehovah’s Witnesses are peaceful people who refuse to use weapons and follow their conscience when they accept to go to prison for refusing to carry out military service.
In China, young women of The Church of Almighty God or Falun Gong have been tortured, sometimes to death, because of sharing their faith.
Since the Chinese Communist Party initiated a three-year “general battle” in 2019 targeting The Church of Almighty God (CAG), its members have endured escalating persecution, marked by a substantial increase in arrests and convictions.
Between 1 and 3 September 2022, Guangdong police carried out a coordinated operation, arresting 237 of their members. Over two years later, in 2023, 194 of the arrested members of The Church of Almighty God were still in detention, with at least 163 already sentenced. The heaviest sentence was 11 years in prison.
Last month, in October, a female Falun Gong practitioner of 56 years in Shaanxi was jailed for the third time because of her faith, which is banned in China. She was sentenced to three years and a half in prison.
And in Shandong Province Ms. Gao Xiuhua, 72 years old, was sentenced to one and a half years in March of this year for practicing Falun Gong.
All these women are just anonymous heroes who are ready to sacrifice their freedom, their physical integrity, and their life for their faith.
Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) can be happy to live in a democratic country, to be allowed to have a spiritual path, to practise it, and to share it. This does not mean that Taiwan is a perfect democracy as injustice has prevailed since Tai Ji Men was wrongly and illegally accused of fraud and tax evasion. The Supreme Court finally declared Tai Men non-guilty but the rule of law is not always equivalent to the rule of justice. The rule of law continues to be manipulated by some Taiwanese authorities and injustice persists in this case.
For decades, female dizi have been at the forefront of the battle for justice in their case in Taiwan, following their conscience, signing petitions, demonstrating in publicly, travelling around the world to spread their message. Their fight must go on as a spiritual heritage for all of us.
