The Constitutional Movement and the Bahá'ís of Iran:
The Creation of an 'Enemy Within'

by Moojan Momen

About: This article looks at the role of the Bahá'ís in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, 1906–1911. It propounds three major theses. First, that when the royalists and anti-constitutionalist clerics accused the Constitutionalists of being “Babis”, it was the Bahá'í community that they were referring to rather than the Azali Babis. Second, that the Bahá'ís had a complex relationship with the Constitutionalist Movement, sometimes supporting it and sometimes abstaining from involvement in politics, but that in any case, the impact of the Bahá'ís on the reformers and on the Revolution has been underestimated by most writers. Third, that, despite their closeness in terms of ideas about social reform, the enmity of the Azalis and clerics caused the Bahá'ís to be excluded from the reform legislation resulting from the Constitutional Revolution and effectively to be excluded from Iranian society. It resulted in the creation of an “enemy within”. Some of the consequences of this both for the Bahá'ís and for Iran are discussed.