The Universal House of Justice is a position of “service” in the Baha’i Faith which women are excluded from. A closer look at some of the individuals serving on this body show that it is not really that holy and is just as “fallibly” prone to corruption as any other organization.
It is obvious to even the most casual observer that the body is not really elected, with the International Teaching Center being a means of controlling the elections to ensure that they are carefully selected by the Universal House of Justice itself to ensure no new ideas “infect” the body. Counsellors are appointed to the International Teaching Center based on their statistics, and this of course opens the entire process up to people falsifying data in order to secure a promotion.
An example of this is Firaydoun Javaheri. He was appointed a Counselor in 1995 and in 1996 he opened a private girls school in Zambia which resulted in such great statistics that he was appointed to the International Teaching Centre in 1998 due to his astronomical success in under five years. Unfortunately the way he did this made the news and it was anything but “divine confirmations”:
Lusaka (Times of Zambia, April 2, 1998) – There are mounting allegations that authorities at the Baha’i-run Banani girls international school in Kabwe Rural are forcing pupils to undergo compulsory indoctrination in the Baha’i faith.
Some parents have voiced concern that if the situation was not stopped, fanaticism would creep in and the result to those who believed in other religions would be disastrous. Leading the onslaught on the alleged parochial worshipping imposed by school authorities, Malawian high commissioner to Zambia Emmanuel Chinkwita-Phiri told an annual Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meeting held at the school, that it was a breach of universal human rights to impose a pattern of worship which barred pupils from pursuing their faith. Reverend Phiri, who was elected to serve on the school advisory council, charged that pupils were subjected to Baha’i rituals against their will, and those who resisted were allegedly punished.
https://bahai-library.com/newspapers/1998/040298.html
Another issue is that because the Universal House of Justice controls the appointment of the International Teaching Center they are entirely capable of appointing people for nepotistic reasons. Gustavo Correa was appointed to the International Teaching Center in 2005 likely by his brother-in-law Farzam Arbab and his daughter was appointed salaried director of the for-profit ISGP programme endorsed by the Universal House of Justice (if one looks into FUNDAEC and ISGP it is very easy to see that Arbab has abused his position on the Universal House of Justice to funnel customers into these “educational” business ventures presented as Baha’i initiatives but staffed by his family members).
Another matter is poorly founded fundamentalism of members of the body. Stephen Birkland and Douglas Martin’s witch-hunts have been written about enough on the internet and don’t need to be recounted here but illustrate the issue.
Yet another matter is simply good old fashioned greed. In this report on page 6 one can see that Stephen Hall received a very cushy position as CEO of “childcare services” for a property development company run by a Baha’i billionare in 2004 one year after becoming a Counselor: https://ir.miraqle.com/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/wlXIH31saE-DVTrWz5tb2Q/file/AR2004.pdf
Unfortunately in 2006 the tactics the Baha’i company was using to have the funds to employ Baha’is ‘off the books’ to preserve the “Unpaid Volunteers” line were revealed:
Of course, Sunland are no strangers to controversy in their dealings with government. Soheil Abedian, David Brown and Sunland were all named in a 2006 Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission report entitled Independence, influence and integrity in local government: a CMC inquiry into the 2004 Gold Coast City Council election. In that report, there were findings that Sunland improperly made a hidden donation directly to Quadrant Advertising disguised as ‘general marketing advice’, when in reality it was a backhanded attempt to curry political favour for their Gold Coast property developments.
Hall had already been appointed to the International Teaching Center in 2005 insulating him from the reports release the following year.
Source : https://www.reddit.com/r/exbahai/comments/nre962/the_heart_of_the_bahai_faith/
