Chronology: Date 2018-1

date	event	tags	firsts
2018 20 Dec	The last imprisoned member of the former leadership body of the Bahá'í community in Iran was released from prison after serving a 10-year prison sentence. He was arrested on 14 May 2008 and charged with, among other false claims, espionage, propaganda against Iran, and the establishment of an illegal administration. Mr. Naeimi and the other six former members of the Yaran faced those charges more than a year after their arrest in a sham trial without any semblance of legal process. Authorities sentenced Mr. Naeimi and the other former members of the Yaran to 10 years in prison. While detained, Mr. Naeimi experienced severe health problems, often receiving inadequate treatment. Authorities made a cruel determination that the brief time Mr. Naeimi, a father of two from Tehran, spent in a hospital recovering would not be counted as part of his sentence. [BWNS1302]	Yaran; Persecution, Iran; - Persecution, Arrests; - Persecution, Human rights; - Persecution; Human Rights; Tehran, Iran; Iran
2018 Dec	During a dialogue with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as it considered a report on measures taken to implement the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination the Iraqi Deputy Justice Minister, Hussein al-Zuhairi, said Bahaism is not a religion or faith. He further expressed the Iraqi government's commitment to legislation prohibiting the Bahá'í religion in 1970 and added that there was no religion above Islam since the Iraqi Constitution set the tenets of Islam as a source of law. He said that as Iraqi society was Muslim, it was not possible to ignore the tenets of Islam in legislation. Zuhairi's statement angered representatives of civil society and the delegations of organizations that presented parallel reports to the government's report in which they outlined the Iraqi government's and the Kurdistan Regional Government's violations of the rights of minorities. His statements raised concerns for the Bahá'ís and indicated that the Iraqi government cannot solve the conflict between respecting human rights called for in its constitution and the Islamic principles that are a key source of legislation. [Al-Monitor 11 December, 2018]	Iran
2018 19 - 22 Nov	The second annual Arab Sustainable Development Week was held in Cairo from 19 to 22 November to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the year 2030. More than 120 diplomats, government officials, representatives of regional and international organizations, businesses, and academics attended the event. Speakers included Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, among a number of other leaders in the Arab region. It was the first time the Bahá'í community had an official presence at a space convened by the Arab League, a regional organization of about 20 nations in North Africa and the Middle East. Bahá'í International Community representatives were Dr. Solomon Belay, from the BIC Addis Ababa office, Shahnaz Jaberi from BIC-Bahrain and Hatem El-Hady from BIC-Egypt. The BIC statement, Summoning Our Common Will: A Baha'i Contribution to the United Nations Global Development Agenda, was distributed at the event. [BWNS1299]	Solomon Belay; Shahnaz Jaberi; Hatem El-Hady; Bahá'í International Community; Arab League; Sustainable Development; Ahmed Aboul-Gheit; Mostafa Madbouly; - BIC statements; Cairo, Egypt; Egypt	first time the BIC had an official presence at a meeting convened by the Arab League.
2018 15 Nov	The passing of Shapoor Monadjem, (b. 3 October, 1933, Shiraz, Iran) at his last pioneer post in Maringá, Brazil. He had been a member of the International Teaching Center, a pioneer and member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Brazil (1963-1983), a Continental Councillor (1983-1993) as well as a Deputy Trustee of Ḥuqúqu'lláh. [BWNS1296; Bahaipedia]	Shapoor Monadjem; International Teaching Centre; Counsellors; In Memoriam; Maringa; Brazil
2018 9 Nov	The Universal House of Justice announced that the Office of Social and Economic Development would be succeeded by the Bahá'í International Development Organization with a five-member board of directors to serve a five year term of service with appointment to be made on the Day of the Covenant. In addition a new fund, the Bahá'í Development Fund, was inaugurated which will be supported by the Universal House of Justice, individuals and institutions. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 9 November, 2018] Three days later the Universal House of Justice announced the appointment of the members of the Board of Directors for the Bahá'í International Development Organization for the five-year term beginning 26 November 2018: Elisa Caney, Maame Brodwemaba Nketsiah, Lori McLaughlin Noguchi, Sina Rahmanian, and George Soraya. See also BWNS1308.	Social and economic development; Social action; Bahá'í International Development Organization; Funds; Bahá'í Development Fund; Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS); - Bahá'í World Centre
2018 1 - 7 Nov	More than 7,500 people attended the Parliament of the World's Religions held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This forum began in 1893 at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago as an effort to promote an emerging international movement devoted to promoting dialogue among religions. Since that time, it has been held in Cape Town (1999), Barcelona (2004), Melbourne (2009) and Salt Lake City (2015). [Website] Bahá'í presenters were: Bani Dugal: "The Equality of Women and Men: Divine Imperative for an Age of Transition." Hugh Locke: "Half the Sky, Half the Land: The Role of Women Farmers in Transforming Agriculture," Payam Akhavan: "Equality and Justice, Global Perspectives" and "Countering War, Hate, and Violence Assembly." Emily Wright: "Making Interreligious Chaplaincy Education Meaningfully Inclusive" and "A New Cup of Grace—A Ukulele Opera Hooshmand Badee: "Interfaith Peacemaking Perspectives from Across the World." Nader Saiedi: Presenting the new documentary film The Gate: Dawn of the Bahá'í Faith. Paul Hanley: "Man of the Trees: Richard St. Barbe Baker, the First Global Environmentalist." JoAnn Borovicka: "Amazing Faiths! An Interactive Workshop on Interfaith Dialogue." Robert Atkinson: "New Thoughts in Interfaith Spirituality." Robert Stockman: "The Characteristics of Bahá'í Interfaith Dialogue." Candace Hill: "From Shiraz to Chicago: Bahá'í Women of the East and the West" Edward Price: "The Divine Curriculum: Understanding the Báb, Divine Educator for the Modern Era." Sovaida Maani Ewing: "Achieving World Peace: Bahá'í and Catholic Teachings." Jean Muza: "Bahá'í Civic Engagement: How to Maneuver in America's Divisive Political Landscape." Robert Atkinson: "The Golden Rule as the Basis for a Global Justice System: An Interfaith Perspective with a Call to Action." Edward Price: "The Divine Curriculum Concept as a Framework for Interfaith Inclusion and Love." [CBN-Preparation; CBN-Inclusion; CBN-Films] During the conference the Hindu Swami Agnivesh said that instead of spending trillions of dollars on the war system, the peoples of the world need to unite and create a world parliament based on an Earth Constitution. He said that "without a world government, we cannot solve our major world problems." [History News Network 13 Feb 2022]	Parliament of the Worlds Religions; Toronto, ON; Canada
2018 24 Oct	The body of a Bahá'í citizen, Shamsi Aghdasi Azamian, from Gilavand, a suburb of the city of Damavand was exhumed by unknown individuals several days after being buried in the Gilavand Bahá'í Cemetery and abandoned in the deserts of Jaban in the suburbs of that city. No individual or institution has accepted responsibility for this action, although security forces had told the Gilavand Bahá'ís earlier that they had no right to bury their deceased member in this place, and that they should perform burials only in Tehran. Her son refused to move the body but found that it had been taken to Tehran which is a distance of some two hours away. [Iran Press Watch 19720] Subsequently, a group of progressive Muslims strongly condemned the "desecration and excavation of the grave of a Bahá'í compatriot." In their statement the "systematic and deeply rooted denial of Bahá'í citizens' rights" was denounced, and the violation of their citizenship rights was called a "hateful" act, "born of ignorant prejudice." The signatories of the statement called for an open investigation and prosecution of perpetrators and facilitators. The message can be seen at Iran Press Watch19731.	Shamsi Aghdasi Azamian; - Persecution, denial of burial; Gilavand; Damavand; Iran
2018 11 Oct	Abdullah Al Olofi, member of the Bahá'í community in Yemen, was on his way to the market in Sana'a when suddenly he was surrounded by armed soldiers in a pick-up truck. He was blindfolded and taken away. [Counterpunch 9 November, 2018]	`Abdu'lláh Al Olofi; Persecution, Yemen; Sanaa; Yemen
2018 Oct	The announcement of the translation and publication of the Kitab-i-Aqdas into the Philippines' second most widely spoken language, Cebuano. (Translation into Tagalog was completed in 2003.) This translation was done by Dr Gil Tabucanon and was completed after ten years of effort. Publication was done by the Philippines Baha'i Publishing Trust. Among the languages into which the Kitab-i-Aqdas had been translated, in addition to English, were Albanian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Marathi, Norwegian, Oriya, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. [BWNS1294; BWNS646]	Translation; Cebuano language; Tagalog language; Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Most Holy Book); Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS); Manila; Solano; Philippines	first translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas into Cebuano
2018 Oct	The publication of Man of the Trees: Richard St. Barbe Baker, the First Global Conservationist. by Paul Hanley. It was published by the University of Regina Press. Richard St. Barbe Baker was an inspirational visionary and pioneering environmentalist who is credited with saving and planting billions of trees. He saved lives, too, through his ceaseless global campaign to raise the alarm about deforestation and desertification and by finding effective, culturally sensitive ways for people to contribute to a more peaceful and greener world. He was also an Edwardian eccentric whose obsession with trees caused him to neglect his family; the devout son of an evangelical preacher who became a New Age hero; an unapologetic colonial officer fired for defending indigenous Africans; a forester who rarely had a steady income; a failed entrepreneur and inventor; a proud soldier and peace activist; a brilliant writer, speaker, and raconteur who made wild claims about the effectiveness of his conservation efforts. His encounters with historical figures like FDR, Nehru, and George Bernard Shaw are eye-popping, as were his accomplishments. See BWNS1292. See 9 June 1982.	Richard St. Barbe Baker; Man of the Trees; Paul Hanley; Bahá'í World News Service (BWNS); Regina, SK; Saskatchewan, Canada; Canada
Try also a shorter date like or 2018 or 201 try also the Chronology Canada — 2018-1 or 2018 or 201

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