Field Deck — companion to Dossier XIV · The Baha'i Faith
Nine Men & The Imprisoned
Fifteen cards · and most of them hold no power at all
✹ How to read the deck — the shape of it is the argument★This deck could not be built the way the others were, and the reason is worth more than the cards.
The Baha'i Faith has abolished clergy entirely — no priests, no ministers, no preachers, no religious
professionals of any kind — so there is no roster of prelates to deal out. The whole governing authority of a
worldwide religion is nine men in Haifa, elected in 2023, whose terms expire in April 2028. That is the ♠ suit,
and it is complete: there is nothing else above it and nothing beside it.
Which leaves the rest of the deck holding people who have no power whatsoever — two who speak for a community
that cannot speak for itself, and four who are in prison for belonging to it.A deck of "living power" for the Baha'is turns out to be, mostly, a deck of the powerless. Do not fix that.
It is the true portrait.
♠ Spades — The House. All nine. The entire government of the faith, and its full term.
♦ Diamonds — The Voice. Who speaks for them where they cannot be heard.
♥ Hearts — The Imprisoned. Held in Iran in 2026. Rank here means nothing.
✓ All 15 verified online 2026-07-25. The nine were elected at the 13th International
Convention in 2023; re-verify the whole ♠ suit at the April 2028 election, when every card in it may
change at once. ⚠︎︎The ♥ suit is the most perishable in the entire hall — these are live detentions drawn
from rights-group reporting on the crackdown that followed the February 2026 war. Some may be released, others
charged, others worse. Never cite this suit without re-checking it first.
♠The Houseall nine · the entire government of a world religion · 9 cards
Three things to hold while reading this suit. (1) None of these men campaigned. Baha'i
elections have no nominations, no candidates and no canvassing; electors pray and write nine names on a secret
ballot, and soliciting votes for yourself is disqualifying. Nobody in this suit ran for the office he holds.
(2) They cannot tell you what the scripture means. The House may legislate on matters the revealed text does
not cover, and may repeal its own laws — but interpretive authority ended with the Guardian in 1957 and cannot be
revived. A government that makes rules and cannot expound the Book. (3) Membership is restricted to men
in a faith whose own founding principle is the equality of the sexes — the one point on which Baha'is concede they
cannot fully explain themselves. Note it plainly; do not score off it.
A♠CM
Chuungu Malitonga
Universal House of Justice · elected 2023
One of the nine. The suit is deliberately unranked in substance — the House acts only as a body, never as individuals, and no member outranks another or speaks for it alone. The pips here are a card convention, not a hierarchy. Verified 07-25
Among the longest-serving of the current nine and a writer on Baha'i thought and community development — one of the few members with a public intellectual output outside the House's corporate messages.
One of the nine. The House's composition is deliberately international — this body draws from Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East at once, for a religion of only five to eight million people.
One of the nine, serving at the World Centre in Haifa — the administrative seat that sits at the heart of the espionage libel used against the community in Iran. Dossier XIV, Field C.
One of the nine. The House is elected every five years by the members of every National Spiritual Assembly on earth, gathered at the International Convention in Haifa — an electorate of a few hundred, choosing for millions.
One of the nine. Note what the office is not: there is no Baha'i pope, no presiding member, and no spokesman. The House issues messages in its own corporate name and its members do not give interviews as individuals.
One of the nine. India holds the largest Baha'i community in the world and the faith's most famous building, the Lotus Temple in New Delhi — nine sides, nine doors, open to every faith and none.
One of the nine. The current membership was chosen at the 13th International Convention in 2023 — only the thirteenth such election since the body was first constituted in 1963, six years after the Guardianship ended.
The ninth of nine — and with this card the government of the Baha'i Faith is completely enumerated. No other deck in this hall can say that. Their five-year terms end at the International Convention in April 2028 . ★ Term ends Apr 2028
♦The Voicewho speaks for them where they cannot be heard · 2 cards
A community forbidden to organise politically cannot mount a political defence of itself —
Baha'i law bars partisan activity outright. So its advocacy runs through two narrow channels: diplomatic
representation at the United Nations, and the voices of ordinary believers with a public platform. This suit
is small because those channels are.
A♦RB
Rachel Bayani
Principal Representative, BIC to the United Nations — since Dec 2025
Heads the Baha'i International Community's UN office — the faith's diplomatic voice, and the body that documents the Iranian persecution before the world's institutions. Succeeded Bani Dugal (2003—2025) on her retirement ; came from over a decade running BIC's Brussels office. For a religion that forbids politics, this is as close to political power as it gets. Updated 08-16 — cut for office turnover
Best known as Dwight Schrute in The Office , and raised in a Baha'i family — among the notable Baha'is who drove the #StopHatePropaganda campaign, which reached some 88 million people in support of Iran's Baha'is. Celebrity as the only megaphone available. Verified 07-25
♥The Imprisonedheld in Iran, 2026 · rank here means nothing · 4 cards
⚠︎︎Read this suit differently from every other suit in the hall. Everywhere else the rank
is the weight of an office. Here it is nothing at all — these are not powerful people, and it would be
obscene to grade them. They are on a living-power deck because in a community with no clergy and no politics,
the people who actually bear the cost of the faith's existence are its prisoners, and a portrait of this
religion that showed only the nine in Haifa would be a lie.
Since the January 2026 protests and the February 2026 war, dozens of Baha'is have been imprisoned in Iran
because of their faith, many held without charge and denied contact with family or counsel; raids have
included the tearing up of Baha'i holy books. The public framing is espionage for Israel — a charge that
rests entirely on the location of a shrine the Ottoman Sultan chose in 1868 (Field C).
These four are named because their cases were documented. They stand for dozens who were not.
A♥PN
Peyvand Naimi
imprisoned · six months and counting
Held more than six months, accused of killing security agents during the protests — his family says no formal charges or evidence have been presented . Authorities further alleged he celebrated Khamenei's killing from inside prison , though he had no communications and no knowledge of the death. Verified 07-25 · will change
Arrested April 2026 without any charges at all — during the raid, Baha'i holy books were torn up . Released on bail 6 May 2026 , but legal proceedings continue; no formal resolution. Updated 08-16 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: The card says he was released on bail 6 May 2026; no source found reports bail. Arrested 1 April 2026 in Shiraz without disclosed charges; USCIRF lists him 'Not Released'. Bail claim to be removed unless a source is found.
Detained alongside husband Behzad Basiri in the April raid — arresting spouses together is a standing feature of how this community is policed. Released on bail 1 July 2026 , proceedings continue. Updated 08-16 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: The card says released on bail 1 July 2026; no source found reports it. A June 2026 report had her in Adelabad Prison over 70 days without charge, with a heart condition. Bail claim unconfirmed.
Mandana's sister, detained in the same April operation, released on bail 1 July 2026. Behind these four names stands the permanent architecture: barred from universities and public employment, property seized and demolished, and denied burial grounds — a persecution that reaches past death. Updated 08-16 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: The card says released on bail 1 July 2026; no source found reports it. Held with her sister in Adelabad over 70 days without charge as of June 2026. Bail claim unconfirmed.
Figures Deck · companion to Dossier XIV · The Baha'i Faith · LAMPSTAND 7
Fifteen cards: nine who govern a world religion, two who can be heard, and four who are in prison for belonging to it.
A living-power deck that turned out to be mostly a deck of the powerless — and left that way on purpose. ✹ Nine in Haifa · dozens in Evin ✹
