Gonabadi Dervishes in Isfahan are still holding their religious ceremonies on the ruins of their place of worship (Hosseiniyeh) in the cold of winter and under the rain.
According to Majzooban Noor, 5 years after the destruction of Gonabadi Dervishes’ house of worship in Takht-e foulad cemetery, Isfahan, their ceremonies are still held there on its ruins despite the cold weather and rain.
The Dervish house of worship, was located next to the tomb of the great poet and Gonabadi Dervish Naser Ali (Mr. Izadgoshasb) at the historical Takht-e Foulad cemetery, where a number of respected Iranian figures are buried.
It should be noted that, on 30 Bahman 1387 (11 February 2009) during Friday prayers in Isfahan, the grave of Dervish Naser Ali in Takhte Foulad, a National Heritage, was attacked and completely demolished by bulldozers and all his belongings were stolen.
The security forces also cut off water and electricity to the area, and destroyed the walls around the poet’s tomb with a bulldozer.
At about 400 attackers, a group of intelligence forces, as well as pressure groups have been reported to have destroyed a National Heritage building that was used since 1380 for Dervish’s ceremonies and many dervishes were attacked with teargas, batons and weapon, detained and tried then.
The razing of the Gonabadi Dervish community’s house of worship in Isfahan was the third of its kind in the recent years. The demolition occurred after the illegal destruction of two other dervish community centers in Qom and Borujerd.
Even after the destruction of above mentioned worship- place, the Dervishes are still having their own regular religious ceremonies. Two years later, in 1389/ 2011
a number of workers along with some plain-clothes forces also destroyed cobblestone blocks of the place in order to shut down worship-place of Gonabadi Dervishes in Isfahan.
But now, it has been more than five years that Gonabadi Dervishes are holding their religious ceremonies without interruption in outside on dusty ground with no shelter in cold and hot weather.
