Human Rights Discourse Literature on human rights monitoring often focuses on current events, mainly providing information on immediate concerns or responding to urgent appeals. By its own logic, the discourse often lacks the historical dimension that might provide a better understanding of a state, the political culture of its rulers, and the continuity of violations. Commenting on Iran’s slight improvement in the treatment of Baha’is in the late 1980s, the UN Special Representative on Iran expressed his desire that the government take further steps to make harassment of Baha’is ‘‘a chapter in history.’’ 1 For all human rights monitors, relegating past violations to ‘‘history’’ is understandably accompanied by a sigh of relief. Academics seldom write on the history of human rights violations in a particular state. This creates a problem not only because our knowledge of human rights violations lacks historical depth, but also because the question of a state’s political legitimacy might be decided by evaluating its current and recent record, irrespective of its dark history.We need more studies that offer a long-term perspective on the realities of human rights violations in the Middle Eastern states.