During the 410 days that I spent inside the closed walls of Evin Prison, I often wondered what the human beings alongside me were being punished for. Through the few scattered, clandestine conversations I was able to have with other women prisoners, I learned that I was being held in Section 209 and that everyone around me was charged with "political crimes."
I knew what that meant in my own case. I was a hostage being held in an attempt to extract concessions from the U.S. government. Yet, the people around me were Iranians. What was the Iranian government trying to get out of imprisoning them? What had they done to end up in this cruel, deadening place?
I now know exactly who the people next to me were, and that many of them are still there. They are human rights lawyers like Nasrin Sotodeh, student activists like Baharet Hedayat and women like Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet, members of the Baha'i leadership who have now been held unjustly for a total of 10,000 days without legal representation or a trial.
While in prison, I once had the extraordinary experience of meeting Fariba Kamalabadi. One winter day we were both being led blindfolded down the corridor in Section 209 to the prison clinic. We were being marched in single file, forbidden to look at or talk to one another. The first thing she did when the guard turned her back was reach out and rub my back affectionately. Pleased and startled, I turned around and peeked at her from under my blindfold. She was smiling at me. "I'm sorry you're alone," she whispered. Then, she hastily told me who she was before the guard caught on and positioned herself between us so we couldn't talk.
During that brief encounter I wasn't able to learn any of the specifics of Fariba's detention. When I was later released and did some research, I was astounded by Fariba's kindness and bravery that day. Fariba is one of the leaders of Iran's Baha'ai community, the largest non-Muslim religious minority Iran. The Baha'ai have been subjected to a systematic campaign of cultural eradication by the Iranian government since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. There are currently seven Baha'i leaders (called "The Yaran," or The Friends) being held in prisons throughout Iran, along with 109 other members of the Baha'ai faith, solely for peacefully pursuing the civil rights and education opportunities they deserve.
Evidence of this persecution can be found in a memorandum written by Seyyed Mohammad Golpaygani, Iran's secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which clearly outlines the Iranian government's policy of banning people of the Baha'i faith from higher education. Golpaygani writes that they "must be expelled from universities, either in the admissions process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Baha'is."
The Baha'ai communities' response to this systematic exclusion was ingenious. They developed their own system of clandestine universities that came to be known as the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). Living rooms, kitchens and basements became classrooms, students earned degrees that were recognized in other countries and new hope for the Baha'ai people emerged.
Then, exactly one year ago, May 22nd, 2011, in cities across Iran the homes of students, administrators and teachers of Baha'i Institute for Higher Education were raided by government authorities. A number of faculty members are now serving prison terms of 4-5 years. A three-minute video, created by the same team that produced the film Education Under Fire, was released today at www.educationunderfire.com to mark this dreadful anniversary.
It's difficult for me to imagine what Fariba and her colleagues must be feeling right now. Even though I experienced that reality myself, it's far behind me now. Fariba and all the other imprisoned Baha'ais have no idea when they will be able to spend real time with their families, contribute to creating a better world or even walk in the sun without a blindfold.
"Men and women sentenced to death for trying to teach," the voice of actress and Amnesty International spokesperson Nazanin Boniadi declares in the film, "a college attacked for giving young people an opportunity to learn. Hundreds of thousands of people persecuted for refusing to renounce their religion."
Simply for trying to teach.
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Shastri Purushotma: A Phoenix Rises: The Execution of the Bab
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 250)
This is what I believe. If a government harms their people, it harms the world. Even here in America. ESPECIALLY here in America. But the manner in which we advocate change in the world cannot be through armed conflict, either with weapons or words. It is through consultation, which is a process of setting aside egos and agendas, and looking at what would best serve humanity as a whole. It's not an easy process, and it will take a very long time. But that's all right. It has begun, and it can't be stopped.
Thank you so much for letting me know that at least in this, my prayer has been answered.
What's it to this lady, an ex-con?
Where does she get her credentials as an Iran "expert" ? By watching the walls of the prison.
Why should I ever believe she witnessed anything. That from a lady who proclaimed she was in solitary confinement while in prison. Now has witnessed everything under the sun. Hope she went shopping too.
http://jewbahais.blogspot.com/
Why the double standard?
http://symphonyofdissent.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/proselytizing-in-israel-free-speech/
The Baha'i UHJ probably obeys the same unwritten restriction.
Great hypocrisy for this bastion of freedom in the middle east.
One word sweetheart: Gitmo.
The seven were convicted of espionage for Israel. They may be innocent, but no proof of their innocence is presented, only an assertion of innocence. It should be remembered that other Baha'i were convicted of spying for Israel (and for Iran) by the government of India. The HQ of the Baha'i religion is in Haifa, Israel. That may only be a coincidence.
http://bahaispyringbusted.blogspot.com/2009/08/2006-hindustani-times-article-bahai-spy.html
Kinda funny how Bahai care about Haifa, except that Abdu'l-Bahá died and was buried there in 1921.
Your lovely guilt by association compares so well with naive people who actually care about human rights instead of the very nice religious police in IRI who persecute Baha'i (and others):
http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/08/10/iran-free-bahai-leaders
The Iranian judiciary should set aside any judgments issued in closed judicial proceedings against seven Baha'i leaders and release them immediately given that no evidence appears to have ever been presented against them, and they have not been given a fair and public trial, Human Rights Watch said today.
The authorities arrested the seven in May 2008 and severely restricted their access to lawyers and their families. ..
"For more than two years now the Iranian authorities have utterly failed to provide the slightest shred of evidence indicating any basis for detaining these seven Baha'i leaders, let alone sentencing them to 20 years in prison," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East division at Human Rights Watch.
Glad to find you doing well. Hopefully all 3 of you, and your mothers, are alright.
http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/iran-hikers
the fact of the matter is the Baha'i have suffered greatly in Iran.
I highly doubted it.
I don't have a problem about pointing out the Bahai suffered. That is not even what I said.
I have a problem with an Ex-Con, watching the walls of an Iranian prison, becoming an Iran "expert" when she could not find it on a map and veered into their territory. And let's not pretend, she is doing it for regime change.