Editor’s Note: The following essay is reprinted from American Thinker and is by Amil Imani, a pro-democracy activist in the United States. Mr. Imani is a columist, literary traslator, novelist and essayist, who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran.
By Amil Imani
She is called the Angel of Iran, because she lived her short life angelically. The demonic Islamist Mullahs, true to their nature, couldn’t bear an angel in their midst. On June 18, 1983, they hanged the young woman, barely past childhood, for refusing to renounce her belief: the belief in love, justice, and equality for all children of God.
Her name was Mona, a 17-year old Baha’i Character School (Sunday school) teacher. Her pupils loved the indescribably gentle loving teacher who taught them to grow up as exemplary humans with hearts brimming with the love of God, all his people and his creation.
One day the Mullahs’ agents came to her house while the young school-girl was studying for her next day English exam. The savage Islamists had another much tougher exam in mind for her to be administered in the horrific prison of the Mullahs. They were certain that they could break the frail young woman under pressure and torture; that they could make her recant her faith and adopt their bigoted creed.
Our great Zoroaster, the luminous ancient prophet of Persia, spoke of the ongoing battle between the forces of good under Ahuramazda-God, and the forces of evil directed by Ahriman-the Satan. Zoroaster warned us not to fall for the enticements or be deceived by the machinations of Ahriman. He further informed us that evil can be recognized by the deeds of its people; people who would oppose the precepts of Ahuramazda.
And the child-woman Mona was seen by the Islamist clergy as a threat to their very demonic precepts and practices. They felt compelled to either convert her to their creed of darkness or extinguish her young life.
Mona, the young teacher, deeply loved children and believed that they had to be brought up as champion workers for Ahuramazda.
Baha’is claim that the founder of their religion, Baha’u’llah , is the reappearance of the spirit of Zoroaster; that Zoroaster’s triad teachings of Good Thoughts, Good Speech, and Good Behavior are elaborated in greater details by Baha’u’llah.
Mona’s lessons for the children, a detailed exposition of Zoroaster’s teachings, are summarized in the passage below by Baha’u’llah.
“Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, and a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility.”
Ten Baha’i women of Shiraz, Iran were among the many Baha’is who were arrested by the Islamists for their faith. The young Mona was one of them. These women endured months of endless abuse in the prison of the Mullahs, yet every one of them refused under threat of death to recant their faith of love.
The heartless Mullahs finally decided to make good on their threat and hanged these magnificent human beings, one-by-one. The Angel of Iran was the last to be hanged for she wished to pray for each woman as she was hanged. When Mona’s turn came, she kissed the noose and placed it around her own neck with prayers on her lips.
The savage Islamists hanged the magnificent child-woman Mona after a long period of tortuous imprisonment. By killing her, the agents of Ahriman aimed to kill love. But assuredly they can never kill love. They only kill the lover.
Oh, you earthly angels!
You immigrating birds,
Whose only adornment
Is a bed of white feathers!
The innocent children of Iran,
Are wearing your white glowing robe,
And have left the memories of life,
To others!
I see the poor black swallows,
Flying over the ruins of our city!
I see overflowing pain,
Intertwined,
With the hearts of every Persian!
My heart stops palpitating!
My breath starts to dry up!
My faith simply fades away,
And my bed falls silent.
[Posted on August 31, 2009, at American Thinker]
August 31, 2009 4:24 pm
Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and an essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran.
August 31, 2009 4:50 pm
Dear “A.”, Many thanks for the background info on Mr. Imani, which is now used in the “Editor’s Note”. Appreciate your help.
August 31, 2009 7:07 pm
Isn’t it so that Tahereh was called the Angel of Iran and Mona the Angel of Shiraz?
August 31, 2009 7:33 pm
Is there any wonder the catholic pope wants to get into bed with these people – they are a pox on humanity. The rape of women and children is their mutual aim, they simply use religion as a means to obtain that.
August 31, 2009 8:12 pm
Mona and the nine other women martyred with her believed that anger at evil deeds need not become hatred of anyone, and in any case hatred leads to crude responses against whole groups of people, leading to wars against humans instead of against demonic forces. In previous days, an earthly war for survival of the community of a new revelation was rightly presented in cosmic terms, since the future was at stake; but we must never demonize the people, and if we speak of them using their own share of the revelations of God, in the Name of God which they recognize, it is better than to risk encouraging narrow-minded partisans of other creeds against their heritage.
August 31, 2009 9:38 pm
Confuzius said the beginning of wisdom is to give the things the right name. Bravo to Mr Imani who has the courage to do so.
Evil is evil. who ever kills innocent girls or support the killers deserve to be called a demon and must brought to juctice by legal means. When in a country the judiciary is coccupied by such embodiments of hate, the international community has to cry out its anger and hinder this failed state to slaughter its best citizens.We are no more living in the time of the Nazis, when afterward many german said they had not heard or seen what has happened to the jews, so they could not hinder the demons to do evil to them.
September 1, 2009 4:53 am
As a devout but rebellious Catholic, I am so enraged by the Pope. How can he even want to deal with these infidels. These Shia extremist infidels are truly doing Satan’s work. And the Pope, as the represenative of Jesus on Earth, wants to have dialogue with them? Shame on you Benidict, shame on you! More Catholics must stand up and call our pope out on his “poor judgement” to say the least. We Catholics should be united behind the people of Iran. Not just for the Christians in Iran ( for they do need our help) but for everyone, including the Bahias, Jews, Sunnis and Shia who truly want to live in peace with one another. And shame on you President Obama, who still wants to “engage” with these Stalinist-Islamofacist pigs. Did u ever hear of a man called Prime Minister Nevile Chamberlain? How he wanted to engage Hitler? We never learn. There is no dialogue with these scum, they will just make fools of us all. God Bless the people of Iran…
September 1, 2009 5:00 am
Please to anyone reading this. Where is my vote NYC? needs all the help they can get for the Anti Ahmadinijad UN protest in September. We need to make the world know that it is NOT alright to accept President Swine Mahmoud to the UN opening plenary. If anyone is interested, contact WhereismyvoteNYC on Facebook, or google them. Let us all show the ShiaIslamofacists a little love (American style) when they come here in September. Shame on them, on our government and the world leaders ……
Thank you. Peace out..
September 1, 2009 12:06 pm
Thank you Mr. Imani, for this memorial to Mona and the nine other martyred women. As we recall the horrific injustice done to them, I hope we remember to examine the manner in which these women treated their captors and interrogators.
Their story, in detail can be found in the book, “Olya’s Story” by Olya Roohizadegan, a Shirazí Bahá’í who shared incarceration them. Ms. Roohizadegan, against all expectations, obtained release from prison. She managed to escape Iran and tell the story of the Iranian Bahá’ís to the world. The ensuing world-wideout outcry helped decrease the intense persecutions of the period. Ms. Roohizadegan relates how Mona and the other women treated their captors with amazing meekness and love.
Someone somewhere said that we make peace with our enemies, not our friends. The hearts and minds of those who persecute Bahá’ís will be transformed by sincerity, forbearance, and yes, love, the way of these unforgettable women and our path forward.
September 1, 2009 1:31 pm
Mona and the nine other innocent women martyred.
http://www.monasdream.com/
September 1, 2009 1:58 pm
Let them dialog, the Pope, Obama, whoever. Only they must not allow the Mullahs to place any limits on what they can talk about. I met a Mormon recently who was slated to attend an interfaith gathering in Iran. The participants had been warned ahead of time not to bring up the Baha’is. No one should allow such preconditions to stop them from speaking out about such oppression. If the Mullahs want to back out of meetings where Baha’is are discussed, that is their choice.
September 1, 2009 4:08 pm
Interesting. If a visiting Morman was advised by Iranian officials not to inquire about Iranian Baha’is, it could only mean that Iranian “censors” are keenly aware that the situation of Baha’is is on the mind of everyone who visits Iran in official capacity.
September 1, 2009 4:32 pm
Baha’u’llah exhorts His followers to courtesy, refinement, and good will. He also states that humanity is not composed of a good tree and an evil tree, but that all are leaves of one tree. Whether we like it or not, all are one human family. While the people who perpetrated these acts have committed evil and must be challenged for what their hands have wrought, we who challenge them can do so firmly and courageously without going into paroxysms of rage and name-calling. The best way to challenge them is to do so face-to-face in meeting. If they attempt to preempt the discussion of the treatment of the Baha’is, then discussion will prove impossible. But they will have been given the opportunity. Repentance cannot occur, after all, until one is brought into awareness of the need for repentance. The pyromaniacs who fan the flames of hatred can only become aware if someone faces them with what it means, in a firm and meaningful way.
September 3, 2009 2:55 am
Mr. Imani has hit it on the nose. What is going on in Iran right now is a Zoroastrian passion play, and those who are presently sitting on the Crocodile Throne shall be remembered as boogie men for centuries to come. Conscience is refusing to remain in the well, and the Age of the Wise Lord is about to begin.
September 3, 2009 7:38 pm
O OPPRESSORS ON EARTH
withdraw your hands from tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any man’s injustice. This is My covenant which I have irrevocably decreed in the preserved tablet and sealed it with My seal of glory.
THE HIDDEN WORDS OF BAHA’U’LLAH
September 19, 2009 4:25 pm
fuck goverment of iran all what they care about is islam what is this the life is not inly islam hey khamanai one day you and all your fellows will be kicked out of iran a new revoulation is comming