Today’s series of news reports paint a troubling pattern of increased harassment in recent days for the Baha’i of communities of Hamadan, Semnan, Shiraz, Tehran and Yazd. A short overview:
- Mr. Afshin Ahsanian is arrested in Shiraz on charges of “being a Baha’i” – Read more
- Ms. Sahba Khademi, a 24-year old Baha’i is seized in Hamadan – her whereabouts remain unknown – Read more
- Imprisoned Baha’i leaders meet their families; a high-ranking official in the Prosecutor-General’s office has advised that their files will be completed by April 21; Shirin Ebadi continues to have no access to the legal case, or her incarcerated clients. – Read more
- Ms. Sorour Sorourian, a 25-year old Baha’i, is arrested in Hamadan – Read more
- Mrs. Haleh Hooshmandi presently remains in grave health conditions in prison. Her condition is “deteriorating” – Read more
- The home of Mr. Bahnam Rouhani, one of the Baha’is of Yazd, is raided by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence – Read more
- Mr. Ali Ehsani, 29-year old husband and father of two, remains incarcerated incommunicado; his bail was refused – Read more
April 12, 2009 12:13 am
This is terrible, disruptive news.
Immediately, I was stunned to find how so many youth have been imprisoned. Such vibrant souls do not deserve such severe, (God Willing) baseless punishments.
April 12, 2009 5:39 am
While these injustices go on, in Hawaii we are training more child protection trainers to help certify more people to become teachers of community children classes and animators of junior youth groups- considered “criminal activities” in Iran.
What better way to support our fellow believers in the birthland of our faith!
April 12, 2009 12:50 pm
As terrible as these news coming out of Iran may sound to some, it is not! The hard liners are losing out in the public opinion forums by their actions against the Baha’is in Iran and the educated masses are geting the reward of learning more about the Baha’i Faith. This is what you call “mass teaching” in your faith. The more the hardliners persecute your bretheren the more vulnerable they become. In fact their harrasing and arresting the Baha’is is a sign of their weakness not strenght! By atracking Baha’i homes and confiscating their computers and records, the mullahs want to find records of unregistered Baha’is or names of Unknown Baha’is. They are desparate to show something to prove their allegations. They have found nothing. Baha’i owned computers they have confiscated have had the cleanest hard drives. They are mainly used for typing. Although mullahs after the fact have planted information on the computers so they can use them as propaganda purposes. But the reality is, they have found nothing or you would have seen it flashed on the front page of Kayhan by now.
So as the educated elite in Iran is learning about your Faith through the actions of theses mullahs, you should redouble and ten fold your “teaching” activities outside Iran. It is now estimated that nine out of ten Iranians knows about your Faith and has researched it or knows someone who has access to Baha’i Literature that she/he can borrow them from.
So keep teaching your Faith outside Iran as mullahs are doing a very fine job bringing to light their own incompetence in all matters of life by persecuting your bretheren and are getting the word out for you inside Iran. These are defining
moments in the history of Iran. These are the times of Deev and Ashtar. And surely Ashtar shall win and Deev and their darkness of ignorance shall parrish.
As Baha’u’llah has so elequently put it in your Tablet of Ahmad, rely upon God and remain steadfast “even if the swords of the enemies rain blows upon thee and all the heavens and the earth arise against thee”. http://www.BahaiPrayers.org