A Note from Nariman Mavaddat, a Baha’i Citizen, Following the Sentencing of His Mother to 6 Years in Prison

Source: bahaicamp.com

Translation by Iran Press Watch

According to the campaign “No to the Harassment and Imprisonment of Baha’i Citizens”: Nariman, a Baha’i citizen, following the sentencing of his mother (Soudabeh Mehdi Nejad) to 6 years of incarceration, has written a note.

24 Baha’i citizens were sentenced by a court in Gorgan to over 193 years of imprisonment. These verdict were among the heaviest sentences issued against Baha’i citizens in the last few years.
It has been a while since the verdict against the Baha’is in Gorgan was issued…what can I say? At the present time, neither my pen nor my voice has the power to reach everyone in the world!
In this sad story, I am not the only who suffers, but I am the son of one of them — those who took audacious actions and scattered seeds the fruits of which our descendants will witness — an astonishing and great heritage, a glorified heritage — kindness, sincere love for humankind and all things that have been manifested in them and which could emanate from their luminous hearts to the world, as the result would be, were the world not kept so far from the Iranian Baha’is. This oppression was intended to place a wedge among the embraced and enmeshed hearts of the believers of the Faith of Baha’u’llah, but it has instead become a rope connecting all the servants of God. This is spiritual nearness, but with physical separation. But how can I tell them? How can I tell them that you can confine my mother, but you cannot take away her love, her belief, her Faith, or her glory from her; you can cover her glory but there is always a ray of glory which cracks through the heart of darkness and portrays the Truth?

To exhibit this Truth.

I think about many things these days, such as how justice has faded, such as how would my life be without my mother! Such as what should I be worried about? my loneliness?
When she is not in my arms, I become immersed in a world without her, in which I am alone…
I remember her stories! Their happy endings were preparing me for a similar end! Was that all? What should I do?! Maybe this is not the end, because it is different from my childhood stories, but what if it is…? This would mean that I would have to hate all those who have brought this upon my fellows and I! No! This is not what my mother is going to prison for — this is not what I admire her for!
I’m not saying it will pass very quickly…as without her I count every second — one by one till she comes back, when sorrows surround me, when I get absorbed in my childhood memories — it is then when I don’t have her near me, but I know — if they are suffering today, a tomorrow is being built.