Source: ir.voanews.com
Translation by Iran Press Watch
Anisa Samiian, a Bahá’í citizen whose several family members have been arrested and sentenced to imprisonment and other deprivations, shared details of the sentence issued for her mother, Shiva Kashani-Nejad, with Voice of America, saying that despite her love for her homeland, she was forced to leave Iran to prevent her young children from being left without a caretaker.
Last week, the Third Branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Rasht sentenced Shiva Kashani-Nejad and Mojgan Samimi, two Bahá’í citizens, to imprisonment, a fine, and deprivation of social rights.
Anisa Samiian, the daughter of Shiva Kashani-Nejad, said that her mother and Ms. Samimi were each sentenced to “two years of imprisonment, five years of deprivation of social rights, and a fine of 80 million tomans.”
According to her, Ms. Kashani-Nejad was arrested in July of last year and was held for three weeks. After completing interrogations, she was temporarily released. At the same time, Anisa Samiian and her husband, Vesal Momtazi, were also sentenced to a total of about 10 years in prison by Judge Mehdi Rasekhi at the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Rasht.
This Bahá’í citizen explained that in 2022, during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, their house was searched. “While we were only active on social media with our fellow citizens, I was pregnant and had a four-year-old child. After the house search, my husband and I were summoned for interrogation. When my second child was one month old, we were tried, and both my husband and I were sentenced to a total of nine and a half years in prison.”
Ms. Samiian, expressing concern about her children being left without a caretaker, told Voice of America that despite their efforts to have their sentences converted to house arrest with an ankle monitor or to serve their sentences one at a time to avoid leaving their children without a caretaker, the verdicts were “upheld in the Court of Appeal and sent to the enforcement office,” leading to their “forced migration.”
She referred to the history of pressure on her family, mentioning that her mother, Shiva Kashani-Nejad, and her father-in-law, Behnam Momtazi, were arrested in 2011 as well, but “the pressure on the Bahá’í community increased significantly in 2022,” and “my father-in-law was again arrested and sentenced to two years in prison.”
Anisa Samiian, who had previously been a piano teacher in Rasht, said, “I was accused of promoting the Bahá’í Faith through piano lessons, even though many of my students didn’t even know I was Bahá’í.”
This Bahá’í citizen pointed to the historical pressure on Bahá’ís after the 1979 revolution, stating, “Since the Islamic Republic came to power in Iran, Bahá’ís have always been under pressure. From childhood, simply because we were born into a Bahá’í family, we were pressured in school, deprived of education, and these pressures have always been with us.”
Expressing her concerns about her children due to the sentences against her, her husband, and several family members, she said, “When we were sentenced to these heavy penalties, our only concern was the children. I didn’t know what to do with my five-month-old baby, who was still nursing. I would have had to take her into prison with me and leave my five-year-old son with someone else. At the same time, my mother was arrested, and my father-in-law was sentenced to two years in prison. Our family was under such pressure that we were forced to leave Iran, even though migration, especially when it is forced and involuntary, comes with its own hardships.”
Anisa Samiian stated that she has now applied for asylum with the Turkish immigration office, emphasizing that due to lack of adequate security for refugees, “the stress remains with us.”
Since the February 1979 revolution, Bahá’í citizens in Iran have been systematically subjected to execution, widespread social and political discrimination, and illegal actions such as arrests and desecration of their cemeteries.
Previously, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed concern over the increased pressure on religious minorities in Iran and the Islamic Republic’s campaign of arrests against Bahá’ís.
The commission reported that over the past several decades, the Islamic Republic’s authorities have systematically targeted Bahá’ís, Christians, Gonabadi dervishes, Zoroastrians, Yarsanis, Shi’a and Sunni Muslims, and secular individuals for harassment, arrest, long-term imprisonment, exile, or banning them from participating in political and social activities.
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