Tag: iranian and bahai persuction

Sunday recalled another anniversary, the public hangings, on June 18, 1983, of 10 Baha’i women in Shiraz, Iran.

Religious freedom is priceless to Fereshteh Momeni. An Iranian Baha’i now living in Medical Lake, she lived through the Iranian revolution in 1979 and her country’s transition into the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is why she appreciates the information in the 2023 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report that identifies countries with the worst religious freedoms.

Arezoo Davari wanted to show solidarity with the women in Iran and to speak out against their oppression.As an associate professor of marketing at Eastern Washington University and an Iranian, Davari believed a college panel event of Iranian women talking about life in their country would be one way she could “do something.”

Consider the fate of two Baha’i women in Iran who, in November, were sentenced to their second 10-year prison terms after a hiatus of four years. Mahvash Sabet, 69, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 60, were first incarcerated in 2008 and released in 2018. At the time they were part of an informal group of five men and two women who tended to the basic pastoral needs of the Iranian Baha’i community. This was with “full knowledge of the Iranian government,” according to the Baha’I International Community (BIC) in Geneva. The BIC represents the worldwide Baha’i community at the UN and other international forums.

Having known and worked with Iranian Baha’is over decades, I’ve been fascinated by stories of injustices suffered in their home country. Their lack of bitterness as they tell those stories is impressive. An Iranian-American doctor in Medical Lake described how she was able to complete medical school in Iran. She was at the top of her class, and her professors wanted her to finish because there was a shortage of doctors.