Iran Press Watch: The Baha'i Community |
- Conviction of a Baha’i living in Qaemshahr
- Has the World Forgotten the 54 Baha’i Youth?
- Baha’i Citizen Summoned to Revolutionary Court
- Two Mashhad Baha’i Citizens Began Serving 5 Year Prison Sentence
- Scotland’s Baha’i community calls for support
| Conviction of a Baha’i living in Qaemshahr Posted: 08 Nov 2010 05:45 PM PST HRA news – The appeals court of Mazandaran province approved the conviction of Masoud Ataiyan.
It should be mentioned that this person was kept in solitary confinement for more than 3 months in early 1388 A.H. (2009 A.D.). In addition, at the moment another Baha'i named Simin Gorji [news of her arrest was reported here http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/237] is spending her term in Qaemshahr prison. — Translation by Iran Press Watch
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| Has the World Forgotten the 54 Baha’i Youth? Posted: 07 Nov 2010 09:28 PM PST
Alluhuabha
Kindly some dearest friends have already asked me for several times to write them how I spend time in prison. At first, I would like to mention that my imprisonment assigned for 4 years that 3 years of it have been expired so for in isolation cell (individually prison).
in this 3 years, I have been in the house of detention of security office center of Fars province (shiraz), where there is any public prison and all who stay there are of security or politics accuser and live in isolation cell.
The isolation cell is just a small chamber where its ironic door is been closed all the time and there is not any window or trap- door to out side area and a lavatory set has been installed in this small room.
Every prisoner has been let to go out side for fresh air around 30 minutes every day. There is no tree, no grass; what you can see is only concrete floor (as wide as a volleyball field) and large wall which beyond them the beautiful blue sky can be seen.
When the weather is so hot or cold or it is rainy you can not go for open air. One time every week, I can call to my family and talk to them for 5 minutes and also once every week I can meet them behind a thick glass just for 5 minutes.
In my cell there are a heater, a cooler, a TV set and also there are 3 blankets that one of them is used as a carpet and 2 of them for sleeping. Another facilities that I have on my cell are consists of: a soap, a shampoo, a tooth brush , a tooth paste , a box of handkerchief, a nail trimmer, a box of detergent, a towel , a comb and one added clothes and nothing else. I should mention that once every 2 or 3 weeks, the jailers ask a list of shopping from each prisoner for buying him/her the necessary hygienic facilities or some fruits. So as there is any refrigerator in our cells, the prisoners can buy only 1 or 2 kind of fruit like apple or orange.
Some of you may think that living with some simple facilities is very difficult, but the important fact is that every body, after passing some times, can learn how to live with such facilities without any problem; it means no problem if you do not have a mirror, and so even if you do not have comfort bed or furniture or refrigerator.
There is very important that how you train your spirit and thought for thinking about the values of humanity and spirituality freedom of all belonging just for divine goals. In this way you are glad and thankful and enjoy the opportunity.
It took one week for me that learnt how should I managed myself and my time for praying, reading the books, exercising, walking in the cell and watching TV without falling in the routine life.
Little by little, I learned while I am reading books, I took notes and starting to write searching articles. Also for the time of praying I make a schedule. For example, I memorized prayers and also began to practicing and learning an art that is called "illumination". It is an Iranian noble art.
A bulk of my time is spent for reading and writing them. By helping BIHE (Bahai Institute for Higher Education), I started to study the political sciences (politics). Another field of my study is Islamic Gnosticism, Iranian social history, sociology and literature. (I’ve been given permission to have a book for each week.) In addition to study, some of my time is spending for writing articles and remembrance of prison and stories for children and youth. (Up to now, I succeed to write 60 stories that they are the profits of my practical experiences with children and youths and my studies.)
So, my daily schedule consists: at 6:30 am the jailer brings me breakfast, at 8 am I walk around my cell for 30 minutes and at the same time I chant "is there remover…"after breakfast, I start to study, at 10 am, the jailer take me to open air for 30 minutes and contemporaneous, I chant by myself "is there remover..". When I got back to my cell, again I study or write something, at 12, the jailer brings lunch and up to 2:30 pm I watch TV and then rest fore a while. After that, again I study or write something, at 5 pm, I exercise for 30 minutes and after that I walk around my cell for 2 hour and at the same time again chant "is there remover…" (I chant more than 1000 times this verse every day).
After prayer I take a bath then listen to news and have dinner the jailer brought me before, after that I practice illumination for 2 hours, about 10:30 pm, I watch a film and finally sleep at 11 or 12 pm. Every 3 months I have been allowed to have a vacation for one or two weeks. This is a nice opportunity for meeting my family and friends and going to a short trip and also can go to library and get some books in trust (about 12 books for 3 months next). Most of all, I can meet my illumination professor and he corrects my practices and teaches me new lessons.
When I am out, I have a golden opportunity to type my writings and articles by helping my friends. Also I can call all Bahai prisoners’ families in other cities and seeking after them and their prisoners. Some times, I meet some of the authorities of the state or some of high ranking lawyers in the country and consult them about the human rights of the Bahai community in Iran.
Maybe you think that being in the prison is so hard but if you believe that patience and perseverance in misfortunes is the cause of spiritual progress and elevation of individual and community, it gives you pleasure. In spite of the fact that some days being in prison was hard for me, but whenever I think about the 3 years that have been passed so far, it gives me the feeling of spiritual joys. The days of prison has given me many important lessons and it has made me ready for giving more services to the human world.
For ever, I am very thankful for this grace and talent that is given to me without worthy of it by Bahaullah, and I pray from bottom of my heart for my dearest and more devoted father and mother that have given me the present of the opportunity of living and asking mercy, forgiveness and success for them in the sight of God.
I have written of all my experiences and memoires during my imprisonment. Maybe I changed it to a book when I will be released. But I pay respect for those who asking me to do this job until then this brief comment may be suffice, and I hope for the day that can steps with all of you for sending the message of peace and unity of Bahaullah to all mankind especially my dear Iranian fellow countryman until disappearing all of prejudices and ignorance from the world s face.
Your honor and happiness is all my wish.
Assuring you of my highest esteem
Raha sabet (This letter is written on 8th Oct. 2010 in prison)
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| Baha’i Citizen Summoned to Revolutionary Court Posted: 07 Nov 2010 09:19 PM PST
RAHANA: Baha'i citizen Farid Rohani who was detained following the Ashura protests, has been summoned to the Revolutionary Court on December 11th. According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, Rohani was detained on December 3rd along with a number of other Baha'i citizens and was temporary released on bail on February 28th. He had been confined in Evin Prison for the first 10 days of his detention and was subsequently transferred to the Rajaei Shahr Prison. His charges include acting against national security, blasphemy, disturbing public order and supplying propaganda material for foreigners. His workplace has been confiscated since his release. It seems that the Intelligence Ministry has ordered the action. —
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| Two Mashhad Baha’i Citizens Began Serving 5 Year Prison Sentence Posted: 07 Nov 2010 09:12 PM PST
According to the RAHANA reporter, Jalayer Vahdat and Sima Eshraghi were previously held in solitary confinement for 2 months before being temporary released on a $150,000 bail. They were transferred to the Vakilabad Prison in order to begin serving their jail terms. They have been convicted of anti-regime propaganda, acting against national security and blasphemy. Currently, Davar Nabilzadeh, Nahid Ghadiri, Nasrin Ghadiri, Rozita Vaseghi, Hooman Bakhtavar, Kaviz Nouzdahi and Sima Rajabian are the other Baha'i citizens who are serving their 2-5 year prison terms for similar charges. — Source: http://www.rahana.org/en/?p=7729 |
| Scotland’s Baha’i community calls for support Posted: 07 Nov 2010 08:30 PM PST
26 Oct 2010 "It was not long after Ayatollah Khomeini came to power that the real trouble started. My husband was arrested, tortured and killed and then they arrested me too," Mehrangiz Moayyad says. The Iranian woman is in her council home in a quiet Aberdeen estate recalling traumatic events in her homeland from nearly 30 years ago and explaining how she and her family were persecuted for their religious beliefs. Mrs Moayyad is a follower of the Baha'i faith, a religion dating from 1844, with five million followers in 235 countries. There are an estimated 300,000 followers in Iran and around 6000 in the UK. The central idea of the faith is one of unity and followers believe people should work together for the common benefit of humanity. "Its founder, Baha'u'llah, was the latest in a line of divinely inspired prophets that included Moses and Jesus. Baha'u'llah said he was a prophet of God so in Iran, Baha'is are viewed as heretics because Mohammed, who founded Islam, declared himself to be the last and final prophet of God centuries earlier," Mrs Moayyad explains. Baha'is have always faced discrimination in Iran but the situation deteriorated following the ascension to power in 1979 of Khomeini, the hard-line Shiite Muslim and Iranian political leader. In 1982, Mrs Moayyad's husband, Menouchehr, a prominent banker, was arrested by the police and ordered to publicly renounce his faith. Although the alternative was torture and possible death, Menouchehr refused to embrace Islam as instructed. "He was jailed and I visited him in prison every week. They eventually killed him. I remember a sympathetic guard let me see his body afterwards. It was horrific. His fingers had been removed and there was a hole through his nose and he had been shot in the stomach. His face was contorted with the pain," she says. In 1985, Mrs Moayyad herself was detained and tortured in Tehran's Ghasr Prison for five months, but she too refused to renounce the Baha'i faith and was then sentenced to death by hanging by a religious court. "Tradition has it that a woman must put the noose around her own neck but I'd been so maltreated in prison I was seriously ill and unable to stand. They sent me to a hospital for blood transfusions and vitamin treatment so I could be executed. I managed to escape and went into hiding before getting out of the country. I travelled to the UK via Pakistan and claimed political asylum in 1986," Mrs Moayyad says. She spoke to The Herald after Iran recently sentenced seven Baha'i leaders to 20 years in prison in a move that provoked outrage around the world. The seven – Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm – were all senior members of Iran's 300,000-strong Baha'i community. They were accused of propaganda activities against the Islamic order and the establishment of an illegal administration. All the charges were denied. Foreign Secretary William Hague and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were among world leaders who condemned the verdict, which Amnesty International described as "a sad and damning manifestation of the deeply rooted discrimination against Baha'is by the Iranian authorities". Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa deputy director, says: "These Baha'i leaders, some of whom are elderly, are prisoners of conscience jailed on account of their beliefs or peaceful activities on behalf of the persecuted Baha'i minority. They were held for months without charge before being subjected to a parody of a trial." Scotland's Baha'i community has embarked on a series of protests to raise awareness of the problems facing their religion in Iran and held a vigil outside Glasgow's St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in September. They also put a motion to the Scottish Parliament, supported by religious leaders. Scotland's Catholic leader, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, said: "I regard what has happened as being a most appalling transgression of justice and a gross violation of the human right of freedom of belief." UN General Secretary, Ban Ki-moon, also expressed strong concern over Iran's persecution of Iranian Baha'is in a new report. The Iranian authorities deny anyone is persecuted for their religious beliefs and claim those in prison have been tried fairly. Repression for all religious minorities in Iran has worsened since the presidential elections of 2005 and in particular after the disputed election last year. It would appear that international pressure on Iran has had some impact, as prison sentences for the seven Baha'is leaders have reportedly been reduced from 20 to 10 years, according to their lawyers. —  |
Source: 
Raha’s Letter
(RAHANA – 30 Oct 2010) Farid Rohani, a Baha'i resident of Tehran, has been summoned to the Revolutionary Court.
(RAHANA – 24 Oct 2010) Two Mashhad Baha'i Citizens Jalayer Vahdat and Sima Eshraghi have been transferred to the 
Billy Briggs
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