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May
10
Iran’s Baha’i leaders start third year in prison
Filed Under Baha'i community, Human Rights, Iran | 1 Comment
Top l to r: Behrouz Tavakkoli, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Mahvash Sabet
Bottom l to r: Jamaloddin Khanjani, Saeid Rezaie, Afif Naemi
On 14 May the seven members of Iran’s Bahá’í leadership group will begin their third year in prison.
The prisoners are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm.
Inhumane prison conditions
The cells, which have neither fresh air nor natural light, smell rancid and are so small that it is difficult for the Bahá’í prisoners to move around or get any rest. If the lights are turned off, the cells are plunged into darkness. The Bahá’ís have no beds and only limited bedding.
The prisoners are allowed fresh air for only two hours each week and contact with their families is mostly limited to a maximum of one ten-minute telephone call per week. On the rare occasions when their families are allowed to visit, the prisoners are separated from their loved ones by a glass barrier and they are deprived of the comforting embrace of spouses and children.
According to the journalist Roxana Saberi, who shared a cell for three weeks with two of the Baha’i prisoners, the women are confined in a small space. “They roll up a blanket to use as a pillow,” she said. “The floor is cement and covered with only a thin, brown carpet, and prisoners often get backaches and bruises from sleeping on it. … When I was with them, we were allowed into a walled-in cement yard four days a week for 20 to 30 minutes.”
UK Baha’is gravely concerned
“The Bahá’ís in the UK are gravely concerned by the injustice of the continued detention of the Bahá’í leaders in Iran,” said Dr Kishan Manocha, Secretary of the UK Bahá’ís’ national governing council. They are being held on baseless charges, which they have categorically denied.”
“We’re also worried by the deterioration of their health,” Dr Manocha said. “The utterly inhumane conditions in which they are being held contravene international human rights treaties which forbid torture and subjecting people to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
“We are calling upon the British government to press the Iranian Republic of Iran to set these prisoners free immediately,” he commented. “If the Iranian authorities refuse to free the Bahá’ís, they should at the very least release them on bail and try them promptly and fairly, in accordance with international standards.”
International action
The Universal House of Justice – the head of the Baha’i Faith – has called for the worldwide Baha’i community to host special prayer meetings across the globe this Friday, to remember the Baha’is of Iran and all their compatriots who are similarly subject to oppression.
“It grieves our hearts to contemplate the passing of yet another year in which the seven former members of the Yaran remain imprisoned on baseless charges for which the authorities have no evidence whatsoever,” the House of Justice has written.
The second anniversary, they say, calls to mind the “multifarious forms of oppression” being faced by Iran’s Baha’i community, including “interrogations, summary arrests and imprisonment, deprivation of the means to a livelihood, wanton destruction of property, and the denial of education to Baha’i students.”
A collective gesture of solidarity with the imprisoned Baha’i leaders has also been called for by the human rights network United4Iran. They are asking sympathizers worldwide to replicate the dimensions of the cells in Evin prison, and document themselves confined to the space. Photographs and video clips will be then shared on the Internet to bring the international community’s attention to the ongoing arbitrary imprisonment being endured by the seven.
Read more about the United4Iran campaign here.
Read more about the situation on the Baha’i World News Service.
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, Yaran, leaders, persecution, human rights, prison