18 June marks the fortieth yr of the execution of 10 Baha’i ladies within the Islamic Republic of Iran. 40 years in the past on 18 June 1983, when the seeds of ‘Raliv, Galiv, Chaliv’ (convert, die or go away) had been being sown at the Kashmiri soil via jihadis, 10 Baha’i ladies in Iran had been finished for refusing to surrender their religion. Their most effective choice used to be “Islam or execution.”
At the moment bears the spirit of Iran’s 10 Baha’i ladies who had been finished for his or her religion via the Shia-majority nation. Formally they had been charged with more than a few crimes together with espionage, however it’s widely known that it used to be only a facade, and their actual crime used to be refusal to transform to Islam.
The ladies had been arrested in October and November 1982. They had been tortured, denied the best to a attorney, and had been introduced the chance to avoid wasting their lives via changing to Islam. They had been requested to signal statements pointing out that they don’t seem to be Baha’i, however they refused to take action. In consequence, they had been taken to Chowgan Sq. in Shiraz from the jail and had been hanged separately, because of this those that had been finished later had been pressured to witness the striking of others.
Simply two days sooner than, a number of males had been finished on the similar spot, and a few had been relations of the ladies.
Those deaths proceed to horrify Baha’i folks but additionally encourage them of their persevered struggle in opposition to discrimination even as of late via the Islamic regime in Iran.
The fateful evening of 18 June 1983
As dusk started to sneak in, Mona Mahmudnizhad, together with her 9 friends, used to be dragged from the Adilabad jail in Shiraz. They had been pushed out to a polo box, the place Mona’s father used to be finished simply days in the past. What transpired after that sends shivers down one’s backbone.
The driving force of the minibus during which the prisoners had been taken recounts the horror that transpired sooner than his eyes.
The ten ladies had been hanged one by one. The Modern Guards perpetrated the murders in descending order in their age.
The eldest, 57, used to be Ezzat-Janami Eshraghi who used to be hanged first. The youngest used to be 17-year-old Mona Mahmudnizhad who needed to witness 9 executions sooner than her flip got here. Ultimately, this courageous younger woman was a lady that evening as she embraced the gallows and without end etched her identify within the hearts of even her jihadi murderers. She smiled at her execution and sparked a revolution in Iran that continues to at the present time.
Roya Eshraghi, 23, used to be finished together with her mom, Ezzat-Janami Eshraghi, 57. Her father used to be finished two days in the past on 16 June 1983. (Supply: Iran Twine).
The 10 Baha’i ladies finished in Shiraz on June 18, 1983, had been:
Mona Mahmudnezhad, 17;
Roya Eshraghi, 23, used to be finished together with her mom;
Simin Saberi, 24;
Shahin (Shirin) Dalvand, 25;
Akhtar Sabet, 25;
Mahshid Niroumand, 28;
Zarrin Moghimi-Abyaneh, 29;
Tahereh Arjomandi Siyavashi, 30. Her husband, Jamshid Siavashi, used to be finished two days previous;
Nosrat Ghufrani Yaldaie, 46. Her son, Bahram Yaldaie, used to be finished two days previous;
Ezzat-Janami Eshraghi, 57, together with her daughter Roya, 23. Her husband, Enayatullah Eshraghi used to be finished two days previous.
Mashid Niroumand, 28 (Supply: Baha’i World Group).
Killed for his or her Baha’i religion
The ten ladies had been arrested in 1982 at the fees of “spying for Israel,” “insulting Islam,” and “instructing Baha’i kids’s categories”.
Nosrat Ghufrani Yaldaie, 46. Her son used to be finished on 16 June 1983, simply two days sooner than her striking. (Assets: Baha’i Chronicles).
“Baha’i nistam” (I’m really not a Baha’i). Those had been the phrases they needed to say with a purpose to break out loss of life. They got 4 alternatives to mention those two phrases.
Simin Saberi, 24 (Supply: Baha’i World Group).
Little did the unconventional Iranian regime know that their religion used to be extra expensive to them than existence itself; that existence used to be a proper, no longer an way to be lured into and that loss of life used to be worthy when embraced out of religion than worry.
Shahin (Shirin) Dalvand, 25. (Supply: Baha’i World Group).
They refused to utter the unsightly lie that they had been lured into talking.
Akhtar Sabet, hanged at 25. (Supply: Baha’i World Group).
Mona Mahmudnizhad & Her Essay
Months sooner than her execution, Mona Mahmudnizhad wrote a innovative essay that were given the Iranian regime’s knickers in a twist. The subject of the essay assigned via her non secular research trainer used to be “The fruit of Islam is freedom of moral sense and liberty.”
Mona, 17, used to be the youngest a few of the 10 ladies and witnessed 9 executions one by one most effective to “kiss the gallows all the way through her flip.”
Figuring out really well that she is anticipated to sing false praises for Islam, Mona caught to the reality and wrote the next golden phrases:
“Freedom is essentially the most good phrase, however there have all the time been robust and unjust males who’ve resorted to “oppression and tyranny. Why in my nation are those that are participants of my faith kidnapped from their properties at evening and brought to mosques of their nightgowns, and subjected to whipping? As we’ve lately witnessed in our personal town, Shiraz, their properties are looted and set on fireplace. Masses of folks go away their properties in worry. Why? As a result of the present of liberty that Islam has introduced? Why am I no longer loose to specific my concepts on this society? Why do I no longer have freedom of speech in order that I will write within the newspapers, and categorical my concepts at the radio and tv? Why don’t you let me be loose…to mention who I’m and what I would like? Sure, liberty is a Divine present, and this present is for us (Baha’is) additionally, however you don’t allow us to have it…Why don’t you push apart that thick veil out of your eyes?”
Mona Mahmudnizhad along with her father Yad’u’llah Mahmudnizhad, who used to be finished on 12 March 1983, nearly a month sooner than Mona’s striking. Her father used to be hanged in the similar polo flooring the place loss of life awaited her subsequent.
At the night of 23 October 1982, there used to be a noisy thud at Mona’s doorstep. Ruhollah Khomeini’s Modern Guards barged into her place of dwelling, ransacked her circle of relatives house, grabbed her and her father, and took them away.
Mona’s mom pleaded, “She’s only a kid.” The jihadis produced Mona’s essay and stated, “The one that wrote this isn’t a kid.”
They had been proper. How may just a lady of all however 17, preventing a dangerous combat for reality with simply her pen in opposition to a military led via a rancid mullah, be a kid?
She used to be a voice they feared deeply.
Mona, as is obvious from her essay, used to be undaunting and uncompromising within the pursuit of her religion.
Consistent with U.S. government information, all the way through the trial of the ten ladies, Pass judgement on Qazai puzzled Mona, “You’re only a kid. How may just you perhaps know the actual which means of the arena faith?”
To this, a daring Mona answered pronouncing, “What extra evidence do you wish to have than that I used to be dragged out of college and installed prison and now, for plenty of months, have continued these kind of interrogations for the sake of my faith? What else however my religion may just give me the energy and tool to face right here in entrance of you and resolution your questions?”
Loss of life adopted 8 lengthy months of torture
After her arrest, Mona used to be incarcerated in a dirty, stenchful jail mobile and used to be subjected to torture. This survivor’s account narrates the ordeal confronted via the prisoners together with Mona.
Ruhi Jahanpour, every other Baha’i girl, who shared the jail with Mona, stated, “They blindfolded me and tied me to one of those mattress, after which they put my ft there…after a couple of lashes they might pause for a bit bit as a result of they knew our ft had been getting numb they usually sought after us to really feel the ache. They might steadily say such things as, ‘For those who deny your religion, I’ll assist you to move.’”
Baha’i persecution via Islamists
The persecution and abuse of the Baha’i folks proceed within the Arab global to at the present time. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, systematic persecution of non secular minorities and girls started to upward thrust. Crackdown on Baha’i establishments, neighborhood actions, holy puts, cemeteries, and homes was rampant. Executions, financial deprivation, mysterious disappearances of Baha’i folks, detentions, and interrogations was an on a regular basis regimen constituting grave human rights violations.
Greater than 200 Baha’is were finished or murdered. That is most effective the reported quantity, unreported instances might be a lot upper. 1000’s were arrested, detained, and interrogated, and tens of 1000’s extra were disadvantaged of jobs, pensions, and alternatives for upper schooling.
August 1980: 9 Baha’i officers kidnapped
9 participants of the Nationwide Religious Meeting – a democratically elected nationwide council that bureaucracy a part of the Baha’i administrative construction in all nations – in conjunction with two folks serving on different Baha’i establishments, had been kidnapped via a gaggle of armed males from their assembly in a personal house and brought to an unknown location. They disappeared with no hint, probably the sufferers of extrajudicial killings. The Iranian government have by no means admitted to this crime.
29 August 1983: Baha’i administrative actions banned
The then-Iranian Lawyer Basic introduced a felony ban on all Baha’i administrative and neighborhood actions in Iran, making club in Baha’i administrative establishments against the law.
11 December 2022: Baha’i ladies sentenced to 2d imprisonment
Considered the symbols of resilience in Iran, two Baha’i ladies, Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, had been sentenced to a 2d time period of 10-year imprisonment after already having served 10 years.
They had been arrested on 31 July 2022 for a 2d time in a chain of unpolluted crackdown on Baha’is.
25 Would possibly 2023: Houthi gunmen abduct 17 Baha’is
Closely-armed Houthi terrorists in Yemen stormed a relaxed Baha’i annual basic assembly at a personal place of dwelling in Sanaa. The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists kidnapped 17 Baha’i participants together with 5 ladies.
The video of the kidnapping used to be captured on Zoom.
BREAKING#Yemen: Armed #Houthi gunmen stormed a relaxed #Bahai annual basic assembly in Sanaa as of late, after years of persecution, detaining a minimum of 17 together with 5 ladies. Different properties additionally raided.
Yemeni Baha’is on Zoom captured this video.
Main points and our remark to practice. percent.twitter.com/CbMXsz3UY9
— Baha’i World Group (@BahaiBIC) Would possibly 25, 2023
On 2 June 2023, Mufti Shamseddin Sharafeddin, whilst turning in the Friday prayers, accused the kidnapped Baha’is of being traitors and stated that if they didn’t repent, they’ll be killed.
Who’re the Baha’is?
The Baha’i religion originated in Iran. Baha’is are the fans of the messenger Baha’U’llah born in Tehran in 1817, who based the faith. Baha’U’llah attained religious realization upon pursuing the Babi Motion. Teachings of Baha’U’llah aka Mirza Husayn-‘Ali’ shape the root of the Baha’i trust.
The basis of the Baha’i religion reveals similarities with Hinduism. Baha’is consider in pursuing the reality, oneness, cohesion of science and faith amongst others, and being loose from materialism. Albeit, even the messengers weren’t spared from the wrath of the tyrants. In 1850, the Bab used to be charged via Shi’i non secular officers with heresy and used to be gunned to loss of life.
Crackdown on his fans persevered together with on Baha’U’llah who used to be confined to an underground jail in Tehran. He used to be exiled to Baghdad in 1853 the place he based the Baha’i faith.
Baha’is are thought to be impure in Islam
Whilst the Islamic country recognises a number of different minority religions like Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, Iran does no longer recognise Baha’i religion. The rustic additionally accuses Baha’i folks of being brokers of Israel.
Hatred for Baha’is in Islam stems basically from the truth that the previous imagine themselves a faith cut loose Islam. Their (Baha’is) trust in Baha’U’llah negates the Islamist trust within the lifestyles of Prophet Muhammad.
The lessons of the Baha’is faith are thought to be as posing an immediate problem to the doctrines of Islam. Whilst Baha’is are proponents of keeping up a rational stability between science and faith, Islam nonetheless in large part believes that the earth is flat, to mention the least, as a result of their messenger Prophet Muhammad stated so.
Former Best chief of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini. (Supply: Pill Mag)
When the ten Baha’i ladies had been in prison, survivor Ruhi Jahanpour defined that the jail guards had been instructed that torturing the ladies would hasten the go back of the Hidden 12th Imam awaited via the Shia Muslims.
“We need to eliminate all of you to arrange the way in which for him to return. The one explanation why that he hasn’t come but is as a result of you grimy folks,” the guards stated.
Jail wardens, with a purpose to keep away from any bodily touch with the “unclean,” and “impure” Baha’i prisoners, whilst guiding them to the interrogation room would give them one finish of a folded newspaper and hang the opposite finish.
Baha’may be consider that women and men are equivalent and need to be handled as such. This too immediately demanding situations the various Islamic practices and sermons in opposition to ladies.
Iranian ladies’s resistance continues
The persecution of the Baha’is, particularly ladies, serves as a reminder to the present-day Iranian girl to proceed the struggle for his or her rights. Ladies, together with the ones from minority communities, in Iran, are nonetheless preventing for equivalent alternatives, for his or her proper not to put on the hijab, the best to equivalent alternative in schooling and employment, and so forth.
Hijab is one such key factor that Iranian ladies are pushing in opposition to. Hijab, a scarf, is necessary clothes in Islam supposed to hide ladies’s hair.
This month by myself, the Iranian police have remodeled 300 arrests in a bid to put into effect the confining get dressed code. Just about one million warnings were issued over textual content too. Arrests, detentions, and public beatings of girls resisting this diktat are not unusual information even as of late.
Breaking Information
New wave of systematic killing in Iran
Two younger scholars have died in a suspicious means all the way through protests in Abdanan, Iran.
Mansoreh Sagvand, 19, used to be a tender woman who used to be a former member of the police power. However, she too joined the protests. She died the day prior to this… percent.twitter.com/VnWKsIr67G
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) June 6, 2023
Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad is a key voice operating campaigns in opposition to the dogmatic Islamic Republic.
The Morality Police confiscated her automobile as a result of she used to be no longer dressed in the necessary hijab . Her defiant reaction, “They can not forestall us via such appalling movements. We’re no longer afraid. They took my automobile away, Now I’m strolling, nonetheless with no hijab proceeding our struggle.”… percent.twitter.com/Q4RQitbIin
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) June 10, 2023
Campaigns like “White Wednesdays,” “My Digital camera Is My Weapon,” and “My Stealthy Freedom” have made the fascist Iranian regime foam on the mouth.
Tributes pour in for the ten Baha’i Bravehearts
The Baha’i World Group as of late is marking the fortieth anniversary devoted to the ten courageous Baha’i ladies with the marketing campaign #OurStoryIsOne.
Comic Omid Djalili @omid9 made a video mirroring the closing days of Mona Mahmudnizhad within the present-day context.
True tale. To commemorate fortieth anniversary of the horrific injustice accomplished to the ten Bahá’í ladies of Shiraz 18th of June 1983 @TinySpeck_ & I made this.
Pippa Walton mirrors the closing days of the lifetime of Mona Mahmoudnizhad who used to be hanged elderly 17. #OurStoryIsOne #GenderEquality percent.twitter.com/aQnFaxz5PI
— Omid Djalili (@omid9) June 15, 2023
In Stockholm, homage used to be paid to Mona and 9 different ladies on 14 June.
Gorgeous tournament at #Stockholm Town Corridor as of late in reminiscence of 10 #Bahai ladies finished in #Iran 40 years in the past for his or her ideals. Particular because of Deputy Mayor Anders Österberg for co-organizing, @MajaAaberg of @AmnestySverige, relations & many others for contributing. #OurStoryIsOne percent.twitter.com/Jhu0MMmiKc
— Nogol Rahbin (@NRahbin) June 13, 2023
Top Minister of India Narendra Modi and the then-President Ram Nath Kovind marked the two hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the messenger Baha’U’llah.
In his letter to the Baha’i neighborhood of India, PM Modi wrote, “Baha’i Religion provides the arena a imaginative and prescient of common brotherhood.”
“The onerous trail to gender equality in Iran has been walked via numerous ladies over the a long time. That street has been marked via the sacrifices of those that selected to face for his or her ideas even over their lives,” stated Simin Fahandej, the Bahai World Group (BIC) consultant to the United International locations in Geneva.
