Prominent individuals inside and outside Iran speak out on anniversary of arrest of Yarán

Influential Iranian human rights activists, journalists, and one prominent religious leader gather in an unprecedented show of solidarity to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the imprisonment of the former members of the Yarán. Photo: Bahá’í World News Service

Yesterday marked the six-year anniversary of the arrest of the Yarán-i-Iran – the Friends of Iran – a group of seven who coordinated the affairs of the Bahá’í Community of Iran. Their names are: Behrouz Tavakkoli, Saeid Rezaie, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi and Mahvash Sabet.

To demonstrate their support, influential personalities, human rights activists, journalists, and a prominent religious leader gathered in Tehran, Iran. News of this highly significant gathering spread rapidly through online and social media. A detailed account of it was published on SahamNews, a reformist Iranian website.

“Until last year there would have been no possibility of a gathering such as this and we couldn’t even speak about the pain we hold in common,” said Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer and defender who was recently released from Evin prison. Ms. Sotoudeh was incarcerated with a number of Bahá’í women including Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, two members of the Yarán.

“Mahvash and Fariba have kept up their spirit with extraordinary perseverance and they go forward with an amazing valour,” she continued. “We are here together because the Bahá’í community was oppressed and our mothers and fathers did not pay attention to this matter.”

“We know the Bahá’ís for their honour and upright qualities,” said Nargess Mohammadi, a prominent women’s rights activist present at the gathering.

“I hope that one day our society reaches the stage where Bahá’ís, too, will be able to work and study,” said Ms. Mohammadi, vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, which has defended the seven in court and was founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.

A photo signed by those present at a gathering in support of the seven former members of the Yarán. Photo: Bahá’í World News Service.

Other prominent activists and leaders present at the gathering included: Muhammad Maleki, the first head of Tehran University following the Islamic Revolution; Masumeh Dehghan, an activist and wife of Abdolfatah Soltani, a well-known lawyer who represented the seven and who is himself currently in prison; and Jila Baniyaghoob and Issa Saharkhiz, two prominent journalists who have also spent time in prison.

Mr. Maleki was quoted by SahamNews as saying: “I know very well that Bahá’ís are forbidden to go to university.” He continued, “All beliefs must be respected. Let us honour one another’s beliefs and put divisions aside . . . We have to work on common principles such as freedom.”

Ayatollah Abdol-Hamid Masoumi-Tehrani, a senior Muslim cleric who recently called for religious co-existence, was also present at the gathering.

“Perspectives have to change,” said Ayatollah Tehrani, according to SahamNews. “And I think now is an opportune moment for this.”

In Canada, Dr. Andrew Bennett, the Ambassador for Religious Freedom, issued a statement on 14 May noting that “Iran’s Bahá’ís, Christians, Dervishes and Sunni Muslims continue to face harassment, arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and mistreatment by Iranian authorities for practising their faith and participating in their religious communities.”

Dr. Bennett expressed concern at the reported recent desecration of a Bahá’í cemetery in Shiráz, Iran and called for the release of the seven former members of the Yarán. He also noted that more than 100 Bahá’ís – whose only supposed ‘crime’ was to practice their faith – remain in prison.

In a letter dated 14 May and addressed to the Bahá’ís of Iran, the Universal House of Justice wrote: “This chorus for justice, which began first in the far-flung regions of the world and gradually attracted to itself the voices of Iranians outside their homeland, is now rising to new and unprecedented levels inside Iran.”