News of imprisoned Bahá'ís - systematic harrassment

This piece of news and commentary about the imprisoned Bahá'í's situation in Iran was posted by Barney Leith to his thoughtful blog 'Barnabas Quotidianus'.

Baha’is in Iran - imprisonment & torture of the innocent

by Barney on 16 March 2009

This morning I received an email from an Iranian Baha’i friend in the UK. A member of her family has recently been released on bail from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. He has described what was done to him and to other Baha’is, including the leadership group of seven (known as the Yaran). This is my friend’s retelling of what she heard from her family member.

I’m posting this with my friend’s permission so that BQ readers can begin to understand the harshness of what the Baha’is in Iran are going through, particularly those Baha’is in jail. I’ve removed names to protect the family member concerned.

One of these guys is my cousin’s husband – they were released on Wednesday... 4 of the men and the lady have been released. We spoke to [my cousin's husband] yesterday and he is in good spirits and thankful for all the prayers ( he has lost 22 kilos in weight though) and talks of severe mental torture but otherwise in good spirits…

[He] was in solitary confinement in the prison next to the 7 ['Yaran', the imprisoned Bahá'ís] and when after 8 weeks these guys were allowed to have visitors because of all the media attention and the pressures that they were put under, the 7 Yaran and these 5 [the five who have been released] were all allowed to receive visitors together (the 6th person is still in solitary confinement and is really suffering) . So they could see each other. [My cousin's husband] tells us of the times when he was brought back from interrogation a broken man and in very dire state and it was the prayers of the Yaran that kept his spirits up as they could hear each other in the hall way.

Apparently my cousin and the families of those imprisoned had been told not to tell anyone of what was going on and they were threatened if they did indeed contact the press or media about what was going on and my cousin had laughed and said we have 7 million relatives around the world that will do that for us…

[My cousin's husband]’s...words were to thank the [friends] around the world for [their] continued efforts... and [to] say prayers for [those still in prison] because he said that at his lowest points, it was that thought that kept him going, to know that his suffering isn’t in vain…

One other thing that [he] said which I forgot to mention was that there are currently 120 people in prison who are not as blessed as he was to be in the cell next to the [7] Yaran who are under immense pressure ([he himself] is a young man in his early thirties)... as the mental torture that they are subjected to is immense and their keepers find every means at their disposal to make their lives difficult. Apparently they are not allowed to physically touch them but that doesn’t stop them.

For example, my father in law who was also in prison for six and half years the first time..., said that their keepers would feed them only once a day or not at all or two or three times a day – just to keep them guessing and then they wouldn’t let them go to the toilet, so the Baha’is learned not to eat so they wouldn’t need to go to the toilet and so this would be another tool that the prison keepers wouldn’t have at their hand to torture them with.

At one point [my cousin's husband] ( who is 6ft 4 - 192 cm) was put in a cell not big enough for him to sleep in, and as he was so tall, his clothes were taken away and prison clothes that didn’t fit were given to him just to humiliate him – his wife wasn’t allowed to give him clothes either and so the poor man, in the freezing cold cell, was reduced to wearing his shorts and underwear …

So he humbly asked to please, please tell the world what they are doing to these innocent people whose only crime is that they believe The Promised One of all ages has come.

I don’t know about you, but I found this a moving account of the suffering of innocent people persecuted by a harsh and unreasonable regime. Knowing this - and my belief that the efforts of Baha’is and their friends around the world will ultimately help emancipate the Baha’is in Iran - is an important part of what keeps me going in my work.

Yaran

One thing that strikes me on reading this account is that the seven members of the Yaran, the ad hoc leadership group (now no longer acting collectively) will not look like they do in the group photo that is permanently the first post on BQ. One member has been in jail for a year and the other six since May 2008. When the photo was taken they were free, well-fed, purposefully occupied in coordinating the Baha’is of Iran and in their professions.

I dread to think what they look like after a year of solitary confinement, brutal interrogations, deprivation of sleep and food…

(Very slightly edited from the original - A.)