On my walk before dawn, I was thinking about how many Persian Baha'is I have been blessed to have known over the years. Rather than the extermination, the effect of the persecutions at home has been the spreading of the Faith around the world by the beloved sons and daughters of Iran who so gloriously mirror the love of Baha'u'llah.
For steadfastness and protection, I pray each morning for the imprisoned and persecuted Baha'is and their families, and have done so since the imprisonment of the Yaran* (Friends).
So to my great surprise, I found a birthday greeting posted by Mahvash Sabet Shahriari, a distant friend on Facebook who had been imprisoned for ten years as a member of the Yaran and for whom I have prayed daily.
*Circumstances related to the forming of the Yaran.
3 Sep 1983
In response to the Iranian authorities banning all Bahá'í administrative and community activities and the making of membership in a Bahá'í assembly a criminal offence, as their last act the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran sent an open letter to the Prosecutor General of the Islamic Revolution refuting the false charges made against the Bahá’ís and informing him of their willingness to obey the government and disband the Bahá'í administration. [BW19:43]
In a gesture of good will and in accordance with their law of obedience to the government the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran and all local assemblies were dissolved. In its place, they formed groups of three persons in cities and villages called Khadimeen (“Servants”), and on the national level named the Yaran-e Iran to address the immediate needs of the community such as births, marriages, divorces, burial ceremonies and other services. [BW19:62] LINK
The Yaran prior to arrest and imprisonment in 2008
Mahvash upon release after ten years imprisonment.
19 Sep 2017
"Mahvash Sabet, one of the seven members of the former leadership group of the Bahá'ís in Iran known as the Yaran, was released after 10 years of confinement in Iran's notorious Evin and Raja'i Shahr prisons.
She had been arrested in March 2008 and was now 64 years old. Mrs. Sabet distinguished herself by the loving care and kindness she extended to her fellow prisoners. As has occurred with prisoners of conscience, writers, thought-leaders, and poets who have been wrongly imprisoned throughout history, the power of Mrs. Sabet's ideas and beliefs was only amplified by her persecution. The plight of its author attracted attention to this deeply moving collection of poetry, inspiring PEN International to feature Mrs. Sabet in a campaign to defend persecuted writers. Her poems also inspired a musical composition by award-winning composer Lasse Thoresen, performed at an international music festival in Oslo earlier this year. " [BWNS1198]
