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(Slideshow) After life of persecution, Plano Bahais lead nationwide call for change
By Michael Boren, Star Community News
(The price of religion in Iran: Part II of a two-part series)
It was near summer’s end in 1980, and Mehri Mavaddat and her husband were just bailed out of jail.
They were Iranians of the Bahai faith, which authorities had launched a rapid persecution of the year before.
And so it began. Her husband, Farhang Mavaddat, would breath two to three more weeks outside of prison before authorities asked him back to be a witness for someone.
“People were telling us, ‘Don’t go, it is a trap for you,” said Mehri Mavaddat, who’s in her mid-70s. “But he said, ‘I haven’t done anything.’”
It was a trap, however, and suddenly he vanished from his wife into one of Iran’s most infamous prisons.
“For two months, I didn’t have any clue where he is,” Mehri Mavaddat said. “Finally, he sent a message through one of the Bahais whose husband was there.”
Farhang Mavaddat was in Evin prison, the same prison seven other Bahai leaders have been incarcerated in since spring 2008. Many believe the seven are behind bars for the same reason he was: their religion.
After discovering her husband’s whereabouts, Mehri Mavaddat was able to see him once a week for ten minutes. They spoke behind windows on a telephone as a guard stood next to them.
“The first two months, apparently they are under a lot of pressure in solitary confinement for interrogation and torture, or forcing them to deny their faith,” Mehri Mavaddat said.
After those two months, her husband was jammed into a room full of prisoners.
“He told me that this room is built for 25,” Mehri Mavaddat said. “And there were 230 like sardines living in that room.”
The prisoners had to take turns lying down, the air was filthy and the only shower came from hot water that would spew out an hour every week, she said.
“After a few months, I took him some clothes, and he sent his clothes back,” Mehri Mavaddat said. “It was so bad, the smell so bad, that I couldn’t take [them] home.”
She and her Plano resided son believe the conditions for today’s seven imprisoned Bahais are similar.
“After the election dispute, they arrested a large number of the opposition,” Payam Maveddat, 47, said (he uses a differently spelled last name because of the way authorities wrote it in his passport). “It gives you the indication that these jails are overcrowded. They were overcrowded to begin with … so the conditions cannot be that much better.”
The seven current Bahais have been denied contact with attorneys and face accusations of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” according to Iranian news reports. However, there are no formal charges against them, and their trial, which was supposed to occur earlier this month, has been delayed indefinitely.
But if their experiences end up anything like Payam Maveddat’s father, they won’t be coming out alive.
Along with two other Bahais, he was executed in 1981. Authorities brought another Bahai along to watch so he would learn his lesson, Payam Maveddat said.
Every Saturday morning, an announcement was made naming those who were executed the previous weekend. When Mehri Mavaddat’s supervisor heard her husband’s name, she was notified.
“Then I went myself to the morgue when they carried all those bodies,” she said.
To identify the corpses, prison guards wrote the inmates’ names on their bodies and crimes on their legs. On the Bahais, “anti-god” was written.
“I was lucky that I got the body,” Mehri Mavaddat said as she displayed pictures of the corpses.
Two months after her husband’s burial, the government confiscated the cemetery and eventually destroyed it to construct a cultural center.
It’s a common practice in Iran, where Bahai graveyards must be separate from others.
As their cemeteries are razed, Bahais are also banned from attending universities and holding most government jobs.
“They want us to recant and deny our faith,” Mehri Mavaddat said.
Bahais don’t physically fight back against the Islamic government, because war and fighting is forbidden in their religion. The faith also emphasizes peace and equality among genders, races and nationalities.
But prejudice against Bahais was present long before the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when Bahai persecutions jumped.
Prior to that, Mehri Mavaddat’s husband was a chemical engineer, and the family lived all over Iran. But everywhere they went, people discriminated against them.
“They put dirt behind our door,” Mehri Mavaddat said. “They put a loud speaker to our home and cursed our religion and our traditions.”
However, the family also had many non-Bahai friends who loved them even though they saw Bahais as different.
“A lot of friends I have, they said always, ‘Oh you have such a wonderful people. It’s a pity that you are from those,’” Mehri Mavaddat said. “Even they didn’t want to mention the name of our religion. That’s how they were brainwashed against Bahais.”
When the Iranian Revolution began, Payam Maveddat was going to one of the top high schools in Iran. But recognizing the impending chaos, Mehri Mavaddat sent her son away.
“I was on the last Pan Am flight from Tehran to New York,” Payam Maveddat said.
The next day, the airport was closed.
It wouldn’t be long before Mehri Mavaddat and her husband, who were members of a Bahai administrative assembly, were thrown into solitary confinement at a local prison.
The seven currently imprisoned Bahais were also leaders in their community, but unlike their holding cells in the city of Tehran, the Mavaddat’s were on agricultural land.
“This was a chicken farm they turned into a prison,” Mehri Mavaddat said. “The first day, they interrogated me the whole day.”
At midnight, the guards also took Mehri Mavaddat and prisoners out to identify the houses of other Bahai members.
Mehri Mavaddat, originally a government attorney, bailed out of the prison in two weeks. But not long after, authorities were seeking her again.
“Almost seven to eight months, I was homeless here and there, under fear,” she said.
She stayed with family and friends, including non-Bahais. But after those close to her had their homes raided, she realized she had to leave. And in 1982, Mehri Mavaddat escaped the country.
She now lives in Toronto, Canada, and has spoken on behalf of the Bahais for the United Nations and human rights group, Amnesty International.
Presently, her son and Bahais across the nation are trying to create a U.S. bill to help their group.
House Resolution 175, as it’s called, condemns the Iranian government’s actions against Bahais and calls for the immediate release of the seven currently imprisoned Bahais and all other prisoners held solely for their religious beliefs.
The resolution was set forward in February and is being analyzed in a House committee so it can be brought back as a bill for the House of Representatives to vote on.
There are at least 165,000 Bahais in America, according to the Web site for Bahais of the U.S. Between 600 and 800 are in Collin County, with Bahai communities in Plano, Allen, Frisco, McKinney, Murphy, Parker and Prosper.
To obtain local political support for the resolution, the Plano Bahai community sent at least 100 e-mail and letter requests several months ago to Congressman Sam Johnson, who represents the Plano area and other surrounding suburbs.
But they were met with generic responses, which puzzled the Bahai group.
“We don’t know really where he stands on that topic,” Payam Maveddat said. “We hope that he’s supportive.”
Local Bahais have received support from Sen. Florence Shapiro, but Payam Maveddat argued that only two state congressman had signed the House legislation.
To raise awareness for the cause, Payam Maveddat also wants North Texans to familiarize themselves with Bahai principles so there is a larger support base.
“If you show the numbers are out there supporting this concept, Bahai or non-Bahai, then we get the attention we deserve,” he said.
His mother believes international attention has an impact on the Iranian government as well.
“I’m sure they love to kill all the Bahais,” she said. “But because of the international pressure, they are hesitant in doing it.”
Over in Iran, Payam Maveddat believes the Internet has helped spread the peaceful message of the Bahais.
“What the government does, does not necessarily mean that it is the feel and sentiment of the population at large,” he said.
“It’s very interesting that the non-Bahais in Iran are now speaking very publicly and openly about the Bahais.”
At the same time, he argued the Iranian government was still able to exploit people because of illiteracy in the country, which is why the Bahais emphasize education.
The literacy rate is 77 percent in Iran, according to the CIA World Factbook.
But with seven Bahai leaders currently in prison, the proof of persecution is evident to those of the religion.
“The accusation is so obvious, even a child can laugh,” Mehri Mavaddat said. “But they insist and insist. And oh, OK, if we are accused of all these accusations, how come if we say we are not Bahais, we are OK?”
The answer to that question depends on who’s being asked.
However, survivors of the persecution like Mehri Mavaddat want to make one thing clear: Bahais are not criminals.
“I cannot bring my husband back, and I cannot bring my property back,” she said. “I know that. But at least stop continuation of that persecution.”
Photos by Michael Boren: Mehri Mavaddat and her son, Payam Maveddat, at his Plano home.
Second photo: Their father, along with photos of what was written on the bodies of Bahai prisoners.
Third photo: Mehri Mavaddat holding the photos up of what was written on the bodies of Bahai prisoners.
Have any comments on the Bahai persecution? Leave them below or e-mail Michael Boren at mcboren@syr.edu.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
Farhang Roshan-zamir wrote on Aug 8, 2009 10:20 PM:
" This should have been brought to NSA's attention, if it hasn't been done so. "
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