Letter from 10 Political Female Prisoners: We Stand with the Baha'i Citizens of Iran

Ten political female prisoners in Evin Prison expressed their support for 'Baha'i citizens' in a letter from prison. The letter, published on Monday, June 18, on the Instagram page attributed to Narges Mohammadi and Golrokh Iraee's account on X, states that their political views do not prevent them from supporting their Baha'i compatriots, declaring their solidarity with these Iranian citizens. In the letter, these women prisoners refer to the campaign 'Our Story is One' and the execution of ten Baha'i women in the 1980s, emphasizing that years of imprisonment and coexistence with Baha'i women, witnessing the pressures and deprivations imposed on them and their families due to differing beliefs, and hearing their compatriots' narratives from the past to the present, have led them to realize that 'Our story is indeed one.' The signatories of this letter highlight the deprivations faced by this religious minority in the country, mentioning issues such as the deprivation of the right to life, denial of social, civil, and citizenship rights, and the confiscation and destruction of the properties and belongings of Baha'is, including the destruction of 'a large area' of rice fields belonging to Baha'i citizens in Ahmadabad Sari. These imprisoned women, referencing years of living with Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi, and other Baha'i citizens in prison, emphasize that they have learned a great deal from these women. They assert that 'beyond what has been imposed on themselves and their families due to years of imprisonment, depriving society of their presence and teachings is a great suffering.' According to them, 'our silence in the face of this double oppression against a group in society whose very existence as Baha'i citizens has been criminalized has made these crimes low-cost for the regime and paved the way for their repetition and intensification.' This statement is signed by Mahbubeh Rezaei, Hasti Amiri, Samaneh Asghari, Sekineh Parvaneh, Maryam Yahyavi, Nahid Taghavi, Narges Mohammadi, Anisha Asadollahi, Sepideh Gholian, and Golrokh Iraee. With the onset of the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests in 2022, a new wave of repression against Baha'i citizens in Iran has begun. The Baha'i International Community reported last December that security forces of the Islamic Republic had arrested '40 Baha'is' and searched 'the homes of nearly one hundred Baha'i families' in various cities across Iran in the two months prior. In May of this year, the Revolutionary Court of Isfahan sentenced 15 Baha'i women to a total of 75 years in prison on charges of 'promoting' Baha'i beliefs. Despite the presence of 300,000 Baha'is in Iran, the Islamic Republic does not recognize the Baha'i faith and officials have repeatedly labeled Baha'is as 'spies and enemies,' issuing numerous death sentences, arrests, imprisonments, and deprivations of education and business, as well as the destruction of homes and cemeteries of followers of this faith over the past four decades.