B.C. man worries for cousin, a Bahá’í woman jailed in Iran’s Evin prison – BC | 24CA News
Coquitlam resident Vesal Amini is making a plea for the discharge of his cousin, Samin Ehsani, who’s behind bars in Iran’s infamous Evin jail.
She has been sentenced to 5 years in connection together with her spiritual beliefs as a Bahai – Iran’s largest minority faith, and for her position as a kids’s rights activist.
“It’s not fair,” Amini instructed Global News, “to be imprisoned for her belief, doing good things and being a good person.”
Amini mentioned she was energetic in operating programs for Afghan kids who’re denied the fitting to an training in Iran. He says his cousin is a mom to a five-year-old woman named Nila and the 2 of them miss one another terribly.
“She is missing her daughter and her daughter is missing her mother,” he mentioned.
Samin Ehsani and her daughter could be seen on this photograph collectively.
Courtesy of Vesal Amini
Ehsani’s unjust imprisonment is a actuality taking part in out for Baha’is in Iran.
They are routinely and arbitrarily thrown into jail. Bahai’s in Iran have been below siege by their authorities for many years and Amini is hoping to focus on his cousin’s case to lift consciousness of the persecution folks of his religion face in Iran.
Amini calls the therapy of Bahai’s in Iran – apartheid.
Baha’is in Iran aren’t allowed to attend college, they’re barred from holding any public sector job, their properties are sometimes topic to raids and demolition, and their gravesites are desecrated.
Amnesty International reported that since July 31, 2022 the Islamic Republic has “raided and confiscated dozens of Baha’i properties.”
According to the Baha’I International Community, 90 Baha’is are at the moment in jail in Iran or are topic to ankle monitoring and 1,000 Baha’is are languishing within the judicial system.
According to the Baha’I International Community, 90 Baha’is are at the moment in jail in Iran or are topic to ankle monitoring and 1,000 Baha’is are languishing within the judicial system.
Global News
Port Moody resident Farhad Goldan shares Amini’s ache and struggles.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution that remodeled Iran into an Islamic Republic, Goldan was fired from his job only for being Baha’i. Given that folks of his religion have been banned from training, he couldn’t begin over in class.
One of his most traumatic recollections is when his shut household good friend Mona Mahmudnizhad – an Iranian Baha’I – who in 1983 along with 9 different Baha’I ladies, was sentenced to demise and hanged in Shiraz.
10 Baha’I ladies, have been sentenced to demise and hanged in Shiraz in 1983.
Bahai International Community
She and her household have been imprisoned after she wrote an essay for a faculty undertaking. Goldan mentioned Mona is a “image of freedom and being a powerful woman.
“I want people to remember her as a person who gave her life for the freedom of others and for her faith.”
Mona wrote of persecution and oppression in opposition to individuals who shared her spiritual beliefs, asking “Why in my country are those who are members of my religion abducted from their homes at night?…. Why do I not have freedom of speech?”
She went on to jot down, “As we have recently witnessed in our own city, Shiraz, their homes are looted and set on fire. Hundreds of people leave their homes in fear. Why?”
One of these properties occurs to be Goldan’s. His home, together with many different Baha’is in Shiraz was burned by rioters within the earliest days of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“I remember those days clearly. People had their belongings in their car, going around and around in the city because their house was burned,” Goldan mentioned.
Mona’s essay goes on to state “ Why am I not free to express my ideas in this society?”
Mona Mahmudnizhad was sentenced to demise and hanged in 1983.
Bahai International neighborhood
Forty years later, Amini is asking the identical query: “Why?”
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