reposted from @Narges_Mohammadi_51

In a letter from Evin Prison, 10 political prisoners stated:

Our differences in political views and beliefs have never, do not, and will never obstruct our support for human rights. Silence in the face of oppression only emboldens the regime, making its actions less costly and leading to repeated and intensified abuses.

Our Baha’i compatriots have been deprived of all social rights for decades under tyranny. In the 1980s, with the catastrophic elimination of political opponents and dissidents, nearly three hundred of our Baha’i compatriots were disappeared, went missing, or were executed by the government, and thousands more were deprived of the most basic social rights and driven from their homes.

One of the most shocking stories we have heard from the Baha’i community relates to the execution of 10 women in the 1980s who were taken to the execution site together and executed one by one in front of each other’s eyes. The last of them was an underage teenager (who is considered a child according to international treaties) who, before her arrest, was studying and teaching young children. Her only conflict with the system was a belief that had no manifestation in her social life.

After years of imprisonment alongside Baha’i women, witnessing the relentless pressures and injustices they endure for their beliefs, and hearing their stories across generations, we unequivocally recognize that “our story is identical.”

We who have always been excluded from various social and political arenas in different ways due to differing political or ideological views, and some of us have been deprived of the right to life. Deprivation of the right to life and denial of social, civil rights, and consequently the confiscation or destruction of Baha’i properties has long occurred and has become a norm for the repressive system. Hearing the story of a mother in a village in northern Iran, with a worn-out face and a bent back, who was attacked by destroyers while working on her farm, trying to prevent officials from destroying her garden and home, was a great sorrow. A mother who had lost her child in the Iran-Iraq war and now, because of her belief, had her land, home, and the source of her livelihood, the result of a lifetime of work, destroyed, deprived, or withheld from her.

We have had years of experience living with Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi, and other Baha’i citizens, and we have learned a lot from them. Besides what has been imposed on them and their families due to years of imprisonment, depriving society of their presence and teachings is a great loss. Our silence in the face of this oppression against a group of society whose mere existence as Baha’i citizens has been criminalized has made these crimes less costly for the regime and paved the way for their repetition and intensification.

Differences in our political views and beliefs have never, do not, and will never hinder our support for human rights. Just as we have united against repression despite our political and ideological differences, turning the streets of Iran into a battleground for justice, we stand together now.

WE STAND BY OUR BAHA’I COMPATRIOTS UNTIL THE END OF SUFFERING IMPOSED ON THEM.
Mahboubeh Rezayi,
Hasti Amiri,
Samaneh Asghari,
Sakineh Parvaneh,
Maryam Yahyaei,
Nahid Taghavi,
Narges Mohammadi,
Anisha Assadollahi,
Sepideh Gholian,
Golrokh Iraee

June 17, 2024
Women’s Ward,
Evin Prison Iran

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