Sweeping arrests of Baha’i leaders in Iran have caused alarm in Australia where relatives of some of those detained are living after fleeing persecution in their homeland.
Roya Kamalabadi of Melbourne, who moved to Australia seven years ago, says she is very worried for her sister, Fariba.
Fariba Kamalabadi was arrested last week along with five others of the seven-member national coordinating group for the 300,000 Baha’is in Iran.
“I’m very concerned for Fariba’s safety,” said Mrs Kamalabadi, a pharmacy technician of Wantirna.
“I am very worried and haven’t been able to get to sleep,” she said.
Fariba Kamalabadi was arrested in the early hours of the morning on 14 May 2008 after Iranian government intelligence agents raided the homes of the six Baha’is, conducting extensive searches and taking them away to the notorious Evin prison.
The seventh member of the group has been in prison in Mashhad since she was arrested on 5 March 2008.
Family seeks information
Mrs Kamalabadi said that since the arrest, her sister’s family had been to Evin prison to seek information about Fariba but the prison authorities did not confirm that she or the other Baha’is are detained there or give them any other information.
“The last time I saw her was six years ago,” she said.
Ominous
A spokesperson for the Australian Baha’i Community, Natalie Mobini-Kesheh, said the arrests were ominous.
“We are extremely concerned because such sweeping detentions of key Baha’i figures in Iran have not occurred since the terrible events of the early 1980s,” Dr Mobini-Kesheh said.
On 21 August 1980 all nine members of the national Baha’i administrative council in Iran were abducted and disappeared without a trace, and on 27 December 1981 eight of the nine members of a reconstituted council were executed by the authorities, she said.
“Scores of other Baha’i leaders were summarily rounded up, tortured and executed at that time.
“The Australian Baha’i community has asked the Australian Government to take steps to protest against this sinister action of the Iranian authorities.
“We are very grateful to the Australian Government for its efforts in the past in defence of the human rights of the unjustly treated Baha’i community in Iran.”
Dr Mobini-Kesheh said the Baha’i community of Iran was a demonstrably peace-loving, law abiding and non-violent community.
“The Baha’is are Iran’s biggest religious minority and have now been made more vulnerable through this wholly unwarranted action,” she said.
Those arrested are:
- Mrs Fariba Kamalabadi
- Mr Jamalu’d-Din Khanjani
- Mr ‘Afif Na’imi
- Mr Sa’id Rida’i
- Mr Bihruz Tavakkuli
- Mr Vahid Tizfahm.
There have been worldwide calls for the release of the Baha’is, including from Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.
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