{"id":1158,"date":"2008-05-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/news\/bahais-vote-amid-deep-concern-for-prisoners-in-iran\/"},"modified":"2017-10-14T04:48:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T04:48:17","slug":"bahais-vote-amid-deep-concern-for-prisoners-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/bahais-vote-amid-deep-concern-for-prisoners-in-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Baha&apos;is vote amid deep concern for prisoners in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/Portals\/0\/friends%20in%20iran.jpg\" alt=\"Bahais vote amid deep concern for prisoners in Iran\" \/><figcaption>The seven arrested Baha&#8217;i leaders in Iran: Standing L to R: Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naemi, and Mahvash Sabet Seated L to R: Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Baha\u2019is from throughout Australia are meeting in Sydney this weekend to elect the national governing council of the Faith amid an atmosphere of profound concern for the Baha\u2019is in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Delegates attending this weekend\u2019s national convention in Sydney will say prayers for the six leaders of the Iranian Baha\u2019i community arrested in Iran on 14 May 2008 and the seventh, who has been detained since March this year.<\/p>\n<p>Relatives of some of those arrested live in Sydney, Melbourne and other parts of Australia.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the Australian Baha\u2019i Community, Natalie Mobini-Kesheh, has strongly rejected the claim of an Iranian government spokesperson that the arrests were \u201cfor security reasons and not for their faith.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is utterly baseless,&#8221; Dr Mobini-Kesheh said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Baha&#8217;is arrested last week, like the thousands of Baha&#8217;is who have been killed, imprisoned, or otherwise oppressed in Iran since 1979, are being persecuted solely because of their religious beliefs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe best proof of this is the fact that, time and again, Baha\u2019is have been offered their freedom if they recant their faith and convert to Islam.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre issues of state security involved in recent incidents like the utter destruction of a Baha\u2019i cemetery, the harassment of Baha\u2019i school children by their teachers and school officials, or the publication of anti-Baha\u2019i articles in government-sponsored news media?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real issue is freedom of religion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>More than 90 delegates from throughout Australia will cast their secret ballots at this weekend\u2019s annual election of the nine-member National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha\u2019is of Australia, which will be held at the Sydney Baha\u2019i Centre in Silverwater.<\/p>\n<p>The election, like all Baha\u2019i ballots, involves no nominations or campaigning. All Australian adult Baha\u2019is, women and men, are eligible for election.<\/p>\n<p>Read more on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.bahai.org\/\">Baha&#8217;i World News Service<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baha\u2019is from throughout Australia are meeting in Sydney this weekend to elect the national governing council of the Faith amid an atmosphere of profound concern for the Baha\u2019is in Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-releases","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Baha&amp;apos;is vote amid deep concern for prisoners in Iran - Australian Baha&#039;i Community<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/bahais-vote-amid-deep-concern-for-prisoners-in-iran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Baha&amp;apos;is vote amid deep concern for prisoners in Iran - 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