{"id":1305,"date":"2014-05-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/news\/on-6th-anniversary-australians-call-for-release-of-relatives\/"},"modified":"2017-10-14T04:51:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T04:51:46","slug":"on-6th-anniversary-australians-call-for-release-of-relatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/index.php\/on-6th-anniversary-australians-call-for-release-of-relatives\/","title":{"rendered":"On 6th anniversary, Australians call for release of relatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bahai.org.au\/Portals\/0\/Yaran%20letter%20-%20photo%201.jpg\" alt=\"On 6th anniversary, Australians call for release of relatives\" \/><figcaption>Seven imprisoned Baha&#8217;i leaders in Iran: Front (left to right): Behrouz Tavakkoli, Saeid Rezaie. Rear (left to right): Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naemi, Mahvash Sabet. (Photograph taken before imprisonment.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nAustralian relatives of Baha\u2019i leaders jailed in Iran for their religious beliefs are once again calling for their immediate release.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the sixth anniversary of the jailing of the seven leaders, family members in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide have released statements about their dear ones.<\/p>\n<p>They have made their statements supported by the knowledge that the Australian Government and individual MPs have regularly added their voices to the international call for the leaders to be freed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sydney<\/p>\n<p>Sydney filmmaker Mehrzad Mumtahan is calling on Iran\u2019s president to uphold the rights of the Iranian people, and to free the seven leaders, including his uncle, agricultural engineer Saeid Rezaie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRelease these innocent souls and stop the persecution of the Baha\u2019is and other minorities immediately,\u201d Mr Mumtahan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has been a difficult time for our family, especially my aunt and cousins, who have been deprived of a loving husband and father for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also in Sydney, Ghodsieh Samimi said her niece, Mahvash Sabet, one of the leaders and a school principal by profession, is suffering from illnesses mainly due to the harsh environment and deprivation of basic health and dietary needs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMahvash herself stays very positive, and she consoles and helps others&#8211; she is also very thankful for the heartfelt stream of prayers,\u201d Mrs Samimi said.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nMelbourne<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Melbourne, investment consultant Vargha Taefi said his mother, Fariba Kamalabadi, an educational psychologist, was \u201cin good spirits and hopeful\u201d, but he said that in the past six years the opportunity to celebrate life events together had been stolen from his family.<\/p>\n<p>Fariba Kamalabadi\u2019s sister, Roya, a Melbourne pharmacist, has said: \u201cI think of my sister Fariba every day. She is in my heart and my mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMay we soon witness a universal outcry for the immediate and permanent release of those seven selfless, innocent Baha\u2019i leaders and other prisoners of conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nAdelaide<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Adelaide businessman Amin Tavakoli said his beloved brother, Behrouz, one of the seven leaders, is a psychologist who has devoted his career to helping mentally and physically ill children<\/p>\n<p>Mr Tavakoli said his brother had been six years in a concrete-walled cell, away from the loving embrace of his family. He said the call for the freedom of the seven leaders would not be silenced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA whisper has turned to a cry so loud that those thick concrete walls have crumbled, a whisper that has crossed borders and reached the ears of all those lovers of freedom and justice &#8212; lovers who have answered this whisper with a unifying call: \u2018Six years is too many!\u2019 &#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nEvents<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Australian Baha\u2019i Community spokesperson Natalie Mobini said: \u201cBaha\u2019is in Australia and around the world are united in calling for the immediate release of these seven innocent individuals, who have been robbed of the past six years in an absolute travesty of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Mobini said that readings from <em>Prison Poems<\/em>, a book of poems written by Mrs Sabet in her cell, will take place in Canberra and Sydney, on 28 and 29 May at events organised by the Australian Baha\u2019i Community to mark the anniversary of the arrests and imprisonment of the seven leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Members of Iran\u2019s Baha\u2019i community, the country\u2019s biggest non-Muslim religious minority, are severely persecuted in Iran because their religion is not acceptable to the country\u2019s Islamic authorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australian relatives of Baha\u2019i leaders jailed in Iran for their religious beliefs are once again calling for their immediate release.<\/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-1305","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 - 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