Join the Global Campaign to Help Free Imprisoned Baha’is – #7Bahais7years

Unfortunately the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran continues, and it has now been seven years that seven former Baha’i leaders (also known collectively as ‘the Yaran’) have been wrongfully imprisoned in Iran. These seven Baha’is formed the entire membership of the now-disbanded ad hoc group tending to the spiritual and social needs of the Iranian Baha’i community (in the absence of formally elected Baha’i leadership which was banned in 1983), and they were arrested and imprisoned for nothing more than their belief in the Baha’i Faith. Now the Baha’i International Community has launched a global campaign to mark the seventh anniversary of their wrongful imprisonment and to call for their immediate release.

Running for seven days (14 – 21 May, 2015), the global campaign is based on the theme “Seven Days in Remembrance of Seven Years for the Seven Baha’i Leaders”, and each of these seven days will focus on a different member of the seven arrested Baha’i leaders.

These Facebook event pages in both English and Persian have been set up as rallying points for activity and awareness, and the hashtag #7Bahais7years has been designated.

We encourage everyone to try and do something – big or small – to help raise awareness and show the imprisoned Baha’is your solidarity, even if it’s as simple as sharing something about this via social media.

You can find out more and about the campaign and access images relating to it from this Baha’i International Community page.

The seven arrested Baha’is and their corresponding days are as follows:

May 14: Mahvash Sabet (Bio)
May 15: Fariba Kamalabadi (Bio)
May 16: Jamaloddin Khanjani (Bio)
May 17: Afif Naeimi (Bio)
May 18: Saeid Rezaie (Bio)
May 19: Behrouz Tavakkoli (Bio)
May 20: Vahid Tizfahm (Bio)
May 21: The campaign will be summarized and concluded.

Make sure you ‘Like’ the Events page on Facebook to post a message and see how everyone is supporting this campaign.

Here are a few examples of some of the global initiatives already happening:

A heart-shaped installation at the Baha’i Temple in Sydney is part of a nationwide and global campaign to express loving support to seven wrongly imprisoned Baha’i leaders in Iran, and to call for their release. Read more about this here.

Austrian artist Katharina Ghawami illumined a poem by Mahvash Sabet. You can also read about the collection of poems from Mahvash Sabet called Prison Poems in this Baha’i Blog article.

As a gift from the New Zealand Baha’i community to the Yaran, New Zealand singers Grant Hindin Miller and Sonbol Taefi sing this dedicated song to the seven former leaders of the Baha’i community in Iran. You can watch the music video here.

It would be great to see this momentum continue and have as many people as possible get involved!

… and remember: #7Bahais7years

Posted by

Naysan Naraqi

Naysan is passionate about using the arts and media to explore the teachings of the Baha’i Faith. Back in 2011, Naysan started up the Baha’i Blog project, channeling his experiences in both media and technology companies to help create a hub for Baha’i-inspired content online.