February 7 is my birthday. I don’t have a lot of time to celebrate because I’m organizing a meeting in support of seven mild-mannered Iranians I’ve never met. Unhappily, they live in Evin Prison, Tehran. The seven, known as “The Yaran” (“The Friends”) are charged by the Iranian judiciary with “espionage, “propaganda activities against the Islamic order,”establishment of an illegal administration” and “corruption on earth.” On February 7, due to these charges and the “ad-hoc” nature of the leadership role the seven assumed over their beleaguered community, http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/4746 they face possible death sentences for each charge. They have been imprisoned for nearly two years.
Their “crime” is simply that they are members of the Bahá’í Faith, Iran’s largest religious minority of about 300, 000 people. I’d love to tell you about it, but after spending most of my life explaining the Bahá’í Faith, people I meet nowadays either know about it or have learned about it online. . along with Bahá’ís from all over the world. There doesn’t seem anything better to do. Wondering what sustains a people with this kind of problem? Here is a line from Baha’i prayer:
“Armed with the power of Thy Name nothing can ever hurt me. . .” – Bahá’’u’lláh
(1) ‘Abdu’l Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, from a talk give August 17 , 1912
