Anxious wait for Hills Baha’is
08 MAR 10 @ 02:31PM BY LAURA TRIESTE
Merhdad Mumtahan, Mahshid Rasouli, Mitra Shahriari and Maliha Shahriari Zavareh are related to seven Baha’i leaders who have been held in prison in Iran since May 2008.
Their trial began early this year, with all leaders facing charges of espionage.
Hills Baha’i community external affairs officer Carmen Lalehzari said the charges were baseless.
Merhdad Mumtahan is the nephew of Baha’i leader Saied Razaie, who he visited a few months before he was captured.
“It was devastating, they’ve executed a lot of Baha’is in Iran before and Saeid’s youngest son is the same age as my son,” he said.
Mr Mumtahan fled Iran when he was 16 when he was conscripted to go to war.
“I had no chance of being educated purely because of my religious beliefs,” he said.
Sisters Mitra Shahriari and Mahshid Rasouli are maternal cousins to Baha’i leader Mahvash Sabet and Maliha Shahriari Zavareh is her paternal cousin.
Ms Sabet was arrested on the day of her daughter’s wedding.
“They just came and took her, it was very upsetting to hear,” Ms Shahriari said. Knowing this was a possibility, Ms Sabet made sure the wedding could still happen.
“She had already prepared her consent for the wedding three months prior,” Ms Shahriari Zavareh said.
Now all the Hills Baha’i community can do is wait for the next trial date to be announced.
In the Hidden Words Bah'u'llh says, "Justice is to be loved above all." Praise be to God, in this country the standard of justice has been raised; a great effort is being made to give all souls an equal and a true place. This is the desire of all noble natures; this is today the teaching for the East and for the West; therefore the East and the West will understand each other and reverence each other, and embrace like long-parted lovers who have found each other.
There is one God; mankind is one; the foundations of religion are one. Let us worship Him, and give praise for all His great Prophets and Messengers who have manifested His brightness and glory.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 20)
