Mona Mahmoudi\u2019s parents were among the first members of Iran\u2019s Baha\u2019i religious minority to be executed under the Islamic Republic\u2019s decades-long crackdown. When her mother, the country\u2019s first female meteorologist, was arrested alongside seven others, her daughter wished for her speedy execution. \u201cI knew they were going to be executed and I was hoping it would happen sooner than later,\u201d she told The Telegraph during a Baha\u2019i event in London. \u201cThere were so many cases of Baha\u2019is who were being tortured in prison,\u201d she added, \u201cand I did not want them to be tortured.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Mahmoudi was in east London for an event remembering the 40th anniversary of a dark chapter in the persecution of Baha\u2019is in Iran \u2013 the public execution of 10 Baha\u2019i women, including a 17-year-old girl.<\/p>\n
The oppression of women in Iran had been endured by the Baha\u2019i community \u201cfor many many years\u201d, Omid Djalili, a British-Iranian comedian who is a Baha\u2019i, told The Telegraph. \u201cThe regime is trying very hard to stop people from figuring about the prosecution against the Baha\u2019is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mrs Mahmoudi says her family had a \u201cnice and easy life\u201d before the 1979 revolution, which brought the clerical establishment into power. The five-member family, with her meteorologist mother and children\u2019s TV show presenter father at the helm, would travel to the seaside in northern Iran on the weekends in the 1970s. The Islamic Revolution, like a sudden, violent storm, upended the Mahmoudis\u2019 world.<\/p>\n
Their faith, once a cornerstone of their identity, became a target for the new regime\u2019s wrath. Overnight, Mrs Mahmoudi\u2019s parents went from respected professionals to persecuted outcasts. The couple were fired from their jobs and were asked to pay their years-long salary back to the new government. The family found themselves caught in the eye of a political and religious tempest. The new establishment outlawed the Baha\u2019i faith and unleashed a torrent of persecution. Thousands were imprisoned, their lands confiscated and their right to higher education revoked.<\/p>\n
Shia Islam is the state religion in Iran. The constitution recognises several minority faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, but not the Baha\u2019i faith. Since September 2022, when Mahsa Amini died in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating hijab rules and the subsequent nationwide protests, the Iranian government has ramped up its crackdown on the Baha\u2019i community. Authorities have imprisoned hundreds of them over the past year, as well as confiscating or destroying personal properties and their cemeteries.<\/p>\n
They have been conducting searches at the residences of Baha\u2019i citizens daily across the country. The escalation of persecution against Baha\u2019is in the aftermath of the protests follows a familiar pattern of the Iranian regime targeting minority groups during times of broader social and political tension.<\/p>\n
Houshang Mahmoudi, Mona\u2019s father, was also a lawyer and a member of the national assembly of Baha\u2019is in Iran, in charge of overseeing the affairs of the Baha\u2019i community. When the nine-member assembly was holding a meeting on Aug 21 1980, their hopes and plans for their beleaguered community were still alive, but soon forces of the newly-formed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) descended upon them. In a moment, the entire leadership of the Baha\u2019i community in Iran vanished \u2013 kidnapped, never to be seen again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a devastating feeling,\u201d Mrs Mahmoudi says. \u201cIf they were arrested and were in prison, it would be a different feeling, but they just disappeared.\u201d Mrs Mahmoudi believes her father and other members of the assembly were executed right away, without the knowledge of their families. Undeterred by the loss, they soon elected a new national assembly. Among those chosen to lead was Zhinus Mahmoudi, Mona\u2019s mother. But the storm that had swept away the first assembly was far from over. On Dec 13 1981, history repeated itself with cruel precision.<\/p>\n
As Zhinus and her fellow assembly members gathered, the IRGC struck again. This time, there was no mystery, no disappearance into the unknown. \u201cMy mother was elected to the next national assembly,\u201d Mrs Mahmoudi recounts. \u201cAround a year and a half later, when they were meeting, the IRGC raided again and arrested all of them.\u201d The assembly members were taken to the notorious Evin prison. For two weeks, Mona lived in a state of agonising suspense. But unlike the uncertainty that shrouded her father\u2019s fate, she knew what was coming. All eight captured members, including Zhinus, were executed without trial.<\/p>\n
The woman who had once read the skies for Iran, who had stepped up to lead her faith community in its darkest hour, was silenced forever. Mrs Mahmoudi was living in California at the time and was informed by the national assembly of the Baha\u2019is in the US about the executions by phone. \u201cThey had a very useful life and I\u2019m very proud of them,\u201d she says. \u201cMy parents had a choice, they could leave Iran but they wanted to stay and serve even though they knew the price for that would be their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Mahmoudi, a Phoenix-based retired cyber security expert and university lecturer, now has a foundation with her siblings in honour of their parents, providing education for children in unprivileged countries, including other activities. Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and several other prominent female prisoners condemned the regime last month for its intensified \u201crelentless pressures and injustices the Baha\u2019is endure for their beliefs\u201d. As attendees of the London event converged, a small card lay on the floor. \u201dThe dawn chorus is the outbreak of birdsong,\u201d it reads. \u201cIn Iran, executions are carried out at the break of dawn and just before the morning call for prayer.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mona Mahmoudi\u2019s parents were among the first members of Iran\u2019s Baha\u2019i religious minority to be executed under the Islamic Republic\u2019s decades-long crackdown. When her mother, the country\u2019s first female meteorologist, was arrested alongside seven others, her daughter wished for her speedy execution. \u201cI knew they were going to be executed and I was hoping it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[735,732,733,734],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expat","tag-justice","tag-mothers","tag-release","tag-swift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasebelgrave.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}