Baha'i community to launch a campaign to honor the executed women in Iran:BIC

The Baha'i International Community will launch a global campaign, called #OurStoryIsOne, to honor the executed women and the long struggle for gender equality lived by women of all faiths and backgrounds in Iran for many decades and which continues to this day. As per Community press release, —the day of 18 June 2023 will mark 40 years since the Islamic Republic of Iran hanged 10 Baha'i women in a single night in a square in the city of Shiraz. Their crime was refusing to renounce their beliefs in a faith that promotes the principles of gender equality—absent and criminalized in Iran—as well as unity, justice and truthfulness. One was only 17; most were in their 20s. Human rights groups and ordinary citizens around the world were shocked and outraged at this barbaric act by the Iranian authorities, it said. The campaign will start in June and span a year.

“The story of the 10 Baha’i women is not over. It was a chapter in the unfolding story of Iranian women’s resilience and sacrifice for equality,” says Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Baha'i International Community (BIC) to the United Nations in Geneva. Even tody,thousands of young women in Iran seeking equality, she said.  Ms. Fahandej added. “Bearing more than 40 years of systematic persecution, which has now sadly been extended to all Iranians, the Baha’i community has insisted on its right to serve Iran, which it regards as a sacred land, by promoting gender equality, justice and access to education, regardless of the consequences to their lives.”