Martyrdom & the Baha'i Faith, part 3

     While the Bahá'í Faith exalts the station of its martyrs, martyrdom is by no means something that Baha’is are encouraged to pursue. As one scholar states it: “In most cases, Bahá'u'lláh discouraged the believers from seeking martyrdom. He has, in His Tablets, urged the friends to protect their lives by all means possible, so as to be able to teach the Cause of God to others. Indeed, Bahá'u'lláh has given the station of martyr to those who teach the Cause with wisdom.” (Taherzadeh IV, 57)

Keith Ransom Kehler, considered
the first American Bahá'í martyr

The Story of Keith Ransom Kehler

     Keith Ransom Kehler (above), the “first and distinguished” American Bahá'í martyr, died from disease and not from any persecution. Still her sacrificial deeds earned her the title of martyr. After a trip around the world in the early 1930s spreading the Bahá'í teachings, Keith landed in Haifa in 1932, where Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, directed her to go to Iran to persuade the Shah to allow Bahá’í literature to come into the country. For a year she championed the rights of the Bahá'ís fearlessly, but in the end she had no luck and in fact things got worse. In the fall of 1933 she fell sick and died of smallpox in Isfahan. Shoghi Effendi said she offered up her precious life in sacrifice “on Persian soil, for Persia’s sake.” With a poetic twist of Fate, she was buried in the same cemetery in Isfahan as two other great Bahá'í martyrs, known as the 'King of Martyrs' and the 'Beloved of Martyrs.' (Ruhe-Schoen, 164)

 

Persecution of Baha'is after 1979 Islamic Revolution

      The current campaign of systematic persecution began with the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, virtually the entire leadership of the Iranian Bahá’í community was arrested and executed or disappeared. In all, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been killed or executed since the Islamic Republic’s founding, and nearly 1,000 Bahá’ís have been imprisoned. Thousands of Bahá’ís also were fired from jobs, deprived of pensions, and excluded from education. Bahá’í properties, sacred sites, and cemeteries were confiscated and destroyed. All manner of rights to religious freedom, worship and assembly were abrogated. ("Persecution," Bahai.org)

16 year old Mona Mahmudnizhad, was
executed with 9 other women in June 1983.

The Ten Women Martyrs of Shiraz

     In Shiraz in 1983, ten Bahá’í women, arrested and charged with the “crime” of teaching religious classes for children and youth, were hanged, one by one, from the oldest to the youngest, as the others stood by. Prisoners who watched the 1983 hangings said that the executioners had hoped to force the younger women to recant their Faith, or even simply to say they were not Bahá’ís. None did, all preferring to die rather than to renounce their beliefs. Ranging in age from 16 to 57, the ten Bahá’í women were led to the gallows in succession. Authorities apparently hoped that as each saw the others slowly strangle to death, they would renounce their own faith. But according to eyewitness reports, the women went to their fate singing and chanting, as though they were enjoying a pleasant outing. ("Hanged")
 

In 2004, the gravesite of Quddús, a renowned early
martyr of the Faith, was desecrated as part of
Iran’s project of ‘cultural cleansing’

Iran's current project of 'cultural cleansing'

     While the executions of Bahá'ís in Iran is lessened in recent years, the Iranian government has a long term strategy of destroying the Bahá'í community while avoiding international attention. The Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council has secretly called for a series of restrictions on the access of Bahá’ís to education and livelihood that is nothing less than a blueprint for the strangulation of the Bahá’í community. ("Introduction to The Bahá'í Question")
     For more information, as well as updates, a good website to begin with is http://bahai.org/dir/worldwide/persecution.

Works Cited

Nabil-i-Zarandi, The Dawnbreakers. Trans. Shoghi Effendi. Wilmette, IL: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1932.

Roohizadegan, Olya.  Olya's Story. Oxford: One World Publications, 1993.

Ruhe-Schoen, Janet. A Love Which Does Not Wait. Riviera Beach, FL: Palabra Publications, 1998.

Taherzadeh, Adib. Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. Vol 4. Oxford: George Ronald, 1987.

Web-based Works

"Hanged for teaching 'Sunday school'" The Bahá'í Question. 2006. Office of Public Information, Bahá'í International Community.  4 Jan 2008. <http://question.bahai.org/004_1.php>

"Introduction" The Bahá'í Question. 2006. Office of Public Information, Bahá'í International Community.  4 Jan 2008. <http://question.bahai.org/001.php>

"Persecution" The Bahá'ís. 2006. Office of Public Information, Bahá'í International Community. 4 Jan 2008, <www.bahai.org/dir/worldwide/persecution>

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