Iranian Bahá’í leaders allowed contact with families

by Barney

It is good to learn that Mrs Mahvash Sabet, the secretary of the ad hoc Bahá’í leadership group in Iran, was able to make a short phone call to her family on 3 June. She’d been moved to Evin prison in Tehran on 26 May, having been held incommunicado by the Iranian intelligence ministry in Mashhad since 5 March.

Mrs Fariba Kamalabadi was also allowed to have a brief phone conversation with her daughter. She reassured her family that she was in good health.

A few days earlier prison officials had asked Mrs Kamalabadi’s family to bring her reading glasses to the prison. Mr Vahid Tizfahm’s family had been requested to bring clothes to the jail. Neither family was able to see the prisoners when they took these items to Evin.

Mr Afif Naeim’i’s sons took some clothes to Evin prison for their father on their own initiative, but they couldn’t get to see him.

Mr Jamaloddin Khanjani has also had brief telephone contact with his family.

The very fact that I think it is good to learn that these prisoners have had some very limited contact with their families shows how bad things are. They have not committed any crime. They have not been charged with any offence. They are incarcerated purely because they are Bahá’ís.

They should be out of jail and free to go about their business, free to live, free to practise their faith, free to be with their families and friends without the fear of arbitrary and outrageous detention.