Before I share with you my personal story it is necessary for me to provide some background information first. Since its inception in 1844 the Baha’i Faith has been met with persecution and violence in the country of Iran (formerly Persia). After the Iranian revolution began in the fall of 1978 “more than 200 Baha’is have been killed, hundreds more imprisoned and thousands deprived of jobs, education, and the freedom to worship” (Trial of Iran’s Seven Baha’i Leaders, 2008). The worst may have occurred on June 18, 1983 in Shíráz, Iran, where ten Baha’i women, including seventeen year old Mona Mahmúdnizhád, were hanged because they refused to recant their faith in the face of the Islamic fundamentalism that had recently overtaken their country (A dress for Mona, n.d.).
More recently in 2008, over a two month period, seven prominent members of Iran’s Baha’i Community were arrested (Trial of Iran’s Seven Baha’i Leaders, 2008). They were Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm. They were all members of a national level group known as the “Yarani-Iran”-or “Friends of Iran.” They were charged with, among other things, espionage and propaganda against the Islamic Republic, as well as the establishment of an illegal administration. Their crimes though, much like Mona Mahmúdnizhád, are in being members of the Baha’i Faith. In sum, the charges against the seven reflects the kind of accusations that Iran’s regime has used to denounce and attack the Baha’i Community.
During the Summer of 1980 my mother, living in Iran at the time, learned that both her parents, who were teachers, were no longer welcome back the following year, because they were Baha’is. In that same summer my mother graduated from high school and was looking forward to studying medicine. However, Baha’is are denied access to post secondary education and as a result her application was denied. Four years later, things got even worse. Islamic guards had come in the middle of the night to look for hidden documents (government’s excuse for this was that Baha’is are spies against Iran) as well as take my grandfather away to prison. My grandfather, a very calm, kind and gentle man had said he would fully cooperate but had asked if they could wait till morning so he could make arrangements for his mother who was living with them at the time (she had heart disease and was blind). They were uncooperative and took him away as my mother and the rest of her family witnessed the event.
After 9 months of being imprisoned and tortured (the scars both physically and emotionally remain) he was finally released and because the authorities had told him that they would come for my mother soon he and my grandmother arranged for her to leave the country. So on March 16, 1985 she escaped and a year later arrived to BC.
These struggles and so many others my family has had and continues to face not only helped shape my perspective on the importance of family but also of being committed- to your family and friends, your beliefs, and your principles. Whenever things get tough for me I try to remember that in reality it can really be a lot worse. Commitment to your students is an important quality for any teacher to have.