Campaign honours martyrs and the struggle of Iranian women
A source of information on how to contribute to the campaign, suitable for sharing with the wider public, is the Call for Creative Content put out by the Bahá’í International Community on Instagram.
The Bahá’í International Community is inviting everyone to contribute to a campaign marking the 40th anniversary of the execution by hanging of 10 Iranian Bahá’í women, for refusing to renounce their faith. The campaign will last a full year and start in June, with the most intense social media activity in the first three weeks of June, leading up to the anniversary of their execution on 18 June.
Contributions may take various forms, explained in more detail below.
The goal of this campaign is to connect the efforts of all the Baháʼís in Iran and their sacrifices for the betterment of the country to the current longing and sacrifices of the Iranian people for justice and equality. Their story is part of the same story of women’s struggles for gender equality in Iran today. Iranian women have now joined the same path chosen by the 10 Baháʼí women 40 years ago: standing up for their beliefs and principles of justice and equality at any cost, even their lives. The women were:
Ezzat-Janami Eshraghi, 57, along with her daughter Roya, 23.
Roya Eshraghi,
23, executed along with her mother;
Nosrat Ghufrani Yaldaie, 46;
Tahereh Arjomandi Siyavashi, 30;
Zarrin Moghimi-Abyaneh, 29;
Mahshid Niroumand, 28;
Simin Saberi, 24;
Akhtar Sabet, 25;
Shahin (Shirin) Dalvand, 25;
Mona Mahmoudnejad, 17.
The global campaign, #OurStoryIsOne, honours 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.
The first phase features a global social media campaign and memorial events to mark the anniversary. The Bahá’í International Community (BIC) has called for contributions for the social media campaign starting in June. The BIC will provide content and unofficial content will be created. Friends can repost content from the BIC and national Bahá’í agencies on their preferred social media platform, and should scrutinise other content before commenting or sharing. As you know, Baha'is strive for individual and social change to achieve justice and equality, but do not support calls for political resistance or engage in divisive discourses. As noted in the BIC press release: “We hope that remembering the execution of these 10 women will illuminate and reinforce conversations around justice and gender equality in Iran.”
Even those who are not active on social media could encourage prominent people to provide a statement, including short video statements, tweets, or other forms of comments. Please ask them to send any contribution to publicaffairs@bahai.org.nz.
The second phase of the campaign will see further artistic creations, materials for the media and social media, and events that enable discourse related to the campaign goal. For example, in Aotearoa it could include
Performances and videos of songs by Baháʼí singers and songwriters
Visual art exhibitions and online gallery
Panel discussions, for example, with Iranian women’s organisations
Feature films about the lives of the women and how they contributed to Iranian society
Special radio or television programmes and print media articles about the 10 women
Please email publicaffairs@bahai.org.nz if you wish to assist.
The attached press release provides additional information.
Baháʼí World News Service has published an article with more background: BIC Geneva: Campaign honors Bahá’í women executed in Iran 40 years ago and highlights principle of equality.
