Kent Baha’i followers worry about brethren in Iran

It’s been 23 years since Ladan Jacobs escaped from Iran, but the memories are fresh enough that even today her eyes fill with tears as she recounts the story.

As a fourth-generation member of the Baha’i faith, a religion founded in Iran in the 1840s and based on the commonality of all humanity, Jacobs was unable to openly practice her faith after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

Doors closed to Baha’i all over the country as the new Islamic government instituted Muslim law on the population and, she says, began persecution of those of the Baha’i faith.

“I couldn’t even register for the test to go to college,” Jacobs said this past month from her home in Kent, recalling her time there. “I couldn’t go to university and it was really bothering me.”

It was then that her family decided to pay a smuggler to get her out of the country. Her father sold his car and the family scraped together the equivalent of $60,000 to pay to get Jacobs out of the country.

“I wanted freedom,” she said. “One day they just came and said ‘tomorrow morning.’”

With a small bag containing a change of clothes and a small towel, Jacobs and a fellow refugee were spirited into the back seat of waiting car and told to keep down. Soon after, a man got in the car and began to drive them west toward Pakistan.

“Three days we drove,” she remembered. “It was a very nice full moon and they said ‘this is going to be perfect.’”

As they approached the border, the car slowed and one of the smugglers walked next to the car, keeping an eye out for Iranian police or military.

“It really was like a movie,” Jacobs said.

But as they approached the border, Jacobs said they saw a large cloud of dust kick up as waiting force sprung to its feet and began firing at the car.

“Then there was a bunch of people who started shooting at the car,” she said. “We could hear the bullets hit the car.”

No one was hurt and the driver quickly sped off in a different direction, crossing a dry river bed and telling the refugees to get out of the car and wait for them to return.

“All of us told each other ‘This is it,’” Jacobs recalls, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

But the smugglers did eventually return, transporting the refugees to a barn for the night and then onto Pakistan the next morning, where they were all hidden in a closet after a knock on the door halted their first meal in days.

“We all dressed as Pakistanis,” she remembers. “If they get you, they will send you back to Iran.”

But Jacobs escaped to the United Nations building, told them her story and received an ID card and was taken to Peshawar.

Other family members fled

Thirteen years later, Jacobs’ sister Mavash Daeila and her husband Reyaz Rezvani and family also fled Iraq because of their faith. Daeila was in college at the time of the revolution and continued on until the government forced her out just days before her final exam, because of her religion. Over the next decade, she was fired from multiple jobs, simply because of her faith, she said. When the opportunity to get passports presented itself, the family took a trip to Austria and never looked back. They did it so their children, also of the Baha’i faith, could get an education.

“It was so hard,” said Daeila, who now also lives in Kent.

Vafa Aflatooni and Soheila Powell were both students in America at the time of the revolution, though they did not know each other. Neither was safe to return to their homes after the revolution.

“I had no intention to stay in the states,” said Aflatooni, who eventually got his green card and became a U.S. citizen.

“If they knew you were Baha’i, there was some kind of persecution going on,” said Powell, who like Aflatooni, got a green card and then became a citizen.

The group, as well as several Americans who have converted to Baha’i, make up part of a small Kent congregation of the faith, free in America to practice their religion as they see fit.

But their thoughts often drift back to Iran, where they say their fellow Baha’is continue to face persecution and prison for their beliefs.

Practitioners imprisoned

Presently, a group of seven Baha’is, known as the Friends in Iran, are being held in Iranian prisons on charges of espionage. The seven have been imprisoned for eight months and according to reports from news organizations and the Web site Bahai.org, no formal charges have been brought against them.

The Baha’i faith makes up a small minority in Islam-dominated Iran, though members of the faith spread across more countries than any religion except Christianity, according to Bahai.org.

Baha’is follow the teachings of their Iranian founder, Baha’u’llah, whom they believe to be one of God’s messengers. The Baha’i are a monotheistic faith based on the belief of progressive revelation from God beginning with Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Christ and Mohammed before reaching Baha’u’llah in 1844.

Under the tenets of Islam, Mohammed was the final prophet and therefore those coming after claiming that status are false prophets. Because of this, the more than 300,000 members of the Baha’i faith living in Iran are considered apostates and are barred from jobs, colleges and the right to inherit property by the Iranian Constitution.

According to Bahai.org, more than 10,000 Baha’is have been dismissed from government and university jobs and some 200 reportedly were executed for their faith.

“As a faithful believer of this faith, we cannot deny our faith,” Aflatooni said.

With the Friends in Iran about to go on trial, the European Union in February formally condemned the Iranian government for holding the Baha’is. Stateside, similar bills, House Resolution 175 and Senate resolution 71, are making their way through Congress.

In Kent, the small congregation of Baha’is, who have no formal clergy and meet at the homes of members, has been hosting prayer session for its fellow followers and trying to spread the message about the persecution, its members say, in the hopes of putting international pressure on the Iranian government.

“We want as many people in America as possible to know about this,” said Jake Jacobs, an American who came to the Baha’i faith later in life and married Ladan.

“We’re trying to get the word out,” Aflatooni said. “We’re trying to prevent these people getting killed and future Baha’is getting killed.”

“We’re talking about these seven people, but really all the Baha’is in Iran,” said Leslie Aflatooni, an American who also converted to Baha’i and then married Vafa.

Family members arrested

As an example of the ongoing persecution, Rezvani said his sister was arrested in September and will be imprisoned for three years simply because of her faith.

“It’s an issue of human rights,” declared Vafa.

The Kent Baha’is want to make it clear they are not asking for money – to do so would violate their faith – but they are asking for support of the two bills in Congress and prayer for their cause and the cause of those still suffering in Iran.

“We do ask for prayer,” Vafa said. “Any faith, any religion, any language; We just want prayer.”

BOX:

According to Bahai.org, the tenets of the Baha’i faith are:

All Humanity is one family;

Women and men are equal;

All prejudice – racial, religious, national or economic – is destructive and must be overcome;

We must investigate truth for ourselves, without preconceptions;

Science and religion are in harmony;

Our economic problems are linked to spiritual problems;

The family and its unity are very important;

There is one God;

All religions come from God; and

World peace is the crying need of our time.

For more information on House Resolution 175 and Senate Resolution 71, visit http://thomas.loc.gov or www.house.gov or www.senate.gov.