Mona Mahmudnizhad
Mona Mahmudnizhad (Persian مونا محمودنژاد, DMG Mona Mahmoud - Nižād; born September 10, 1965; † June 18, 1983 in Shiraz, Iran) was an Iranian Baha'i, who in 1983 because of her membership in the Bahá'í Faith as the youngest of ten Baha'i women was convicted and hanged in Shiraz to death. The official charges ranging from " misguidance of children and young people " - she taught children who were referred because of their faith at school, and she served in an orphanage - to be up to the accused " Zionist " because the Baha'i World Centre in Israel is located.
Childhood
Mahmudnizhad was born on September 10, 1965 in the family of Yad'u'llah and Farkhundeh Mahmudnizhad, who had left their native Iran to spread their religion in Yemen. She was the second child of the family. The first child of the family, Taraneh was, at the time of the birth of Mona seven years old. Mona spent her first four years in Yemen; with two years she was in a car accident, but she survived without serious injury.
In 1969, the government of Yemen expelled all foreigners in the country and the family Mahmudnizhad returned to Iran. They spent two years in Isfahan, Tabriz before finally settled in 1974 for six months in Kermanshah and three years in Shiraz. At this time the father earned their keep with the repair of small household appliances and served in the Baha'i community in various administrative bodies.
Arrest, interrogation and sentencing
Although the Bahai suffered regular persecution in Iran, but the persecutions in the wake of the Islamic revolution of 1979 were systematically reinforced. On October 23, 1982 at 7:30 clock invaded four armed guardians of the revolution on behalf of the Public Prosecutor of Shiraz in the House of Mahmudnizhad family and ransacked it after Bahai documents. Following the search, they took Mona and her father in prison. The two were blindfolded and they were brought into Seppah Prison in Shiraz, where they were housed in separate departments. Mahmudnizhad was kept a total of 38 days in prison, caught Seppah.
On November 29 1982 she and five other Bahai women from Seppah - prison to prison was Adelabad ( also in Shiraz ) transferred. After some time in Abelabad prison she was brought to trial before the Islamic Revolutionary Court, and then managed to return to prison. A few days later she was again taken out of the prison and interrogated in the presence of Islamic Revolution Guard. After a series of interrogations, partly under physical torture, in a cable the soles were whipped, Mahmudnizhad was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. At the time of sentencing, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan gave a pardon, a. Nevertheless, the judgment on the ten women on the night of June 18, 1983 was enforced on a polo field nearby.
The name and age of the other women who were hanged along with Mahmudnizhad were:
- Nusrat Yalda'i, 54 years
- ' Izzat Janami Ishraqi, 50 years
- Roya Ishraqi, 23, and daughter of ' Izza
- Tahirih Siyavushi, 32 years
- Zarrin Muqimi, 28 years
- Shirin Dalvand, 25 years
- Akhtar Sabit, 19 or 20 years
- Simin Saberi, 20 years
- Mahshid Nirumand, 28 years
In September 2007, the Iranian Human Rights Documentation Center published a study on this incident.
Public
Mona's story became a great symbolic significance because it was the time of their arrest just 17 years old. So she was the youngest of the 10 women who were known as the "Angel of Shiraz ". Many of their statements from the interrogations have been handed down and used by many people around the world as evidence of the indomitable strength and courage of young people in the face of the brutality of the Iranian regime and as a source of inspiration.
Mahmudnizhads story is the subject of several artistic works. The musician Doug Cameron, Mahmudnizhads history as a music video is: Mona with the Children, which is in the pop charts of Canada managed (ranked 14 in the week of 19 October 1985). The video spread in the music scene and brought very effectively the human rights situation to the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran into the public consciousness. Recently a play ( " A Dress for Mona " A Dress for Mona ) was produced and Jack Lenz currently working on a film titled " Mona's Dream" ( Mona's Dream). Pictures of her are shown in Mithaq Kazimis video Quenching The Light.