Samoan Bahá’í to hold service for martyred women

Apia, SAMOA — The Bahá’í in Samoa and American Samoa will hold a special service to commemorate victims of acts of violence based on religion and remember 10 women martyred in Iran.

The Bahá’í Office of External Affairs & Media in Samoa, in a statement to this newspaper on Friday, said 10 women of the Bahá’í faith were executed over 40 years ago in a single night in a square in the city of Shiraz in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"Their crime was refusing to renounce their beliefs in a faith that promotes the principles of gender equality — absent and criminalized in Iran — as well as unity, justice and truthfulness," read the Bahá’í Office's statement. "The women were hanged one by one, each forced to watch the next woman’s death in a harrowing attempt to coerce them into recanting their faith. 

"One was only 17; most were in their 20s. Human rights groups and ordinary citizens around the world were shocked and outraged at this barbaric act by the Iranian authorities."

Global leaders at the time led a wave of appeals for condemned Bahá’í women and men to be released from their death sentences. But to no avail, according to the Bahá’í Office's statement.

To honour the 10 women of Shiraz and the cause of justice and equality for which they gave their lives, the Bahá’í will host a special devotional service at the Bahá’í House of Worship at Tiapapata this coming Tuesday.

Read more in The Observer