Baha’i woman recalls imprisonment in Iran
ICC Note:
Here is the story of Minoo Vosough, a Baha’i woman who was imprisoned in Iran. Although she is Baha’i (which ICC typically does not cover), ICC is posting Vosough’s story to illustrate the imprisonment, torture and persecution that countless thousands of Christians and other religious minorities have suffered in Iran.
8/31/2010 Iran (CNN) – Minoo Vosough can still hear the guards’ boots marching down the cold hallways of Iran’s Gohardasht prison. The screams of other inmates burn her ears.
She can feel the thud of a fist coming down on her head. And the world going black as she was blindfolded and shoved in a courtroom to hear her fate.
She was arrested in Tehran more than 25 years ago – beaten, interrogated and thrown into solitary confinement. Once a week, she was taken out for a shower. She could tell if it was bright or overcast only by the small window high up in her cell. She cherished the chirping of birds outside.
All she had was a blanket, a spoon and a broken fork.
The Iranian regime accused Vosough of espionage, though she was never charged or afforded legal representation. Her crime in the Islamic republic, she says, was – and still is – her faith.
She is a Baha’i.
She has not spoken publicly about her terrifying experience in an Iranian jail. Until now.
This month, the spotlight again fell on Iran’s 300,000-strong Baha’i community as seven national leaders were sentenced to 20 years each in prison for espionage, propaganda against the Islamic republic and the establishment of an illegal administration.
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The Tehran government seemed to be looking away for a while, but repression for all religious minorities in Iran has worsened since the presidential elections of 2005 and in particular after the disputed polling last year, according to a 2010 report compiled by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
“A consistent stream of virulent and inflammatory statements by political and religious leaders and an increase in harassment and imprisonment of, and physical attacks against, these groups has led to a renewal of the kind of oppression seen in the years immediately following the Iranian revolution,” the report says.
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