Author: Staff Writer

Source: Bahá’í World News Service

http://news.bahai.org/story/712

A congratulatory message from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was read to Australian Baha’is as they celebrated the 75th anniversary of their National Spiritual Assembly at an event in Sydney. Participants remembered the Baha’is in Iran, who would be marking the same anniversary if not for the decades of persecution in that country.

Both Iran and Australia elected their first national Baha’i governing councils in 1934.

In Sydney, more than 2,500 people turned out on 25 April for a special anniversary event at the Sydney Convention Centre, followed the next day by a reception on the grounds of the Baha’i House of Worship.

A spokesperson for the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia said at the reception that the Iranian Assembly was dissolved in 1983.

This occurred after the Iranian Prosecutor General called for the dismantling of the Bahá’í administrative structure. Persecution of the Iranian Bahá’ís had intensified in the years immediately following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. During that time all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran were abducted and disappeared without a trace, assumed to have been killed. Individuals subsequently elected to the same Assembly were then executed along with scores of other Bahá’ís.

About 40 Baha’is are currently in prison in Iran because of their religion, including seven men and women who had a leadership role in helping see to the needs of the 300,000-member Baha’i community there.

Delegates to the annual Baha’i convention in Australia referred to Iran in a message: “We grieve for the 30 years lost to the Bahá’í administration in Iran and salute those who gave their lives as a result of their service to that institution as well as the selfless dedication of the Iranian friends throughout their long oppression.”