By MICHELLE HERBISON
GROVEDALE’S Aflatoon and Mahdokt Khavari are safe in Australia but the Iranian Government has imprisoned relatives for trying to educate their children.
Terry Eichler, a spokesperson for the Khavari’s Baha’i faith community in Geelong, told the Independent married relavites and their baby were enduring persecution in Iran’s Semnam prison along with two other women and their babies.
“The conditions are bad. There are no facilities for feeding and recently two of the infants were hospitalised because of deteriorating health but have since been returned to prison.
“It’s basically because the women organised Baha’i children’s classes but that’s apparently illegal.”
Mr Eichler said persecution of the minority group had “worsened considerably” in the past two years with summary arrests, denial of access to university and public employment, harassment of school children and the destruction of Baha’i cemeteries.
This week marked the fifth anniversary of the detention of seven Baha’i community national leaders in Iran.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr wrote on his blog that the Australian Government had called for immediate release of the prisoners, raising human rights concerns to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“Australia calls on Iran to respect the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of association,” Mr Carr wrote.
Mr Eichler said about 120 Baha’is lived in Geelong, about half from Iran.
“There was a wave of migration to Australia in the 1980s when Aflatoon and Mahdokt came because of severe persecution but most of them want to stay in Iran and live a peaceful life.”
