Iranian President Hassan Rouhani : Halt the desecration of the Bahai Cemetery in Shiraz
LATEST SAD NEWS:
GENEVA — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has resumed its demolition of a historic Baha’i cemetery in Shiraz, Iran, after pausing for several months in the face of international pressure and the expression of outrage on the part of Iranians from all walks of life.
Reports from Iran indicate that the Guard has now removed human remains from some 30 to 50 of the 950 graves of Baha'is in the cemetery, placing them in an open canal to make way for the construction of a new cultural and sports complex.
On May 1st 2014, digging machines entered the Baha'i graveyard in Shiraz and began digging up the graveyard to prepare the ground for civil engineering and the construction of a sports and cultural centre. The graveyard contains the mortal remains of 950 Baha'is from the town. Included are the graves of the 10 Baha'i women hung just a few years ago for teaching sunday school classes. One of these women was Mona, who was only 17 at the time she was executed. Such was her dignity at the time of her hanging that poetry and songs have been written for her and she is regarded as an example of upright and noble behaviour for all Baha'i youth and indeed all youth around the world. The desecration of these graves is an outrage and we cannot be silent. The machines have now reached the main part of the cemetery and yet it would be possible to accommodate the buildings and form a garden from the main part of the graveyard without disturbing the remaining 900 graves and this is our plea to the Iranian President who was elected as a champion of human rights.
http://news.bahai.org/story/1013
With the help of friends, the first petition containing 950 signatures was sent to the President and this formed part of the international condemnation of the actions in Shiraz. The work halted for several months. Now we need to redouble our efforts to get a presidential involvement and stop this destruction. 30-50 graves have now been destroyed. It can stop here and an accommodation made on the site.
Please press the Facebook Share Button to inform your friends and invite them to sign. So far over 100,000 people have been informed this way of the terrible activity in Shiraz. Also Twitter is proving to be a really quick way of introducing the petition to friends – use the handy buttons below:-
References:
Mona video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEyaGAFvFKQ&list=PLevVMSkPrl_E4C-wVSeyELKuWtuH9aj2e
The 10 women of Shiraz hung for being sunday school teachers:
https://www.bic.org/sites/default/files/pdf/TheBahaiQuestion%2047-48.pdf
London Guardian Newspaper article:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/15/iran-concern-ongoing-destruction-cemetery-shiraz