![]() ![]() ![]() Then Nika Shahkarami and Sarina Esmailizadeh, both 16, were killed during protests. Many died within days of the best-known victim of the wave of femicides, Mahsa Amini, who was beaten by morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly and died in hospital on Sept 16 last year. The same forces are still at work today deploying torture, mutilation and murder to deny Iranian women fundamental rights. Today, in the blood, tears and wounds of thousands of young women in Iran seeking equality, we can see echoes of the injustice suffered by the 10 women of Shiraz 40 years ago. These words have been attributed to her just before she was executed: “You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.” In 1852, she was put to death by the Iranian authorities. She notably caused profound shock when she removed her veil publicly at a conference attended only by men in 1848. ![]() She was an early adherent of the Bábí movement, a precursor of the Bahá’í faith, and empowered by the teachings of her newly found faith, she rose up to announce a break with the past. The 19th-century poet and scholar Táhirih exemplified the power of women to transform society. Iranian women’s struggle for equality is older than many in the West may think. What was important was that they had created art to keep the women’s memory alive. And it was impressive to see the US actor Alex Rocco playing a mullah – a far cry from his role as casino owner Moe Greene in The Godfather, who is famously shot in the eye while on a massage table. The impact of the music with the images was overwhelming. She was just a young girl trying to build capacities within children. We got to know Mona as an exceptional young girl, definitely not a religious zealot. I attended a gathering at the Bahá’í centre in London with Jack Lenz and Doug Cameron, the song’s writer, producer and singer. It was two years later, when Mona’s story was captured in the pop song Mona with the Children, that I began to connect. My school friends were aware but didn’t fully grasp what I was going through owing to my lack of confidence in being able to explain to them an important nuance: that I was part of a persecuted minority that I was going through the double pain of association with a country full of violent fundamentalists that brought me deep social shame, but who were also murdering members of my own community. Iran was constantly on the TV news and my main concern was the social impact it had on me. Notable among these were the killings of the Bahá’í administrative body of the National Assembly members in 1980 and of the Tehran Assembly, unceremoniously shot in 1981, all of them known to us.īy June 1983, without the internet existing to give us any details to bring the story a little closer, the hanging of the 10 women of Shiraz seemed to become lost in the maelstrom. I was in a constant state of anxiety as a great many who were killed were friends and acquaintances of my parents. I was also 17, born 20 days after Mona, but it was part of a stream of stories coming out of Iran of mass killings and executions. She asked to go last so that the others would not see her hang. When I initially heard the news, living my normal London life in leafy Kensington, the impact was strangely minimal. The youngest, Mona, whose father had been executed three months before, was 17. Nosrat was 46, her son had been executed two days before. ![]() Ezzat’s husband had been executed two days earlier. The oldest was Ezzat, 57, who was hanged with her daughter, aged 23. One after the other, the women were forced to watch each other hang, supposedly to give a final opportunity to recant their faith and save their own lives. In the 44-year history of Iran’s “Islamic” Republic, one of the most heinous acts it has ever committed – from a preposterously large number to choose from – took place in the late hours of June 18 1983, when 10 Bahá’í women in Shiraz were hanged on the charge of refusing to renounce their religious beliefs. ![]()
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