This page keeps the memory of Baha'i citizens who appear in our list. There are only 5 names on this page, and this small number is itself part of the story: we place a person on this page when their source has explicitly stated that they were Baha'i, and only for these five people do we have such a source. The dates in this list begin on 23 Farvardin 1392 and reach 18 Dey 1395. Two names are from 1392, one name from 1393 and two names from 1395; that is, all of these deaths occurred within less than four years.
How they lost their lives
What sets this page apart from many others is the manner of death. None of these 5 people was executed. All five, according to the classification of the sources, were killed by government forces outside of protests: not in the street and among protesters; of the two people whose life stories are available, one was killed at night after leaving home and the other in front of his own house. Each of them was from a different city: Miandoab, Bandar Abbas, Shiraz, Yazd and Semnan. That means these deaths occurred in five different provinces, from West Azerbaijan to Hormozgan.
All five of these people were middle-aged or elderly. The youngest of them was 42 years old and the oldest 83, and their median age is 63 years. In our data none of them is recorded with a source stating that they were a woman, and there is no child or adolescent in this list. The days of their deaths, 23 Farvardin 1392, 2 Shahrivar 1392, 9 Dey 1393, 5 Mehr 1395 and 18 Dey 1395, each have only one name; each of these days was, for a family, the day of losing a father, a mother or a spouse.
Ataollah Rezvani
Ataollah Rezvani, 53 years old, was a husband and the father of two children. According to the source, he “was admitted in 1358 to study mechanical engineering at the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran. But one year later, during the Cultural Revolution, he was expelled from the university.” He then went to Bandar Abbas to build the water treatment plant for the cities of Bandar Abbas and Minab. The source writes that he “was one of the servants of the Baha'i community in Bandar Abbas and, because of the great help he had given to the Baha'i and non-Baha'i community, was very popular among the people of the city.” He had earlier lost the hearing in his left ear as a result of slaps he received during an interrogation.
Ataollah Rezvani was shot dead on 2 Shahrivar 1392 in Bandar Abbas. The forensic medicine report dated 5 Shahrivar 1392 identified a bullet that had entered above the right ear as the cause of death. These words from his family remain: “At 9 on Saturday night he left the house. He was supposed to come back home, but he did not come back.” According to the source, despite the efforts of the family, no effective action has been taken to identify those responsible for this killing.
Farhang Amiri
Farhang Amiri, 63 years old, married and the father of four children, lived in Yazd. He “was born into a family that had converted to the Baha'i Faith.” The source describes his life as follows: “He worked as a driver and also as a farmer, and led a modest and honourable life. He was known among his neighbours for his kindness, gentleness, wisdom and humility. He had no quarrel with anyone.” He was killed on 5 Mehr 1395 in front of his house in Yazd with several knife blows to the chest and died before reaching the hospital. His body was buried in the Golestan-e Javid cemetery and, according to the source, his gravestone was repeatedly destroyed.
About this list
The list of Baha'i citizens is not complete. The real number of people who were Baha'i and lost their lives is higher, and because sources do not always mention people's religion, many are not seen on this page. We record only a name that has a source, and we call someone Baha'i only when the source has said so. All 5 names on this page come from the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center; so all of these names rest, to this day, on only one source, and we are trying to find other sources for them as well. A description of life is available for only 2 people. If you knew one of these five people, or know of other Baha'i citizens who should be remembered here, share your memory or correction with us.