The recent release of journalist Roxana Saberi from prison in Iran has received considerable attention in the world press and a response from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"The case grabbed headlines around the world," BBC News reported online. "Her father, Reza Saberi, said she became a symbol for press freedom. But it was also the sight of the fragile-looking former beauty queen, against the might of the Islamic Republic. Who could fail to be moved?"
According to an article by Merle David Kellerhals Jr. published online at America.gov, the State Department also is concerned about two other Americans still incarcerated in Iran. Esha Momeni, a graduate student at California State University, was arrested by Iranian officials Oct. 15 in Tehran for allegedly unlawfully passing another vehicle while driving. Momeni was in Tehran conducting graduate research on the Iranian women's movement at the time of her detention in the same Evin prison where Saberi was detained. And Silva Harotonian was arrested June 26 last year and charged with unspecified activities related to promoting a "velvet revolution" in Iran.
It is not surprising that the world press should be concerned about one of its own or the State Department to be concerned about U.S. citizens incarcerated for trumped-up reasons.
I believe we should be concerned about the imprisonment of innocents all over the world and speak out against such abuses. As an example, the United States expressed outrage over the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel Prize winner.
"I am deeply troubled by the Burmese government's decision to charge Aung San Suu Kyi for a baseless crime," Clinton said at a press briefing May 14 at the State Department. "We oppose the regime's efforts to use this incident as a pretext to place further unjustified restrictions on her, and therefore we call on the Burmese authorities to release her immediately and unconditionally, along with her doctor and the more than 2,100 political prisoners currently being held."
Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the imprisonment of seven members of the Baha'i community in Iran. To date, the U.S. State Department has been silent, and there has been little notice by the world press. There are presently pending, in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, resolutions condemning the persecution of Baha'is in Iran. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas is one of the co-sponsors of the Senate resolution.
An article, "A bleak future for Baha'is," by Moojan Momen, published in The New Statesman (www.newstatesman.com/international-politics), gives further details about the plight of the Baha'is:
"In the one year since their incarceration, the seven detainees have faced no charges nor have they been allowed access to their legal counsel," said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi. "They have faced spurious accusations of 'espionage for Israel' and 'insulting religious sanctities' ... In recent days, however, a report from the Baha'i's U.N. office indicates that another charge is being leveled against the seven prisoners, that of 'spreading corruption on earth.'
"The allegations against the Baha'is are as nonsensical as they are unjust. The accusations play to the fears of certain areas of the Iranian population about enemies - internal and external - conspiring to undermine the country.
"For the seven Baha'is being held in the grim confines of their Evin cells, their best hope for release might lie in a public protest as widespread as the one that led to the freeing of Roxana Saberi. Such an outcry may help Iran's leaders to reflect that imprisoning and persecuting the innocent is not in their national interest."
Phil Wood, a Baha'i originally from New England, resided for 12 years in Barbados while working as quality assurance manager for Intel and has lived 26 years in Hutchinson. E-mail pwood1937@gmail.com.