The Bahá’í in Samoa and American Samoa will hold a special service to commemorate victims of acts of violence based on religion and remember 10 women martyred in Iran.

The Bahá’í Office of External Affairs & Media in Samoa, in a statement to this newspaper on Friday, said 10 women of the Bahá’í faith were executed over 40 years ago in a single night in a square in the city of Shiraz in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"Their crime was refusing to renounce their beliefs in a faith that promotes the principles of gender equality — absent and criminalized in Iran — as well as unity, justice and truthfulness," read the Bahá’í Office's statement. "The women were hanged one by one, each forced to watch the next woman’s death in a harrowing attempt to coerce them into recanting their faith. 

"One was only 17; most were in their 20s. Human rights groups and ordinary citizens around the world were shocked and outraged at this barbaric act by the Iranian authorities."

Global leaders at the time led a wave of appeals for condemned Bahá’í women and men to be released from their death sentences. But to no avail, according to the Bahá’í Office's statement.

To honour the 10 women of Shiraz and the cause of justice and equality for which they gave their lives, the Bahá’í will host a special devotional service at the Bahá’í House of Worship at Tiapapata this coming Tuesday. It will be open to the public and will honour the longstanding struggle and efforts towards gender equality in Iran, said the Bahá’í Office.

“The story of the 10 Bahá’í women is not over. It was a chapter in the unfolding story of Iranian women’s resilience and sacrifice for equality,” says Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) to the United Nations in Geneva. 

“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 whose tragic death touched the lives of many. 

"We see the same spirit, the same choice being made: to stand up for the principles of justice and equality with utmost effort. Though mistreated and imprisoned, today’s women—just like those before them—are bravely striving for a just and prosperous Iran.”

On 18 June 1983, 10 Bahá’í women, most of them in their 20s, including a young girl of 17 and a woman in her 50s, were executed by hanging in Chowgan Square in Shiraz because they had refused to renounce their faith. This shocking event was met with consternation and outrage by human rights groups and ordinary people around the world.

Two nights prior, six Bahá’í men (some of them relatives of these 10 women) were executed in that same square. More than 200 Bahá’ís were executed by the Iranian authorities in the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The killings only paused after international outcries, but the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran continues with impunity to this day.