Nobel Peace Prize winners speak up for Iranian Baha’i leaders

I was thrilled to learn that six women Nobel Peace Prize winners (only 12 women have ever won the Nobel Prize) have put out a statement calling on the Iranian government to free the seven leading Bahá’ís who are currently in jail in Tehran.

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire (founders of the Peace People in Northern Ireland and winners of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (a leading advocate of ethno-cultural reconciliation in her native Guatemala and Nobel winner in 1992), Professor Jody Williams (international campaigner for the banning of land mines, Nobel winner in 1997), Dr. Shirin Ebadi (Iranian human rights lawyer, winner in 2003), and Kenyan environmental activist Professor Wangari Muta Maathai (Nobel winner in 2004) have signed the following statement:

We note with concern the news of the arrest of six prominent Baha’is in Iran on 14 May 2008. We note that Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm are members of the informal group known as the Friends in Iran that coordinates the activities of the Baha’i community in Iran; we further note that another member of the Friends in Iran, Mrs Mahvash Sabet, has been held in custody since 5 March 2008; we register our deepest concern at the mounting threats and persecution of the Iranian Baha’i community.

We call on the Iranian Government to guarantee the safety of these individuals (and) grant their immediate unconditional release.

The statement has been issued in the name of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which the six women laureates established in 2006 to contribute to building peace by working together with women around the world.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Friends in Iran, human rights, Nobel Peace Prize, Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Muta Maathai