Bahrám Afnán
Dr. Bahrám Afnán (c. 1933 - June 16, 1983) was a Persian Bahá’í, related to the Báb, who served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Shiraz. He was martyred in the wake of the 1979 Revolution in Iran.
Background[edit]
Afnán was the son of Siyyid Mihdí Afnán and his mother was Noraniyeh, the daughter of the famous Bahá’í poet ‘Andalíb. He attended elementary school in Shiraz and went on to study medicine at Pahlavi University in Shiraz, then traveled to the United States for further studies. After completing his studies he established a career in Iran as a physician specializing in heart medicine and internal diseases. In 1972 he married Jinus Ala'i and they went on to have two sons and a daughter.[1]
After the Revolution in 1979 Afnán volunteered to visit Bahá’ís who had been imprisoned in order to see to their medical needs and he was allowed to for a time. The authorities eventually denied him a medical permit and on October 23, 1982, he was arrested at four in the afternoon while driving to his clinic and severely beaten before being imprisoned along with over forty other Bahá’ís of Shiraz in Sepah Prison.[2][3]
Due to his relation to the Báb Afnán was separated from the other Bahá’í prisoners[4] and severely tortured suffering two heart attacks and becoming skeletal in appearance according to an eye witness. Despite this treatment prison authorities relied on him to supply medical assistance to other prisoners and permitted Doctors of Shiraz to consult with him regarding their patients.[2] At one point he and other members of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Shiraz were tortured in front of each other with the interrogators demanding to know the names of people they had appointed to committees and the addresses of Bahá’ís.[5]
On June 16, 1983, Afnán was executed by hanging along with five other Bahá’ís.[2]
References[edit]
- ↑ https://iranwire.com/en/features/8561
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 178. View as PDF.
- ↑ Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Community Under Siege: The Ordeal of the Baha'is of Shiraz, 2007, p 12
- ↑ Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Community Under Siege: The Ordeal of the Baha'is of Shiraz, 2007, p 26
- ↑ Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Community Under Siege: The Ordeal of the Baha'is of Shiraz, 2007, p 28
