Jamaloddin Khanjani
Jamaloddin Khanjani (b. July 27, 1933) is a Persian Bahá’í who served as a member of the Yárán, an informal committee which oversaw efforts to see to the spiritual and social needs of the Bahá’í community of Iran. He served a ten year prison sentence as a result of his service on the body and was arrested again in 2023.
Biography[edit]
Khanjani was born in Sangsar in 1933 and raised on a dairy farm in Semnan province. He completed high school then began working for the Pepsi Cola Company as a purchasing supervisor. He later left the company and established a charcoal production business and then an automated brick factory which was the first of its kind in Iran. He was also an active member of the Bahá’í community serving on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Isfahan and as an Auxiliary Board member. In the mid-1950's he married Ashraf Sobhani and they had four children.[1]
In the early 1980's Khanjani's factory was confiscated by the government because he was a Bahá’í as a result of the Iranian Revolution. In 1980 the membership of the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran were abducted and assumed martyred, and in 1981 the membership of the second National Spiritual Assembly were arrested and executed. Khanjani was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly when it was established again in 1982 but the following year Bahá’í Administration was declared illegal in Iran and the body was disbanded.[1]
In 1984 the Yárán was formed which was a three member informal ad hoc committee which aimed to oversee the social and spiritual affairs of the Iranian Bahá’ís. Khanjani served on the body and in October 1987 he was arrested when a meeting of the group was raided by the Ministry of Intelligence of Iran, being held in solitary confinement for two months before being released on bail.[2] In the 1990's Khanjani establised a mechanized farm on properties his family owned however due to government restrictions placed on him and his family his business dealings were limited as he and his family were denied loans, had their places of business shut down, and were barred from traveling outside of Iran.[1]
In 2008 Khanjani was arrested and the Yárán was declared an illegal group with its members being sentenced to twenty years in prison.[1] His wife passed in 2011 but the authorities denied him permission to attend her funeral. He was released in 2018 at the age of eighty-five having completed ten years in prison.[3]
On August 13, 2023, Khanjani was arrested alongside his daughter and taken to Evin prison with no charges being announced.[4]
References[edit]
- "Lives of service: Profiles of seven imprisoned Baha'is". Bahá’í World News Service. 12 February 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani at bic.org
- ↑ Kian Sabeti, Bahman Samandari: The Baha’i Executed 24 Hours After His Arrest, Iranwire, 22 April 2022
- ↑ https://www.bic.org/news/jamaloddin-khanjani-completes-decade-long-imprisonment
- ↑ https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/jamaloddin-khanjani
