![\"mrs-fariba-kamalabadi\"](\"http:\/\/emiddle-east.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/mrs-fariba-kamalabadi.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMrs. Fariba Kamalabadi \u2013 arrested 14 May 2008 at her home in Tehran
\nFariba Kamalabadi, 46, a developmental psychologist and mother of three, was denied the chance to study at a public university as a youth because of her Baha’i belief. Because of her volunteer work for the Baha’i community, she was arrested twice in recent years and held for periods of one and two months respectively before her arrest and imprisonment last May.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Kamalbadi was born in Tehran on 12 September 1962. An excellent student, she graduated from high school with honors but was nevertheless barred from attending university. Instead, in her mid-30s, she embarked on an eight-year period of informal study and ultimately received an advanced degree in developmental psychology from the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education, an alternative institution established by the Baha’i community of Iran to provide higher education for its young people.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Kamalabadi married fellow Baha’i Ruhollah Taefi in 1982. They have three children. Varqa Taefi, about 24, received a doctoral degree in political science and international relations in the United Kingdom and is currently continuing his research in China. Alhan Taefi, 23, has studied psychology at ABSI. Taraneh Taefi, 14, is a junior high school student in Tehran.
\nMrs. Kamalabadi\u2019s experience with persecution extends beyond her immediate situation. Her father was fired from his job as physician in the government health service in the 1980s because he was a Baha’i, and he was later imprisoned and tortured.<\/p>\n
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Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani \u2013 arrested 14 May 2008 at his home in Tehran Mr. Afif Naemi \u2013 arrested 14 May 2008 at his home in Tehran Mr. Saeid Rezaie \u2013 arrested 14 May 2008 at his home in Tehran Mrs. Mahvash Sabet \u2013 arrested in Mashhad on 5 March 2008 <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJamaloddin Khanjani, 75, is a once-successful factory owner who lost his business after the 1979 Islamic revolution because of his belief in the Baha’i Faith \u2013 and who then spent most of the 1980s on the run under the threat of death from Iranian authorities.
\nBorn 27 July 1933 in the city of Sangsar, Mr. Khanjani grew up on a dairy farm in Semnan province and never obtained more than a high school education. Yet his dynamic personality soon led to a successful career in industrial production \u2013 and as a Baha’i leader.
\nIn his professional career, he has worked as an employee of the Pepsi Cola Company in Iran, where he was a purchasing supervisor. He later left Pepsi Cola and started a charcoal production business. Later he established a brick-making factory, which was the first automated such factory in Iran, ultimately employing several hundred people.
\nIn the early 1980s, he was forced to shut down that factory and abandon it, putting most of his employees out of work, because of the persecution he faced as a Baha’i. The factory was later confiscated by the government.
\nIn his career of voluntary service to his religious community, Mr. Khanjani was at various points a member of the local spiritual assembly of Isfahan, a regional level Auxiliary Board member, and, in the early 1980s, a member of the so-called \u201cthird\u201d National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran \u2013 a group that in 1984 saw four of its nine members executed by the government.
\nAfter that, Mr. Khanjani was able to establish a mechanized farm on properties owned by his family. Nevertheless, authorities placed many restrictions on him, making it difficult to do business. These restrictions extended to his children and relatives, and included refusing loans, closing their places of business, limiting their business dealings, and banning travel outside the country.
\nMr. Khanjani married Ms. Ashraf Sobhani in the mid-1950s. They have four children. Farida Khanjani, 51, is a chiropractor working in China. Maria Khanjani, about 49, an artist who is married with two children and residing in Tehran. Mr. Alaeddin Khanjani, about 48, an optometrist residing in Tehran, who is married with two children. And Mrs. Emilia Khanjani, about 45, who is married with two children and resides in Tehran.
\nMr. Khanjani was arrested and imprisoned at least three times before his current incarceration. After years on the run, he was arrested and imprisoned for two months in the late 1980s. During this period of detention, he was intensely questioned. During those interrogations, however, he was able to make considerable headway in convincing authorizes of the non-threatening nature of the Baha’i Faith and he, along with many others, were subsequently released.<\/p>\n
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\nAfif Naemi, 47, is an industrialist who was unable to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor because as a Baha\u2019i he was denied access to a university education. Instead, he diverted his attention to business, one of the few avenues of work open to Baha’is, taking over his father-in-law\u2019s blanket and textile factory.
\nHe was born on 6 September 1961 in Yazd. His father died when he was three and he was raised in part by his uncles. While still in elementary school, he was sent to live with relatives in Jordan and, although he started with no knowledge of Arabic, he soon rose to the top of his class.
\nHe has long been active in volunteer Baha’i service. He has taught Baha\u2019i children\u2019s classes, conducted classes for adults, taught at the BIHE, and been a member of the Auxiliary Board, an appointed position which serves principally to inspire, encourage, and promote learning among Baha’is.
\nHe married Ms. Shohreh Khallokhi in the early 1980s. They have two sons, Fareed Naimi, 27, who is married and a graduate of the ABSI, and Sina Naimi, 22, who has studied music.<\/p>\n
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\nSaeid Rezaie, 51, is an agricultural engineer who has run a successful farming equipment business in Fars Province for more than 20 years. He is also known for his extensive scholarship on Baha’i topics, and is the author of several books.
\nBorn in Abadan on 27 September 1957, Mr. Rezaie spent his childhood in Shiraz, where he completed high school with distinction. He then obtained a degree in agricultural engineering from Pahlavi University in Shiraz, attending with the help of a scholarship funded from outside the country.
\nIn 1981, he married Ms. Shaheen Rowhanian. They have three children, two daughters and a son. Martha, 24, is studying library science. Ma\u2019man, 21, is studying architecture. Payvand, 12, is in his second year of middle school.
\nMr. Rezaie has actively served the Baha’i community since he was a young man. He taught Baha’i children\u2019s classes for many years, and served the Baha’i Education and Baha’i Life Institutes. He was also a member of the National Education Institute.
\nHe is a scholar and an author, and he has served as an academic adviser to Baha’i students.
\nDuring the early 1980s, when persecution of Baha’is was particularly intense and widespread, Mr. Rezaie moved to northern Iran and worked as a farming manager for a time. Later he moved to Kerman and worked as a carpenter and at other odd jobs in part because of the difficulties Baha’is faced in finding formal employment or operating businesses.
\nIn 1985, he opened an agricultural equipment company with a Baha’i friend in Fars Province. That company prospered and won wide respect among farmers in the region.
\nHe has experienced various forms of persecution for his Baha’i belief, including an arrest and detention in 2006 that led to 40 days in solitary confinement.
\nHis two daughters were among 54 Baha\u2019i youth who were arrested in Shiraz in May 2006 while engaged in a humanitarian project aimed at helping underprivileged young people. They were later released but three of their colleagues were sentenced to four years in prison on false charges and are currently incarcerated in Shiraz.<\/p>\n
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\nMahvash Sabet, 55, is a teacher and school principal who was dismissed from public education for being a Baha’i. For the last 15 years, she has been director of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, which provides alternative higher education for Baha’i youth. She also served as secretary to the Friends.
\nBorn Mahvash Shahriyari on 4 February 1953 in Ardestan, Mrs. Sabet moved to Tehran when she was in the fifth grade. In university, she studied psychology, obtaining a bachelor\u2019s degree.
\nShe began her professional career as a teacher and also worked as a principal at several schools. In her professional role, she also collaborated with the National Literacy Committee of Iran. After the Islamic revolution, however, like thousands of other Iranian Baha’i educators, she was fired from her job and blocked from working in public education.
\nIt was after this that she became director of the BIHE, where she also has taught psychology and management.
\nShe married Siyvash Sabet on 21 May 1973. They have a son, Foroud Sabet, 33, and a daughter, Negar Sabet, 24, both born in Hamadan.
\nWhile all of the other Friends were arrested at their homes in Tehran on 14 May 2008, Mrs. Sabet was arrested in Mashhad on 5 March 2008. Although she resides in Tehran, she had been summoned to Mashhad by the Ministry of Intelligence, ostensibly on the grounds that she was required to answer questions related to the burial of an individual in the Baha\u2019i cemetery in that city.<\/p>\n
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