Roya Eshraghi - Bahá'ís of Ireland

Roya Eshraghi was born in 1960, she was the second youngest of five children. The Eshraghi family moved around a lot when she was a child because her father worked for the National oil company. After her father’s retirement they settled in Shiraz. Roya’s older sisters and her brother had emigrated by then, and they wanted the rest of the family to come and join them but they wanted to stay in Shiraz. It was their home.

Roya always loved animals and so she was delighted to be accepted at the Pahlavi University to study veterinary medicine. When she was in her third year, however, she was expelled because she was a Baha’i. Her father lost his pension at this time too, also because he was a Baha’i.

At that time many Baha’is lost their homes and jobs so the Eshraghis opened their house to anyone who needed a place to stay. Roya tried to help out as well by teaching some of the children who had been expelled from school because they were Baha’is. Amongst the classes she gave, Roya taught Baha’i children’s classes - which are moral education classes just like Sunday School.

On 29 November 1982, Roya was arrested along with her mother and father. A few days after her arrest Roya was one of the Baha’is who was subjected to a mock execution in the detention centre.

After the detention centre Roya and her parents were sent to Adel Abad prison. In prison Roya’s mother was terrified for her daughter and the other young women, so she used to sit up at night watching over them in case the guards came to take them away to mistreat or torture them.

The torture they chose for the Eshraghis, was psychological. Sometimes they brought them all into the same room, blindfolded them, forbade them to speak to each other and forced them to listen to their loved ones being insulted and harassed. Other times they spilt them up and pretended something bad had happened to the others.

Roya’s love of all animals was well known and she was teased by her fellow inmates when she found a snail in her lettuce and kept it as a pet. They teased her less when she old them endless stories about the prison cat and her kittens .

Rosita Eshraghi visited all of family whenever she was allowed. She brought fruit and clean clothes and tried to be cheerful to lift their spirits. Roya knew Rosita felt guilty that she was free while the rest of her family were in prison. None of the family could tell Rosita how happy they were that she was free in case they endangered her. So Roya wrote a note and sewed it into the sleeve of a shirt she was sending to be washed. In the note she told Rosita not to wait until they were released from prison but to live her life and marry the man she loved and make her own family.

Rosita found the note and soon after got engaged. Roya and her parents were delighted Rosita was marrying though sad not to be able to attend the wedding. Roya’s mother asked Mrs.Mahmudnizad to represent them and to bring flowers from all the women in prison with them.

Shortly after Rosita’s wedding their father was hanged. It was June 16th, 1983.

Two days later on June 18th, 1983, Roya and her mother were hanged together along with 8 other Baha’i women.

Roya was 23 years old.

*Wherever there is a hyperlink on Roya's name (hover over her name to find it) you can connect with art work produced for the #OurStoryIsOne campaign.

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