Simin Saberi - Bahá'ís of Ireland

Simin Saberi was born on March 2nd, 1959 she was the youngest of 11 children. Simin was grateful that she had such a wonderful family and was aware that others were not as lucky so she liked to help out whenever and wherever she could. One of the things she did was to visit the patients at the local psychiatric hospital to chat an dot help bathe the girls who were in their care. After she graduated from high school Simin went to secretarial school and then got a job at an agricultural corporation. That job was good and she enjoyed it, but after the Revolution they were told to dismiss her as she was a Baha’i.

Simin’s father was very elderly by then so he was unable to work, Her mother took in sewing and knitting work and Simin helped her out as much as she could. She also got some work at a shop owned by one of the Shirazi Baha’is.

Simin’s day on October 25th, 1982 began a lot better than it ended. One of her friends had a beautician’s exam and she had asked her to be a model. Simin was happy to agree. In contrast to the early part of the day, that evening the Revolutionary Guard arrived at her house and arrested her. Simin had been expecting to be arrested as so many Baha’is were being arrested at that time. Her joke with her friends who were already in the prison cell was that at least she arrived into prison well dressed and with beautifully curled hair!

There were multiple charges against Simin but apart from the charge of being unmarried, most of the other charges were about being a Baha’i and being involved in Baha’i activities like teaching children or being on committees.

They tried many tactics in prison to break the Baha’is down, one was forcing them to watch other people suffering. One day, for example, they took Simin to the basement, blindfolded her, and instructed her to wait there until it was her turn. She could hear the sound of whipping and crying. As she listened each strike felt to Simin as though it landed on her own back. After some time, they brought her back up from the basement and into the interrogation room. In the room was a woman called Mahboobeh, who, by the condition of her injured back, was the victim of that whipping. Simin later said that the sight of the poor woman made her heart burn with fury, but she tried to maintain composure and display indifference.

When she wasn’t being interrogated Simin taught sewing and knitting to many of the non-Baha’i women in the hope that at least it would give them some skills they could use to earn a living when they were released.

She was never released of course.

Simin was hanged along with 9 other Baha’i women on June 18th, 1983. She was 24 years old.

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

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