Kilbride woman remembers the 'Angels of Shiraz', 40 years later

It’s a long way from Shiraz to Burlington – in more than one sense.

Sasha Eskandarian made that journey decades ago. Today, she works as a researcher at Hamilton Health Sciences and lives in the quiet hamlet of Kilbride at the north edge of the city, but the events that drove her here are never far from her mind and heart.

As a teenager living in Iran in the 1980s, she witnessed brutal actions carried out in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution that toppled the government. Her family members lost everything –  their jobs, their freedom, their home and each other - as they were forced to flee persecution.

Others, including 16-year-old Mona Mahmood-Nezhad, lost their lives as the new regime enforced social and religious restrictions.

“No need to close my eyes to recall the dark days of 1983 in the land of turmoil and tribulation,” Eskandarian wrote in a personal essay to mark 40 years since Mona, 16, and nine other women were publicly executed on June 18, 1983. 

Their crime: refusing to renounce their faith.

“Still my heart aches and my skin shivers when I remember the unimaginable suffering and injustice," wrote Eskandarian of the terrifying act of oppression. “On a single night, 10 Bahá’í women were hanged in a public square for the crime of refusal to renounce their beliefs in  Bahá’í faith.”

That faith, says Eskandrian, is based on the principles of unity, justice, truthfulness and promoting universal education and gender equality.

Mona’s story

Mona, who taught Bahá’í children’s classes, was the youngest of the women executed in Shiraz that day. In an interview with BurlingtonToday, Eskandarian said her childhood friend and neighbour was studying economics at school. The pair, who were about the same age, spent a lot of time together when they were growing up. 

Mona was arrested along with her father in October of 1982 and imprisoned. Her mother was instructed to pay authorities for her release; they took the money and imprisoned her also.  Mona’s mother was later released, but her father was killed three days before the Shiraz executions.

Eskandarian imagines the terror her friend must have felt as she waited for death.

“Mona was the last person to be (executed),” she said. “They did it one person at a time because they wanted to create this additional fear to say, 'This will be your outcome only if you recant,' and none of them did that. 

“And the last one of them was Mona.”

Coming to Canada

Eskandrian’s family scattered. After her mother and brother received notices to appear in court for practising their faith, they paid smugglers to get out of the country; her older brother went to Portugal as a refugee and her sister, who had been studying in India, never went back to Iran. Her father, a retired military officer, didn’t make it out of the country.

“He stayed behind,” she said. “And I was never able to see him again. And 12 years ago, he passed away in Iran. So basically, I did not see my father ever since I left Iran. 

"I do have some relatives back in Iran. I'm grateful that my siblings are outside. I have a sibling in Halifax and Texas and here.”

Eskandarian arrived in Canada in 1986 with $20 in her pocket. She was looking for a new life and identity; she changed her name and dove into the new culture. She says she experienced PTSD-like symptoms for years – seeing symbols of Iran’s culture would set her heart racing and leave her unable to speak. 

“I wanted to have nothing to do with what had happened, but then later on, I came to be at peace with it. I accepted this,” she says. “ This is a new chapter for me.”

Hope for the future

Turning the page means sharing the story of Mona and the other women –  the “Angels of Shiraz” –  executed 40 years ago. Eskandarian says it also means taking steps to call out oppression wherever it occurs around the globe.

She says she takes inspiration from the remarkable impact of the Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation process, and urges Canadians to visit the Baha’i International Community website to read about each of the women who were hanged in 1983 and to educate themselves about the oppression that continues today, not just in Iran but around the globe.

“How do we respond to persecution and oppression? Ultimately, we are in control of our own actions,” she says in her essay. ”We can choose apathy and remain silent, or we can choose a constructive action and arise to be a positive resource to society.”

Part of her commitment to action is helping to organize a local memorial in honour of the Angels of Shiraz. The event, Our Story is One, takes place Sunday, July 30 at the Burlington Seniors’ Centre from 1 to 4 p.m. It is organized by the Bahá’ís  of Hamilton, Oakville and Burlington.

Eskandarian hopes the event will bridge the long distance between Shiraz and Burlington and help people realize that their actions, even those that seem insignificant, have an impact.

“It calls for awareness and it calls for small little steps, one step at a time,” she said. "Because service is contagious. Love is contagious … and it will have a positive effect.”