Ruhi Jahanpour is a survivor of religious persecution in Iran. On a recent visit to Dublin, she spoke to Áine Lawlor about her experience of torture and imprisonment. She told a harrowing story, recounting how she narrowly escaped the fate of some of her fellow Bahá’í prisoners (all women), 10 of whom were hanged on one fateful day in June 1983. She was then 29 years old.
Ruhi explained that she had suffered the cruel torture of the “bastinado”. This lashing or caning of a victim’s bare feet has been widely employed to inflict pain and humiliation and was a favoured form of torture in Iran.
Both central founding figures of the religion – the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh – suffered the punishment in 1848.
The story of the Báb and the persecution of his followers was quite well known across Europe in the mid-1800s, including here in Ireland. As early as November 1845 The Freemans Journal in Dublin and the Mayo Constitution in Castlebar carried an account of the birth of the new religion in faraway Persia as Iran was then known.
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“A new religious sect has arisen in Persia”, the story ran, “as a consequence of the preaching of a man named Bab.” Reportage of these distant events corresponded to a substantial growth in numbers of provincial newspapers in Ireland, and just as the development of the railway system and the telegraph greatly improved the speed and reach of news distribution.
More reportage of events in Persia appeared in Irish newspapers over the following years. The Newry Examiner & Louth Advertiser carried a brief story in the autumn of 1850.
Over a couple of weeks, the same piece (or a similar one) made its way on to the pages of The Athlone Sentinel, The Clare Journal and Ennis Advertiser, The Dundalk Democrat, The Roscommon Journal, The Kerry Evening Post and other regional broadsheets.
This coverage coincided with the public execution of the Báb in the city of Tabriz, an effort by the civil and religious authorities to snuff out what was fast becoming a very popular phenomenon countrywide.
Present in Tabriz at this time was physician William Cormick, son of John Cormick from Tullahought in Co Kilkenny. William Cormick, following in his father’s footsteps, was a highly regarded doctor in Tabirz and served for a time as personal physician to the crown prince of the realm, who was domiciled in the city as governor of the province.
Cormick met the Báb on a few occasions, the only westerner known to have done so. It was Cormick who was asked to treat a deep gash on the Báb’s face, the outcome of an overzealous administration of the bastinado. He later recalled his impressions of the Báb, recounting that “his whole look and deportment went far to dispose one in his favour”.
Another chronicler of happenings in Iran in the middle of the 19th century was Lady Mary Sheil. Mary Leonora Woulfe Sheil came from near Ennis in Co Clare, the daughter of Stephen Woulfe, chief baron of the Irish exchequer, and (for a time at least) a zealous supporter of Daniel O’Connell and Catholic Emancipation. Mary’s husband, Justin Sheil, was the scion of another prominent Irish Catholic family from outside Waterford city.
In 1850, Justin, Mary and their children were living in Tehran, where Justin served as the British minister to Iran. Mary shared her experiences of life there in a highly regarded account published in 1856 titled Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia.
It was the first travelogue written by a woman about Iran and includes fascinating insights into life in the kingdom. Her book is celebrated for providing an invaluable female perspective on women’s lives in a non-western culture, though still reflecting certain colonial and imperialist assumptions.
Recounting the upheavals attending the birth of the new religion, Mary describes the fate of the Báb and the cruelty visited upon his followers. She was especially saddened by the fate of Tahirih, the celebrated poetess and prominent follower of the Báb. Tahirih was killed during a fresh round of religious repression in the year 1852. Mary wrote: “This was a cruel and useless deed.”
[ Rite & Reason: Bahá’í faith has found its feet in IrelandOpens in new window ]
News of events surrounding these upheavals was carried in newspapers in Ireland from late October into November of that year, including the Cork Examiner, Dublin’s Freeman’s Journal and Belfast’s Newsletter.
In her conversation with Lawlor inNovember, Ruhi Jahanpour explained that Bahá’ís are still suffering persecution in Iran today because of their faith. She was in Dublin to make a documentary on her 40 years of advocacy for freedom of religion or belief, once more presenting distant suffering to Irish eyes.
Dr Brendan McNamara is with UCC’s Study of Religions Department
