Bahá’í World/Volume 18/Bahár Vujdání
BAHÁR VUJDÁNÍ
1922—1979
Bahá’ís have been heavily pressed to recant their faith and in one case a believer, who refused to do so, followed the glorious path of the martyrs and was executed.
Bahár Vujdání
Mr. Bahár Vujdání, a devoted Bahá’í of Míyánduáb, pioneered to Mahábád, in West Ádhirbáyján Province, north-western Írán, in 1954 and established himself as a merchant. His scrupulous honesty and personal integrity won him great respect in the business community and he was well known and much liked by the citizens of his adopted city because of his sincerity and friendliness. Mr. Vujdání found much happiness in serving the Bahá’í Faith and often was elected a delegate from his region to the Annual Convention.
In his fifty-seventh year, with all the good that the life of this world offers within his grasp, he was torn from the bosom of his family to join the ranks of those who have been martyred for the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh in His native land. On 26 September 1979, Mr. Vujdání was called before the Revolutionary Court and falsely accused of participating in a political disturbance. During the course of the interrogation he explained that as a Bahá’í he
was forbidden to engage in political or subversive activities. At the mention of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh the presiding Judge, Shaykh Khalkhálí, abandoned the line of questioning relevant to the purpose for which Mr. Vujdání was summoned before the Court and pressed him to recant his faith. He was offered his freedom on condition that he repudiate the Bahá’í Faith and embrace Islam. When refusal was forthcoming, the Judge offered as an alternative the paying of a substantial sum of money. Mr. Vujdání explained that as a Bahá’í he found it necessary, as a matter of principle, to reject the idea of paying what would amount to a ransom. A disturbance outside the courtroom at this point engaged the attention of the Judge and other Court officials, and the prisoner was released. He was permitted to return to his home and was told that, if necessary, he would be summoned to reappear before the Court the following day. It was 7:00 pm. and he had been called for interrogation in the morning hours.
The following day Mr. Vujdání was called back before the Revolutionary Court at 10:00 a.m., and at 11:30 a.m. was condemned to death and placed in prison where, after several hours, confirmation of the decree was read to him. According to some fellow prisoners who were later freed, Mr. Vujdání received the news calmly and, with the greatest courtesy, invited the other prisoners to share the bread, cheese and melons he had brought from home, spreading these before them with a happy smile as if inviting them to a feast. ‘We were struck with wonder,’ one prisoner said. ‘How could he have been so radiantly happy on the eve of his execution!’
Mr. Vujdání was able to obtain a fragment of lightly-waxed corrugated paper that had lined a biscuit tin and, in a firm hand, he wrote on it a final message to his family. This document, which has been preserved, reads:
‘To the family of Vujdání: Manṣúrih Khánum, Nayyírih, Munírih, Humáyún, Bízhan, Mr. Ma‘naví, Engr. and Mr. Hasan-‘Alí Khán, Engr.
‘I have been condemned to death because I have refused to recant my faith and my submission to the Bahá’í religion. I do not know when the time of execution will arise. However, I bid farewell to all.’
This done, he turned with dignity to the
The fragment of paper lining from a biscuit tin upon which Mr. Bahár Vujdání wrote a last message to his family before his martyrdom on 27 September 1979 in Mahábád.
Qiblih,1 and to the astonishment of his fellow
prisoners offered prayers.
At 3:30 p.m. on 27 September 1979, Mr. Vujdání and three other prisoners who were not Bahá’ís were taken from the prison to an adjacent courtyard where repeated shots were heard to ring out. The bodies of the executed men were unceremoniously left in the yard of the nearby clinic and their families were instructed to remove them for burial. A notice was posted next to the clinic on which there appeared the names of the dead prisoners and the charges on which they had been tried. ‘Bahá’í’ religion’ was written beside Mr. Vujdání’s name in the place where the charge was set out. Later it was noticed that someone had drawn a line through the words ‘Bahá’í religion’.
Thus it was that Bahár Vujdání was called upon to tread the path of martyrdom as had thousands of his fellow Bahá’ís before him in the land of Bahá’u’lláh’s birth.
1 The direction toward which the faithful turn in prayer. The Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh is ‘the heart and Qiblih of the Bahá’í world’.
Approximately two thousand people—most of whom were not Bahá’ís—attended the funeral to honour a man whose kind demeanour and reputation for honesty had attracted the friendship and respect of the community of Mahábád.