Shahin (Shirin) Dalvand, 25

Early life

• Shahin (Shirin) Dalvand was born into a Baha’i family on 25 December 1957.
• Shirin loved flowers, and when she was free a single blossom or a green leaf could always be found in her room. She also loved the ocean and visited the beach as often as possible. (BahaiTeachings.org)

Education and work

• She studied sociology at the University of Shiraz. In 1979, while in her final year of university, her family moved to the United Kingdom. She remained in Iran with her grandmother to complete her degree. After graduating she chose not to leave Iran. (Archives)

Baha’i activities

• Shahin was a member of Youth and Baha’i Education Committees and a Local Spiritual Assembly liaison in Shiraz. (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center)

Arrest and execution

• Shahin was arrested on 29 November 1982 during a Baha’i youth meeting, while having dinner at the home of a fellow Baha’i named Rouhi Jahanpour.  She and the others arrested were taken to the Sepah Detention Centre. Over a month later she was transferred to Adelabad prison. (Archives) (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center)
• She and her hostess were taken to a Revolutionary Guards Detention Centre where on 2 December 1982 she suffered a mock execution as part of her initial processing and interrogation. Prison authorities considered her to be an unbeliever, and thus “unclean”, and she was subjected to humiliating treatment similar to that of atheist political prisoners. Prison wardens refused to have any physical contact with the prisoner even when, for example, they were guiding the blindfolded prisoner to the interrogation room. In such cases guards would give her the end of a folded newspaper and hold the other end, avoiding contact. She was eventually transferred to Adelabad prison, where due to the difficult detention conditions she contracted a cold and kidney infection. (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center)
• On 26 December 1982 she faced her first interrogation session. A few days later she was again interrogated and was told that she could be freed in exchange for a bond of 400,000 tumans—soon raised to 800,000 tumans. When her grandmother presented the required amount to the authorities she was told that the defendant’s file had already been sent to the Religious Magistrate for final review and trial. According to reports by the Baha’i World, authorities informed the defendant that she would be subjected to four “sessions” in which she would be given the opportunity to recant her faith and accept Islam. She was informed that if she did not sign a prepared statement rejecting the Baha’i Faith, she would be killed. It is unclear if all these sessions took place and whether or not these sessions replaced a trial. (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center)
• One of Shahin’s friends remembered a day in the prison when they were having a meal together, and Shahin told them that it was her birthday, and that the year before her mother had given her a beautiful new dress as a birthday gift, and that this year her gift was to be a prisoner for Baha’u’llah. Each of her friends took a little morsel of food and placed it in Shirin’s mouth, and thus celebrated her birthday. (Persecution of the Baha’i Community of Iran, 1983-1986, compiled on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, in Baha’i World, Volume 19, p. 182; BahaiTeachings.org)
• The text of the indictment was not provided to Shirin’s family. However, the available information indicates that the charges against the defendant related to her religious beliefs. While in detention, she was interrogated and pressured to recant her faith. Further, in an interview published in the Newspaper Khabar-e Jonub the religious judge, Head of the Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal of Shiraz, in charge of the case, warned the Baha’is “to embrace dear Islam and …recant Baha’ism, which is rationally and logically doomed, before it is too late.” (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center)
• The judge also discussed at length the charges and the alleged crimes committed by the defendants and argued that they were arrested because they were active members of the Baha’i administration and because of their “direct or indirect” relationship with the House of Justice based in Israel, which follows the Israeli government. (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center)
• The judge’s statements regarding those arrested also stressed that the religious activities of the defendants were criminal activities based on Article 13 of the constitution, which “deems illegal any activity for Baha’is and considers a crime the organization of committees, councils, or receptions and any such activities…” (Abdorrahman Boroumand Center)
• Shahin was executed by hanging on 18 June 1983 in Chowgan-Square in Shiraz, aged 27, together with nine other Baha’i women. Their bodies were not returned to their families; they were possibly buried in the Baha’i cemetery of Shiraz by the authorities. (Archives)