NEWS
‘Little scraps of smuggled paper’: How an Iranian Bahai prisoner wrote her memoir in prison
Bianna Golodryga speaks with Bahiyyih Nakhjavani about the memoir of imprisoned Iranian poet Mahvash Sabet, the persecution of the Bahá'í community, and the resilience of prisoners in Iran.
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Prisoner of conscience, Sebastia
A follower of the Bahá'í faith who is being held by the Iranian regime has published a vivid and shocking memoir of her time in prison.
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The Woman Iran Could Not Break
Mahvash Sabet spent a decade in Iran's prisons because she is a Baháʼí. Her memoir offers a rare firsthand account of faith, survival, and the Islamic Republic's persecution of a religious minority.
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A modern tragedy: the Iranian revolution and its legacy
“OPEN WIDE THE DOORS is valuable because it shifts the centre of Iranian history away from rulers and revolutions and towards the people who endure the consequences…. Against the scale of Iran’s past, her testimony reinforces the power of individual conscience and endurance as the only way forward.”
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Exclusive excerpt in The Telegraph
"In Iran's most notorious prison, I survived the worst of human nature"
After spending more than a decade in Evin, Mahvash Sabet lifts the lid on ‘the heart of hell’ – and how torture failed to break her
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Interview with Bahiyyih Nakhjavani on Open Wide the Doors, a memoir by Mahvash Sabet
Bahá’í Canada recently sat down with Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, one of the translators of the work, to discuss the circumstances in which it was written and its themes of faith, hope and freedom.
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Review and Q&A by Sonjel Vreeland
OUR STORY IS ONE: THE PERSECUTION OF BAHAI’S IN IRAN
Open Wide the Doors – A Memoir by Mahvash Sabet. A memoir by prize-winning poet and prisoner of conscience Mahvash Sabet will be released in the coming days. Meticulously translated from the original Persian into English by Azita Mottahedeh and Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, this book is a story of faith, hope, and freedom in Iran….I contacted Bahiyyih and she agreed to tell us more about it, in the hope that you might be encouraged to pre-order a copy from your preferred book retailer, and read it as soon as it is available.
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Rainn Wilson, Instagram post (3.5 million followers)