A group of Bermudians are speaking out against systematic religious oppression in the country of Iran, after a number of Bahai leaders were "disappeared".

On May 14, six senior members of the Bahai community of Iran were arrested and taken to the notorious Evin prison. They have not been heard from since.

A seventh member of the community was arrested earlier in the year.

The group were all members of the national-level group that saw to the needs of the Iranian Bahai community.

Their names were Behrouz Tavakkoli, Saeid Rezaie, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Aff Naeimi and Mahvash Sabet.

Now Bahais everywhere want the world to take note and put pressure on the Iranian government to reveal the fate of the seven.

"Time is of the essence," said Cheryl Peek-Ball, who is a member of the Bahai community of Bermuda.

"Our Bahai community here is small, but robust and devoted and would certainly want to be a part of the outcry against this."

She said Iranian Bahais are experiencing every manner of human rights violations.

"That has been pretty much the policy of the government in that community," she said. "The clerical government abolished the rights of the Bahai community."

Ms Peek-Ball said the Iranian government does not acknowledge Bahai marriages.

According to Ms Peek-Ball the government retains the passports of Bahais. Bahai cemeteries are frequently desercrated. Pensions of elderly people are taken. Young people aren't allowed to pursue higher education in Iran. The Bahais are not permitted to have a national spiritual assembly, which is the Bahai community's main administrative body.

"The Bahais in Iran have people who help with the organisation of the faith. They are known as 'the friends'," said Ms Peek-Ball. "The people that disappeared were in that group. It harkens back to the abductions in the 1980s."

In the early 1980s nine members of the Bahai National Spiritual Assembly were abducted and executed.

"That was followed by dozens of other abductions mostly related to minor incidences such as people educating young children who were Bahais," said Ms Peek-Ball. "This is a campaign of systematic oppression against the Bahais of Iran that dates back many years.

Another member of the Bermuda Bahai community, Neysan Sobhani, is actually a cousin of those most recently abducted.

Mr. Sobhani's family were one of thousands of families that fled Iran shortly before the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

This revolution transformed Iran from a monarchy to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic.

"My family left just before the revolution got fully underway," said Mr. Sobhani. "I was four years old.

"I was too young to remember, but I remember leaving."

Unfortunately, the Sobhani's problems weren't over when they reached Sri Lanka.

"The Iranian government also brought pressure on countries in the area who had taken in Bahai refugees to have them sent back to Iran to face charges or to put pressure on them to divest themselves of Bahais to give them more trouble.

"Sri Lanka was one of the countries that were pressured. Passports weren't renewed. Sri Lanka refused to give us papers to stay in the country, so the United Nations stepped in and some countries including Canada offered to take the refugees. So we went to Canada."

Mr. Sobhani still has family living in Iran and the increase in Bahai persecution in the last two years is troubling for him and other family members living in Canada.

"The US State Department and the Canadian Foreign Ministry have issued statements -istry have issued statements about this," he said.

"Over the past two and a half years there has been a massive escalation of harassment and persecution both directed by the government and indirectly."

Dr. Peek-Ball said the disappearances and abductions should worry any right-thinking person, no matter what their religion. "It is important that people in free countries stay informed about global oppression and human rights violations," said Dr. Peek-Ball. "It is important that people perceive how easily hatred and prejudice can be turned into a ruthless instrument of genocide and how quickly that can happen.

"At all times people should be on guard against prejudice and hate propaganda. We should all be working towards the goal of ending hatred and persecution."

She said pressure from other governments shows that the world is paying attention.

"It works because people always want some acceptance on the world's stage."

Mr. Sobhani said that two years ago secret documents came to light showing that the Iranian government had a plan to "culturally exterminate" Bahais from Iran. Many governments around the world sent protests to the Iranian government, including Bermuda's then Premier Alex Scott.

"My understanding is that other faiths are not subjected to this intense systematic oppression in Iran but are pretty much left alone," said Dr. Peek-Ball. "The Bahais have been singled out mostly because of the origin of the faith. It came out of Islam. There is a particular animosity towards the Bahais for that reason."

But Dr. Peek-Ball felt the hatred against the Bahais went deeper than a religious difference.

"Neysan's father recently explained to me that it is not just about religion but about power and having the ability to have control of people's minds and their thinking.

"That whole concept is completely in opposition to the Bahai faith which is that people should investigate truth for themselves and should become informed and should be universally educated and should feel comfortable questioning religious doctrine.

"When you have a population which won't accept the status quo or values of an oppressive regime, that is completely in opposition to a regime that is totalitarian."