May
16, 2015
#7Bahais7years
– Jamaloddin Khanjani
 Today, Day Three of the
#7Bahais7years Campaign, the Baha’i Community is celebrating the life
of Jamaloddin Khanjani, a once-successful factory owner who lost his
business after the 1979 Islamic revolution because of his belief in the
Baha’i Faith – and who then spent most of the 1980s on the run under
the threat of death from Iranian authorities.
Born 27 July 1933 in the city of Sangsar, Mr. Khanjani grew up on a
dairy farm in Semnan province and never obtained more than a high
school education. Yet his dynamic personality soon led to a successful
career in industrial production – and as a Baha’i leader.
In his professional career, he has worked as an employee of the Pepsi
Cola Company in Iran, where he was a purchasing supervisor. He later
left Pepsi Cola and started a charcoal production business. Later he
established the first automated brick factory in Iran, ultimately
employing several hundred people.
In the early 1980s, he was forced to shut down that factory and abandon
it, putting most of his employees out of work, because of the
persecution he faced as a Baha’i. The factory was later confiscated by
the government.
In his career of voluntary service to his religious community, Mr.
Khanjani was at various points a member of the local spiritual assembly
of Isfahan, a regional level Auxiliary Board member, an appointed
position which serves principally to inspire, encourage, and promote
learning among Baha’is. In the early 1980s, he was elected to the
national governing council of the Baha’is of Iran – a group known as
the “National Spiritual Assembly.” Several years prior to his election,
the entire membership of the Assembly had been abducted and never heard
from again. That was in 1980. Their successors were arrested and
executed in 1981. Mr. Khanjani was thus a member of the so-called
“third” National Spiritual Assembly, which later saw four of its nine
members executed by the government in 1984.
In the 1990s, Mr. Khanjani was able to establish a mechanized farm on
properties owned by his family. Nevertheless, authorities placed many
restrictions on him, making it difficult to do business. These
restrictions extended to his children and relatives, and included
refusing loans, closing their places of business, limiting their
business dealings, and banning travel outside the country.
Mr. Khanjani married Ms. Ashraf Sobhani in the mid-1950s. They have
four children. His wife passed away in March 2011 while he was in
prison. Authorities refused to furlough Mr. Khanjani even to attend her
funeral.
Mr. Khanjani was arrested and imprisoned at least three times before
his current incarceration. After years on the run, he was arrested and
imprisoned for two months in the late 1980s. During this period of
detention, he was intensely questioned. During those interrogations,
however, he was able to make considerable headway in convincing
authorizes of the non-threatening nature of the Baha’i Faith and he,
along with many others, were subsequently released.
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