Olya Roohizadegan, the author of the best seller 'Olya's Story', recently gave a, personal, true life account of imprisonment and torture. Olya was an eye witness to the persecution of the Bahá'ís, the largest religious minority in Iran, where the authorities denied their basic human rights of freedom, education, work, the practice of their religion and life itself.
In the book, Olya describes the imprisonment, torture and execution of her friends, neighbours and relatives on account of their religious beliefs. In 1984, 850 Bahá'ís were imprisoned as part of a systematic campaign of persecution. Since the revolution in 1978 over 200 hundred Bahá'ís were killed by mobs or executed by authorities in Iran.
While in prison Olya made a promise to 10 Bahá'í women that if she was ever released from prison she would tell their story to the world. Although sentenced to death she was temporarily released by the authorities and escaped to Pakistan with her husband and 3 year old son.
Still under sentence of death in Iran, Olya kept her promise - she wrote 'Olya's Story', she testified in the European Court of Human Rights and at the United Nations office in Geneva to the plight of her fellow Bahá'ís in Iran and continues to travel around the world meeting dignitaries, giving interviews, addressing the public at universities, churches and schools and generally telling the world the story of her friends who were executed.
She has been profiled in more than 2000 newspapers including The Western Australian, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Times, CNN, The Orcadian, The Shetland Times, Press and Journal and The Daily Mirror. She has also given over 500 TV interviews and more than 1,000 radio interviews.
Olya is a strong advocate for human rights in the international arena and at the invitation of many organisations, has travelled the world as a keynote speaker.