Mona Heern tells her story of faith and persecution as a Bahai child in Iran at the Utah Valley National Day of Prayer Commemoration on Thursday, May 1, 2008.People of all faiths gathered Thursday night to pray and learn about one another's faiths in the Provo Tabernacle for Utah Valley's National Day of Prayer celebration. The keynote speaker for the night was Mona Heern, who spoke of her experiences with religious intolerance in Iran.
"My family experienced a lot of persecution there, and it still continues," she said.
Heern grew up in the largest minority faith in Iran, Baha'i. The Baha'i were among the first people to be attacked in the 1979 revolution, and Heern was forced to leave school at the age of 8 because of her religion. The Baha'i were no longer allowed to attend school, teach school, hold positions of power or work in certain jobs. Instead, Heern said she attended secret underground schools taught by Baha'i teachers who were no longer allowed to work.
Heern said her father went to work one day and never came back. For seven months, the family searched from prison to prison to find him, and were only given visitation rights after 10 months. Even then, Baha'i families visiting their loved ones were forced to arrive at the prison once a month at 7 a.m. and wait until 4 p.m. for 10 minutes of visitation. One day, the family waited for hours to visit her father, and when it was their turn Heern's mother presented the visitation card to the guard.
"This man looked at the card and he just started laughing and laughing," Heern explained, saying she could never forget his laugh.
"Why didn't they tell you?" he asked. "We killed him a month ago."
After her father's death, Heern's mother sold all her jewelry to escape the country, fearing for the safety of her children. The family was smuggled into Pakistan in the middle of the night and spent years as refugees before moving on to Germany.
Despite all the struggles her family went through, Heern said she wanted to make the point that there are good people everywhere, including good people of other faiths who helped her family along the way.
Heern is now a teacher in Salt Lake City, and she said her students often ask if she wants to return home. Heern tells them that she could not be who she is if she were to return.
"I know, in this country, not a lot of people want to become teachers, but I remember sitting in Iran thinking, 'I want to be a teacher,' " she said.
Heern concluded with a Baha'i prayer for humanity and unity. She said she believes the message is important because there are many people in the world who do not have religious freedom, but it is time for different faiths to unite.
The world is becoming a global village, and people cannot close their eyes to other cultures anymore, she said. Heern said she believes her message is especially important to residents in Utah Valley, because many do not know who the Baha'i are or about much of the religious persecution in the world.
"To me, the root of prejudice is ignorance," she said.
The theme of the night was "From Tolerance to Love," which Chaplain Linda P. Walton of Utah Valley State College, chairwoman of the event, said implies that there must be more than just tolerance for other religions.
Walton said the National Day of Prayer is a time for all religions to come together in prayer, but she believes it is also a celebration of the Bill of Rights. Walton read the First Amendment to the audience, which includes freedom of religion, and copies of the Bill of Rights were handed out to attendees.
"We need to celebrate that we have the right to do religion or not to do religion," she said.
Walton said the day is one for citizens to be reminded of their freedoms and pray for those who provide it, such as government leaders and those in uniform.
The celebration included scripture readings from books of several faiths, music by the One Voice Children's Choir and the Utah Valley Handbell Choir, and prayers for the military and religious freedom.
Connie Giblon of Tooele said she attended the event because her daughter was in the handbell choir, but she believes the celebration is important for people of different faiths.
"Whatever religion you are, that's a time to come together and have our purpose be the same," she said.
Giblon said she thinks it is important for people of all faiths to get together and the day of prayer is important for a country that was founded on the basis of religious freedom.
The National Day of Prayer is a time for people to remember the problems in the world and pray for all people, she said.
"I think it's a good thing. I think there's too much emphasis on taking prayer out of people's lives."
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