Visit by family members of Bahá’í prisoners to Washington, D.C.

On February 7–11, 2011, four U.S.-based family members of imprisoned Bahá’ís visited Washington, D.C., to assist in advocacy efforts on behalf of their loved ones. Meetings were scheduled with members of Congress, the State Department, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and a news conference was held in collaboration with Amnesty International at its Washington office.

Their visit was covered in articles by CNN, Agence France-Presse (AFP), The Huffington Post, Beliefnet, and the Religion News Service. The AFP story was reposted by several sites including Yahoo. A live broadcast February 10 on BBC Persian Television included a three-minute interview with Mr. Iraj Kamalabadi, whose sister is Ms. Fariba Kamalabadi, one of the imprisoned former members of the Yárán. (Later that day, Mr. Kamalabadi said his sister's husband told him on the phone that he saw the broadcast.) The family members were also interviewed in Persian by Radio Free Europe (Radio Farda), Voice of America (Persian Service) radio, and BBC Persian, which also did a recorded radio segment.

In addition, on March 31, 2011, Dr. Farzad Kamalabadi, another brother of Ms. Kamalabadi, spoke about her at a reception attended by some 150 human rights activists and congressional staff on Capitol Hill for the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus.

Source : Annual Report of NSA of US - 2011, Page 40