Fighting for flood recover y

The NSW Gover nment has agreed to review a proposal to cut funding to the Resilient Homes Program for flood affected homes across the region, following representations I made to the Premier in conjunction with the Nor three state MPs and the seven Mayors.

This bipar tisan approach includes elected representatives at State and Local Gover nment level from Labor Par ty, the Greens and Independents.

All of us are committed to representing locals first and we are more than happy to put par ty political differences benefit of locals.

his car and fee the area. When we were a signifcant distance from the city, we stopped … We were all in our pyjamas and barefoot, and it was cold. After fnding some respite, we discovered that Simin’s legs were covered in shards of glass. We sat there, meticulously removing the glass from her feet, astounded by her endurance and patience. Eventually, we arrived in Tehran under the same circumstances and returned home after a month. Upon our return, we had to rebuild our lives from scratch, as we didn’t even possess basic necessities. With Simin’s assistance, we sewed and knitted for others until late at night, earning meagre wages.

Dr Saberi picks up the rest of the story: During all these diffculties, Simin continued to teach children’s classes.

Focusing on virtues of kindness, patience, confrmation, contentment and so forth. Qualities which were needed to give resilience during those challenging times. For this reason, the Revolutionary Guards were looking to arrest her.

The news had come that they had visited the home of a Bahá’í in Shiraz, inquiring about a person named Simin Saberi.

At the time, Simin was in another town. The family got in touch with her and informed her that the Revolutionary guards were out to arrest her. They told Simin to go to her brother’s house. That is what Simin did. But one month later, she was arrested.

On October 23, 1982, by order of the Shiraz Revolutionary Prosecutor, 38 Bahá’ís were arrested. Among those detained were two of Simin’s uncles. Simin and her brother decided to visit their parents, knowing that their mother would be distraught given the arrest of her brothers. When they arrived, they noticed that the door was open. They parked the car and were about to get out when they were surrounded by several armed plainclothes agents. One of them leaned into the car window and asked for their names. When Simin introduced herself, the agent nodded with a mocking smile. was frm and composed and had remained frm in her belief.

They exited the car surrounded by the agents and went into their parents’ house. They saw their mother sobbing.

The guards collected all the books in the house, as evidence of Simin being a Bahá’í, and took Simin with them and left.

The detained Bahá’ís were held in a detention center in Shiraz. They were all held in the same constrained small cell.

Their interrogations was flled with insults, humiliation, threats and in some instances, physical punishment.

Simin was moved to another prison as forty other Bahá’ís had been arrested and they needed more space to accommodate them. Simin’s mother told of how Simin maintained her cheerful demeanour and her constant smile in prison. Never complaining or talking about sadness. She would always reassure everyone that she was well and there were no problems.

Once the interrogation of the Bahá’í prisoners were completed, they were swiftly taken to court. The hearings were conducted behind closed doors, with no right to legal representation. Typically, they lasted only a few minutes. Simin’s charges, like other Bahá’ís, primarily related to activities within the Bahá’í community. Simin was also charged with holding educational classes, and her fnal charge was that she was single.

After reading the charges, the judge would pose the ultimate question to the prisoner: Islam or execution?

Simin, like the other Bahá’ís, chose her belief in the unity of the human race as one family, the unity of all religions, the equality of men and women, the abolition of extremes of wealth and poverty, universal education.

Simin was hanged on June 12, 1983. Along with the nine other Bahá’í women, Simin was led to the Chowgan Square, where they were hanged at an unknown time later that night.

Simin Saberi was a young woman of only 24 years when she was executed.

The story of these ten young women in Shiraz 40 years ago is a story of resilience, and sacrifce for equality and freedom of belief is not over.

“Today the same story is repeating itself in Iran,” said Dr Saberi.

“It is the same story of discrimination both as women and as Bahá’í s: imprisonment, torture and execution.”

#OurStoryIsOne is the campaign to help bring justice for women and those of faith to Iran.

One of Simin’s cellmates recalled Simin returning to the cell after several days of interrogation and isolation. She recalled how she returned, strikingly thin and pale. She had lost much of her weight. Simin had shared with her cellmates that they had taken her to the basement, blindfolded her and made her wait where she could hear whipping and a woman’s anguished cries. Simin had said that each strike had felt as though it landed on her back. Then they had shown her another Baha’i woman’s injured back. Simin, like the other lady, had suffered immensely but

Title: Chint Singh: The Man Who Should Have Died

Author: Narinder Singh

Parmar

Publisher: Shawline

Publishing Price: $29.84

By Samantha Elley

If your interest is stories that inspire, stories that tell of people who go against the odds, stories that make you want to pump your st in the air and go ‘Yeah!!’ then you cannot go past Chint Singh: e Man Who Should Have Died.

Chint Singh was an o cer in the Indian army during World War Two.

In 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese government and Singh and 2400 other Indians were taken as prisoners of war and shipped to Papua New Guinea to work as labourers.

Over the next two years, the POWs would experience hell on earth.

Many of them lost their lives in the unforgiving jungles and swamps thanks to tropical disease,