PORTLAND, Maine — Parivash Rohani said she remembers when she got the news forty years ago that her friends were killed by the Iranian government.
"We were actually on our honeymoon when they announced on the radio they executed them... I was hearing their names I could not believe that it was my close friends and to this day I still think about that moment," she said.
Rohani met her husband, Nassar, in India. The two are both from Iran. They relocated to the Los Angeles area before moving to Maine.
Now, from her Portland home, she is working with a human rights campaign to raise awareness for her friends that were killed, now 40 years ago.
Sunday marked those four decades for Rohani, who choked up recalling how the women were.
"They were intelligent girls who were just pursuing their education," she said.
The campaign leads with the hashtag, Our Story is One. And is based on protecting and remembering the Baha'i faith.
Baha'i is a religion founded in Iran in the 19th century. Its record of being religiously persecuted goes back to the 1979 revolution in Iran, according to the United States Institute of Peace.
"The persecution of Baha'is is nothing new to Iranians," Rohani said.
Rohani, with the campaign, is working on creating art pieces to remember the women.
One piece is a display of the pillars the women were hanged on.
The names of each woman, are written in gold. Rohani said it is to show their purity.
Her husband, Nasser, is also supportive of her art, seeing how traumatized she has been for forty years since her friends were killed for their faith.
"I've been doing whatever legwork has to be done along with her," Nasser Rohani said. "She really evaded being one of those women."
That is because Rohani says Parivash fled just years before the killings started, as her family received a warning that they were being targeted.
The campaign with the hashtag, Our Story is One, is a year-long campaign to raise awareness for the Baha'i persecution.
Parivash said Mainers looking to get involved locally can email her at parivash9@hotmail.com.