Keith wants to spread word

Masterton local Keith Bain would not go as far as to say he introduced the Baha'i faith to Wairarapa.

But its emergence in the valley in the early 1970s times in with his return from England, full of enthusiasm for the religion.

Baha'i is a 19th-century faith originating in Persia, which teaches that all religions have the same spiritual source and all humans have been created equal, according to the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia.

It is heavily persecuted in Iran, says the same article.

To that end, Mr Bain is hosting a public meeting at the Masterton Community Centre on July 9 to remember 10 Baha'i women who were executed in 1983 in Iran for their religious beliefs, and in support of prisoners of conscience in Iran.

This year is also the centenary of the emergence of the faith in Auckland.

There is now a Baha'i New Zealand organisation.

Mr Bain said he came back from England excited about this faith but found "no receptivity among family and friends" back then.

"I could find no one who knew anything about it at that time."

Today, it is likely to still be a little-known faith in Wairarapa, with an active core of about a dozen local people.

He said it was overseas groups that had helped safeguard the interests - and the lives - of Baha'i followers, who he said numbered about 300,000 in Iran.

"The fact is, nothing has changed.

"While they are not hanging people today, they are holding them in the most atrocious conditions, in some of their toughest prisons."

The public meeting is at 7.30pm on July 9 at Masterton Community Centre, 41 Perry St.