That was the feeling among 15 members of the Bahai faith who gathered Monday night in a townhouse off Logan Circle to sing, read poems and pray for seven Bahais who went on trial Tuesday in Iran for espionage and other crimes against the state.

Long persecuted by the Islamic government, and barred from universities and certain professions, Bahais who live in Iran must tread a careful path. The seven, who are community leaders, were arrested two years ago and, according to Iranian news reports, are accused of spying for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and issuing propaganda against the state.

The seven have had spotty access to lawyers and details of the charges have been vague. Resolutions in the House and Senate have condemned the arrests and called for their release. The United Nations also has condemned the arrests.

Monday, as they waited for news from Iran, Bahais from Tehran to Bratislava to Washington gathered in homes to recite poems by the 13th-century Persian mystic Rumi and readings from the founder of the Bahai faith.

“Hopefully they can feel us now, while they’re sitting in prison,” said Niusha Ziaee, 31, a health-care consultant who hosted the gathering.

One person there, Max Anis of Rockville, spent his youth in Iran with Afif Naeimi, one of the people on trial, and recalled his friend’s decision to stay there despite the crackdown on Bahais after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“He was accepted to one of the best medical schools in Iran, but after the revolution, he was kicked out,” Anis said. He added that his friend, like many Bahais, had stayed in order to “demand your right as a Bahai to live in Iran.” Iran is where the faith was founded and is considered its spiritual home.

The decision is never easy, said Anis, 45. Bahais and others can be arrested at any time.

“Every Bahai there is in danger because apparently we’re the black sheep, and if anything happens, they blame the Bahais.”

The Bahai faith is a 150 year-old religion founded by Baha’u'llah, who claimed to be the latest messenger from God and was imprisoned for his beliefs. It has 5 million followers worldwide, 160,000 of them in the U.S. and 3,000 in the Washington metro area. There are about 300,000 Bahais in Iran.

Many in attendance at Monday’s gathering had Iranian backgrounds, but there were also people from Singapore, Indonesia and Tunisia. The mood was solemn. One man wept as he read a poem. The group had little information about the trial, at which observers were not allowed. The defendants’ attorneys said they had to argue their way in to the proceedings.

To Shastri Purushotma, a human rights officer for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United States, who attended the gathering, the trial represented something larger.

“On the one hand it’s a trial of seven Bahais, but in another way the Iranian government is putting itself on trial,” he said. “I think the trial is about will Iran survive as a country where justice actually exists?”

Naghmeh Rowhani, 33, a pediatrician who lives in the District, said gathering somehow felt more effective than praying alone.

“You feel like you almost have a force, or a presence, when you come together,” she said.

Spontaneous gatherings by Bahais, such as the one last night, are illegal in Iran.

Adding to the somber mood was the knowledge that 13 more Bahais had been arrested Jan. 3 in the wake of large street protests. Ten of them are still being held, accused of illegal arms possession and fomenting recent unrest in Iran.

“In the face of this, what can you do?” asked Maye Aghazadeh of Bethesda. “You’ve done everything a citizen can do and all we have left now is to say prayers.”