A BAHA’I family in Fars province stands near where an arson attack was committed.
(photo credit: Courtesy)

The Baha’i community in Iran, the country’s largest religious minority, is suffering escalated persecution in the aftermath of the arrest of several members, accused by the government of spying for Israel.

In the village of Roushankouh, in Mazandaran Province on Tuesday, about 200 Iranian agents destroyed six homes, confiscated over 20 hectares (50 acres) of land, and arrested more than 100 Baha’is, the Bahá’í World News Service reported, added that this followed weeks of intensifying persecution.

Diane Ala’i, the representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, urged the international community to intervene. “Given the Iranian government policy documents persecuting Baha’is, the international community must act immediately before it is too late,” she said.

Dr. Ariane Sabet, deputy secretary general of the Baha’i International Community, stressed that the Iranian persecution is nothing new.

“For the past 44 years, there have been accusations about the Baha’is spying for Israel or other foreign powers. There has never been any proof of that,” she told The Media Line.

She added that the character of the persecution has changed over time.

In the early days of the Islamic Republic, the Baha’i community experienced many killings and executions. Later, the mistreatment became more of a silent persecution that includes economic strangulation, exclusion from higher education, demoralization, and banishment of institution officials, Sabet explained.

“There is a pattern of systematic persecution, there’s a plan for persecution that has been both formalized in government documents of the Iranian government and also been felt by the Baha’i community,” she said, adding that lately, the level of persecution has increased and has become more open.

The number of incidents, the arrests, the land grab, and the demolition of homes, all show a direction that could be further stepped up, Sabet said. The state-run media is very much in line with this with anti-Baha’i propaganda pieces, disseminating hate speech and incitement to hatred and possible violence.

The Baha’i faith is a monotheistic religion that emerged from Islam in Persia in the 19th century. Its founder, Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʻAlí Núrí, known as Baháʼu’lláh, was imprisoned and then banished from Persia to the Ottoman Empire in 1853. He went through several stages of exile and imprisonment until 1868 when was sent to Acre, in today’s Israel, where he died in 1892. Baha’is recognize him as an additional messenger who appeared after the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims, on the other hand, insist on the finality of Muhammad’s revelation. Iranian law therefore treats Baha’is as heretics and does not recognize their faith as a religion.

Today, there are between 5 million and 8 million Baha’is in the world. The biggest community lives in India. Iran hosts the second-biggest Baha’i community with about 300,000 members.

Ghanem Rafeh, a researcher on Iranian affairs at the Emirates Policy Center in Abu Dhabi, told The Media Line that the recent open persecution of the Baha’i community has to do with the escalating tensions with Israel.

Recently, Israel has carried out numerous high-profile security operations within Iran, said Rafeh, citing a range of alleged Israeli operations on Persian soil from assassinating high-profile officials and scientists, to acts of sabotage.

“Tehran has responded by shaking up their intelligence community and carrying out arrests of alleged Israeli spies,” he said.

The Iranian regime has long accused the Baha’i community of conspiring with Israel and of being “tools of the Zionist regime,” and the latest persecution could be explained within this context of an internal crackdown, he continued.

Sabet believes there might be other reasons for the escalating persecution.

The Iranian government is apparently scapegoating the religious minority to distract attention from the deteriorating situation in the country, she said.

Another possible reason, she added, could emerge from the fact that the Baha’is are perceived as genuinely interested in the well-being of the country and present an attractive alternative to the Islamist values promoted by the regime.

“It could be that maybe the regime is thinking that this way of life and the development of values such as unity, justice, and trustworthiness which the Baha’i tried to model in the country, may be attractive to Iranian citizens at this point,” she said.

Rafeh said that one might assume that with chances of a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal dwindling, Iran would be less concerned with international criticism, particularly when it comes to matters the regime considers issues of internal security. However, Iran still deeply cares about its international image, he said.

“The Baha’i community has long been persecuted in Iran and I don’t think the international reaction will be any different this time around, i.e., within the limits of condemnation and sanctions,” Rafeh added.

Sabet explained that as the Baha’i community urges the international community to act, the local community in Iran is using what she called “constructive resilience,” which is thinking on “how do you keep your inner strength in the face of oppression without resorting to means that are oppositional or violent in nature.”

For example, given that the Baha’is are not allowed to study at universities, the Baha’i community has created an alternative open university, the Baháʼí Institute for Higher Education, and raised it to a level of excellence that means it is well accepted by universities around the world.

The Baha’is believe in contributing to their homeland and to the place where they were born and grew up in. That is why, although many have the opportunity to leave, they decide to stay and contribute to Iranian society despite the hardships that the Iranian government inflicts on them. article source

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The arrests are the latest in a month-long crackdown against Baha’is across the country by the Iranian government. Authorities have targeted Baha’is in 245 incidents of persecution over the past 32 days, the Baha’i International Community (BIC) can confirm, with arrests and imprisonment, the destruction of homes and confiscation of properties, raids on private and business premises, beatings, the denial of medication to detainees and the denial of higher education to more than one hundred young people.

The crackdown provoked widespread condemnation by the United Nations, several governments, civil society organizations including Amnesty International, and across international and Persian media outlets.

“How ironic that these youth were arrested while studying and discussing the role of education, when they themselves had all been denied access to higher education by the Iranian authorities”, said Simin Fahandej, Representative of the BIC to the United Nations in Geneva. “The Iranian government’s cruelty breaks every measure. Not only does it deprive these youth of entering universities and developing their intellectual capacities, it also denies them the simple right to gather as young people to discuss issues of importance to their generation.”

Iran has systematically persecuted the Baha’i community since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. More than 200 Baha’is were killed after the Revolution and a 1991 policy document signed by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for the progress and development of the Baha’i community to be “blocked”—including by barring young Baha’is from attending Iranian universities. And a 2006 letter from the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, sent to 81 Iranian universities, said that if any students “are identified as Baha’is, they must be expelled from university”.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both signed by Iran, entitled Baha’is to manifest and practice their beliefs and to pursue education and the essentials of life.

A day earlier, on 30 August, legal appeals by 25 Baha’is to the 37th branch of the Fars province Court of Appeals were denied and their severe sentences upheld. The 25 people were first sentenced in June in Shiraz, and now face a combined total of almost 80 years in prison.

“Iranians of goodwill inside and outside Iran, the international community and countless individuals around the world have unequivocally asked Iran to end its persecution of the Baha’is,” said Ms. Fahandej. “Iran must realize that its continued persecution of the Baha’is only damages its own credibility domestically and internationally, while demonstrating to the world the innocence of the Baha’is in Iran.” article source

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The Iranian authorities’ persecution of the Baha’i religious minority has increased in intensity with a recent flurry of raids, arbitrary arrests, home demolitions and land grabs, Amnesty International said today.

Since 31 July 2022, Ministry of Intelligence agents have raided and confiscated dozens of Baha’i properties and arrested at least 30 members of the Baha’i community on account of their faith in various cities throughout Iran. The authorities have subjected many more to interrogations and/or forced them to wear electronic ankle bracelets. The Ministry of Intelligence announced on 1 August that those arrested were “core members of Baha’i espionage party” who “propagated Baha’i teachings” and “sought to infiltrate various levels of the educational sector across the country, especially kindergartens”.

“The despicable onslaught against the Baha’i religious minority is yet another manifestation of the Iranian authorities’ decades long persecution of this peaceful community. Baha’is in Iran cannot feel safe in their homes or while exercising their faith because they are at risk of persecution,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all the Baha’i individuals who were recently detained as well as anyone in prison from before solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of religion. All convictions and sentences imposed on this basis must be immediately quashed.”

An additional 26 men and women in Shiraz, Fars province, are at imminent risk of arbitrary detention after a Revolutionary court convicted them of spurious national security charges stemming from their identity as Baha’i adherents in a grossly unfair mass trial and sentenced them in June 2022 to prison terms of between two and five years.

According to the Baha’i International Community (BIC), the recent arrests bring the total number of those currently imprisoned in Iran on account of their Baha’i faith to at least 68, including those who have been in prison since as early as 2013. According to the United Nations, over 1000 Baha’i individuals are currently at risk of imprisonment.   

Intensified persecution

On 2 August 2022, authorities bulldozed six Baha’i houses and confiscated more than 20 hectares of land in the village of Roshankouh in Mazandaran Province, northern Iran. According to state media reports, the demolitions were carried out in the presence of several senior judicial and executive officials.

The Iranian authorities have brazenly imposed a system of discrimination and oppression against the Bahai’s.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International

Three victims told Amnesty International that more than 200 agents from various security forces, including plainclothes intelligence agents and riot police, sealed off the village and its access road from 6am to 4pm, confiscating the mobile phones of villagers to prevent filming, beating and/or pepper spraying individuals, including several elderly men, who had peacefully gathered to protest the bulldozing, and firing into the air to disperse crowds. Two men were detained for several hours after sustaining severe beatings.

Since 2016, authorities have been attempting to appropriate Baha’i properties in Roshankouh under the false pretext that they have encroached on protected landscapes. As a result of the recent confiscations, at least 18 Baha’i farmers have been denied their source of livelihood. In 2021, the authorities also demolished two Baha’i houses that were under construction and confiscated about one hectare of land, which was the source of livelihood for two farming Baha’i families.

In a separate case, an appeal court upheld a verdict on 25 June 2022, which authorized the confiscation of 18 Baha’i properties in Semnan Province on the grounds that the owners are leading figures of the “perverse Baha’i sect”, which “engages in illegal activities and espionage to the advantage of foreigners”.

Over the past decade, authorities in Semnan forcibly closed at least 20 Baha’i stores, confiscated the equipment of two Baha’i manufacturing units, and confiscated or blocked access to the lands of two Baha’i businesses involved in agriculture and animal farming.

“The Iranian authorities have brazenly imposed a system of discrimination and oppression against the Bahai’s. Iranian authorities must immediately abolish all discriminatory laws, policies, and institutional practices which have been adopted to expel and dispossess Baha’is of their land and property, and deprive them of their human rights, and ensure that Baha’i people can exist and practise their faith freely and openly,” said Heba Morayef. 

Amnesty International issued a call for Urgent Action on 23 August, urging people around the globe to write letters and speak out against the Iranian authorities’ intensified assault on the Baha’i minority.

Background

Baha’is are Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. They suffer widespread and systematic violations, including arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, forcible closure of businesses, confiscation of property, house demolitions, destruction of cemeteries, and hate speech by officials and state media, and are banned from higher education.

In 1991, an official policy was adopted by the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader, which clearly states that “the state’s dealings with the Baha’is must be in such a way that their progress and development are blocked”. The policy adds that “they must be expelled from universities” and that “they shall be denied employment if they identify as Baha’is” and “any position of influence, such as in the educational sector”.

Iranian authorities have used the fact that the Baha’i religion’s headquarters is in the city of Haifa in Israel to denounce the faith and falsely accuse its community of espionage. article source

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History is a stark reminder that much evil is perpetrated in darkness when we either don’t know or don’t care to know about the challenges and difficulties faced by so many in our world.

The government of Iran has been systematically inflicting untold cruelties on the Baha’is and the persecution of the Baha’is seems to be intensifying.

In a cruel escalation, the Ministry of Intelligence issued an oppressive and hateful statement against the persecuted Baha’i minority, with government agents raiding 53 Baha’i homes and businesses across Iran on July 31.

Two days later on Aug. 2, up to 200 Iranian government and local agents sealed off the village of Roushankouh, in Mazandaran province, where many Baháʼís live, and are using heavy earthmoving equipment to demolish their homes.

To hide these efforts the authorities have sealed off roads into and out of the village, arresting anyone who tried to challenge the agents. They have confiscated the mobile devices of those present and prohibited filming.

Neighbors have been warned to stay in their homes and are barred from filming or photographing. Four homes that were under construction have been destroyed. The authorities are installing robust metal fences to restrict access of the Baháʼís to their own homes.

“We receive fresh news of persecution of the Baháʼís in Iran, demonstrating unmistakably that the Iranian authorities have a step-by-step plan that they are implementing, first blatant lies and hate speech, then raids and arrests, and today land grabs, occupations, and the destruction of homes,” said Diane Ala’i, representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, referring to the past several weeks.

Among the scores arrested in recent weeks have been some of the main leaders of the community, including Fariba Kamalabadi, Afif Naemi and Mahvash Sabet, a winner of the Pinter prize for writers of courage issued by PEN, the literary freedom of expression group. These three were released from prison in 2018 after serving 10 years each.

Bijan Masumian a family member of Mahvash Sabet said, “The news of the re-arrest of Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi, and Afif Naeimi (who were jailed previously and released after 10 years) — as well as all the other Baha’is who have been recently arrested throughout Iran — is particularly troubling. Government officials have also begun confiscating the personal belongings of Baha’is. In one case, they refused to return the laptop and mobile phone of a Baha’i who, after multiple attempts to reclaim his devices, was told, ‘Be thankful that you are allowed to breathe. Do not come back for your property.’”

The Baha’i Community of Austin calls on all concerned citizens to raise their voice and call for these dreadful acts of blatant persecution to be immediately stopped.

Ajit Giani is a member of the Baha’is of Austin and the secretary of Interfaith Action of Central Texas. source of article

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The Ministry of Intelligence issued a formal statement about the moves—which came after weeks of escalating pressure on the Bahá’ís—and claimed the arrests were against members of the “Bahá’í espionage [political] party” and that those arrested were “propagating the teachings of the fabricated Bahá’í colonialism and infiltrating educational environments” including kindergartens. The mention of kindergartens is an apparent pretext for the targeting of a number of Bahá’ís who are preschool teachers.

The Bahá’í International Community (BIC) rejects these absurd and preposterous allegations as outright fabrications. What the Iranian government is doing is simultaneously an act of gross oppression and a brazen example of the worst kind of hate speech.

Thirteen individuals—among them Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi, and Afif Naemi, formerly part of the community’s leadership and prisoners of conscience who each spent a decade in jail—were arrested during the raids. One is being held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison and the whereabouts of the other two are unknown.

“We are outraged that a significant number of Bahá’ís, among them Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi and Afif Naemi, have been detained again in Iran,” said Diane Ala’i, representative of the BIC to the United Nations.

Ms. Ala’i added: “And it is even more galling that the Ministry of Intelligence is trying to portray these individuals as agents of foreign powers trying to undermine Iran’s security. The Ministry’s statement is utterly incoherent and self-contradictory and the allegations are clearly absurd and baseless. Iran’s authorities rather than dealing with the challenges of their country, instead direct their attacks on innocents and try to stoke religious hatred.

“Iran’s government has for more than 40 years alleged that Bahá’ís are spies for foreign countries but, in all that time, has failed to produce a shred of credible evidence. Now they are reduced to attacking kindergarten and daycare teachers as a threat to national security.”

Sabet, Kamalabadi and Naemi were members of a group of people known as the “Yaran,” or “Friends” of Iran, which until 2008 served as an informal leadership of the Iranian Bahá’í community. All seven of its members were arrested in 2007 and 2008 and jailed for a decade. The Yaran tended to the basic spiritual and material needs of the community—Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority—and did so with the knowledge and acceptance of the Iranian authorities at the time. But the Yaran was disbanded as a result of their original arrests and has never been regrouped or reestablished. The implied statements by the Ministry of Intelligence that they are part of a so-called “core members” of the Bahá’í “espionage party” is therefore absolutely false in every sense.

The raids and detentions come days after 20 Bahá’ís in Shiraz, Tehran, Yazd, and Bojnourd were arrested, jailed, or subjected to home searches and business closures, and less than a month since 44 others across Iran were also detained, arraigned or imprisoned. Twenty-six individuals among the 44, who were in Shiraz, were sentenced to a combined total of 85 years in prison.

More than a hundred Bahá’ís have therefore been targeted in Iran over the past few weeks.

Mahvash Sabet, who wrote poetry during her decade in Tehran’s Evin Prison, which were shared during her incarceration and later published in English under the title “Prison Poems,” was recognized in 2017 as an English PEN International Writer of Courage.

“We are very concerned by reports that Mahvash Sabet, the winner of the 2017 PEN Pinter Prize for an International Writer of Courage, has once again been detained in Iran,” said Daniel Gorman, Director of English PEN. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

Fariba Kamalabadi, a developmental psychologist, was arrested in 2008 and also spent a decade behind bars. In 2017 the United States Commission on Religious Freedom recognized and championed her as a religious prisoner of conscience.

Afif Naemi, an industrialist who was also arrested in 2008, spent much of his 10-year prison sentence in ill health yet denied the medical treatment he needed. He was released in 2018 alongside the other members of the former Bahá’í leadership group.

“Detaining these Bahá’ís demonstrates the senseless cruelty of the Iranian government in its systematic campaign to persecute the whole community,” said Ms. Ala’i.

“Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi, and Afif Naemi are symbols of resilience in Iran, renowned across the world for their courage as prisoners of conscience, and no one will believe the Iranian government’s excuses for attacking a helpless, peaceful community. But this unrelenting and escalating psychological warfare sets the stage for added persecution of the Bahá’ís in the weeks and months ahead.” article source

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