News

Leva Khanjani gets leave from prison (Sen’s Day – July 10th)

On July 11th, Leva Khanjani, a Baha’i student who was banned from pursuing her education, was granted prison furlough and temporarily released from Evin Prison. Khanjani, who is the granddaughter of one of the seven Baha’i leaders serving 20-year sentences in Iran, was arrested with her husband, Babak Mobasher, in early 2010. They were two of 12 Baha’is whom the regime has blamed for the 2009 Ashura protests. They are both serving 2-year sentences.

Nura Fallah interrogated, released (Sen’s Day – July 10th)

A Baha’i from Shiraz, Nura Fallah, who was taken into the Ministry of Intelligence on July 8th, was interrogated and released.

Bahai student expelled from university in Shiraz (HRANA – July 12th)

Ayda Bandi, a Baha’i student who was studying English literature at Payame Noor University in Shiraz, has been expelled from school. Bandi says she was given an ultimatum to either convert to Islam or leave the country. She has left the religion box empty when filling out her school forms. When a school administrator asked her to fill it in, she wrote in “Baha’i”. In a letter she sent to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, she explained, “He told me ‘convert to Islam and continue your study or flee such as the other Baha’is and continue your studies abroad. Also I am sorry that you cannot study here, but I cannot do anything for you.’ Why I cannot be here? What’s my faith business with my study?”

Concerns for the health of Rahman Vafa’i, imprisoned in Shiraz (Sen’s Day – July 13th)

The family of Rahman Vafa’i, a 59-year old Baha’i in Adel Abad Prison who suffers from “high blood pressure and pain from a sciatic nerve”, is raising concerns that Vafa’i is not receiving the medical attention he needs. Treatment for his condition stopped after he entered prison, where he is serving a three year sentence. He reportedly has lost “all feeling in his left foot” and requires surgery. The prison doctor, however, has not deemed the surgeryy necessary.

Shamim Ettahadi is sentenced to 5 years (HRANA – July 14th)

Baha’i Shamim Ettahadi, who was arrested in mid-March on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “acting against national security”, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison. Ettahadi, who was is from Yazd, is accused of taking and disseminating a video of the destruction of a Baha’i cemetery. He had been previously incarcerated on similar charges in 2011.