The first raid took place on the evening of November 3rd, during a gathering at the home of the Razi family to celebrate a Baha’i holiday, Feast of Qudrat. During that raid, Mahmud Razi and Jamal Chupani were arrested. All those present in the gathering were required to provide information about themselves and their immediate family to the authorities.

On November 6th, the homes of the Shahnazi and Ta`id families were raided and Baha’i materials were confiscated. On November 20th, Shadya Ta`id whose house was raided two weeks prior was arrested along with her mother. The women were taken to a prison in Sari.

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2. Judiciary spokesman: six Baha’is arrested in Iran
3. Dorsa Sobhani, a Baha’i Activist, Arrested Today in Iran

Larijani claimed in his November 22nd interview Baha’ism is a “closed-door cult” that prevents people from leaving it, and therefore the Iranian regime needs to protect people against this “exclusive” and “dominating” cult. Larijani stated that the treatment of the Baha’i “cult” is similar to the treatment of any other closed-door cult, whether it’s Sunni or Shia. According to him, members of the Baha’i “cult” are affluent people and “there are more than 300 Baha’i students in universities”. This means that according to Larijani’s own admission, Baha’is are discriminated against since only 0.1% of Baha’is (300 out of 300,000) attend Iranian universities and 4.8% of the general Iranian population do (3.5 million students out of a population of 72 million). This is assuming Larijani doesn’t think that Baha’is are inherently intellectually inferior compared to Muslims.

Full transcript:

Baha’ism is not a religion in Iran. The Jews are minority and they even have members in the parliament. The Christians are minority; they have members in the parliament. Zoroastrian’s are minorities.

Bahia’s are a cult and they are governed by the law which deals with different cults and as far as this cult is not preventing its follower from going out of the cult they are tolerated.

So you can find Bahai’s in universities as students as teachers. There are more than 300 Baha’i students in universities. They are professors. They are very affluent people; they have big factories and companies so they are protected by law according to the law which we call Citizenship Contract.

Regardless of their religion as far as it is within the law, they get all the protections. But the trouble starts when they start to act as a cult which is a closed door cult. It means that people can get in but cannot get out.

And we had numerous cases, some young Baha’is, they wanted to leave this cult; they said it doesn’t make sense to us. So they had been summand in meetings and they had been warned that if you leave this cult you will be punished and deprived from all the ancestral will, you will be put under pressure.

So here the law will come in and the law will prevent the use of this much exclusive or kind of dominating called procedure; any cult, being Baha’i or being Shia doesn’t matter, it will be prevented by law.

We had numerous cases of cults’ practices even with Shia groups. People have been jailed because they were putting people in some farms and not letting them to go out so we will fight with any cult activity which prevents its followers from the freedom of living the cult, being Shia or being Baha’i doesn’t matter.

Related posts:

1. Iranian Regime Continues to Scapegoat the Baha’is for Recent Unrest
2. More on Iranian Baha’i students
3. Sentence of the Iranian Baha’i leaders halved to ten years

End genocide amongst the Baha’i
by Liva Sreedharan | MalaysiaKini
November 4, 2010

For the past 29 months, they’ve been held captive, shielded from sunshine or even the slightest allure of humanity. They have had to bear with the stench of stale, putrid air. They are permitted to have fresh air only two hours each week.

For some time, they were held in solitary confinement and denied access to their families. They are deprived of basic humane facilities. Forced to sleep on the cold, hard, floor. Packed in a tiny cell less than 2m by 2m that made it hard for them to move around or obtain the smallest measure of rest.

These circumstances have quite understandably had a deleterious effect on their health.

The severe and inhumane conditions under which they are being held clearly violates the principles outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provides that no one may be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

These seven people are being imprisoned for no crime committed. These are people being punished and persecuted because of their religious beliefs. These seven people are members of the Baha’i community in Iran.

These detentions are not isolated cases. From August 2004 till May 2010, 300 followers of the Baha’i community in Iran have been arrested. Thirty-two are currently imprisoned, while 125 have been released on bail awaiting trial.

The rest have been released without bail or are free pending appeal against their sentences; some have had their verdicts overturned, or had completed their prison terms and have begun their terms of exile after serving their prison sentences.

Since its inception in 1844, Baha’is have been persecuted in their homeland (Iran). The progressive ideals of the Baha’i faith such as the elimination of all forms of prejudice, equal rights for men and women, and compulsory education for all seem to remain a constant struggle between the Republic of Iran and modern civilisation.

From 1979, attacks on Baha’is in Iran have reached a new level; that of official government policy. When the Republic’s new constitution was drafted in 1979, the rights of the Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians in Iran were specifically mentioned.

No mention whatsoever was made regarding the rights of the Baha’i community which incidentally is Iran’s largest religious minority.

Men, women and children alike have been persecuted in Iran for their religious beliefs. Courts in Iran have denied the Baha’is the right to redress or to be protected against assault, killing, injury or other forms of persecution because they are not being provided for.

Without any claim to civil rights, the conditions of the Baha’i community in Iran have deteriorated. By 1981, courts in Iran were openly sentencing Baha’is to death for their religious beliefs.

A more dramatic incident occurred in 1983 where ten Iranian women, including two teenage girls were hanged to death for conducting Baha’i moral classes for children.

These women were subjected to intense physical, mental and emotional torture in the hope that they would recant their faith; an option that was almost always presented to Baha’i prisoners proving that the persecutions were based solely on their religious beliefs.

The early 1990′s saw a shift in the trend of the persecutions to social, economic and cultural restrictions in order to block the advancement of the Baha’i community in Iran.

The Iranian government has violated almost all of the human rights under international law and under Iran’s own national obligations. The systematic elimination of the rights of the Baha’is in Iran is a clear warning sign of the government’s attempt to wipe out the Baha’i community there.

The harassment of Baha’is is persistent and pervasive and they include arbitrary arrests and detention, with imprisonments lasting for days, months, or even years.

Searches of homes and businesses, confiscating of Baha’i books and other items, school expulsions and harassment of school children by classmates, teachers and school administrators alike, and prohibition on Baha’is attending universities.

The bank accounts of Baha’is are being monitored and their movements and activities restricted. They are subjected to official interrogations requiring them to divulge information about their lives and of other Baha’is.

The renewal of their business licenses are not permitted and existing ones are confiscated including evictions from their places of business, not to mention Baha’i doctors from their offices and clinics.

They are denied work opportunities in general. They are victims of physical assaults. Efforts to drive Baha’is out of towns and villages are being pursued. The desecration and destruction of Baha’i cemeteries and harassment over burial rights is continuing.

The dissemination in official news media of misinformation about the Baha’is, and the incitement of hatred against them is ongoing.

Intimidation of Muslims who associate with the Baha’is, attempts by authorities to get Baha’is to spy on other Baha’is, threatening phone calls and letters to them, denial of pension benefits, denial of access to publishing or copying facilities for Baha’i literature and confiscation of property are yet other forms of persecution prevalent in the lives of Baha’is in Iran.

One theme that is common in the persecution of the Iranian Baha’is is the fact that they are not given the chance to defend themselves.

The Baha’i community in Iran seeks no preferential treatment or special privileges. All they want is for the basic rights as human beings to be restored to them.

23 out of the 30 articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been violated by the Iranian government in their treatment meted out towards the Baha’is. Iran is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but it violates these very rights that it claims to defend.

Such violation is not merely to be lamented or condemned on the grounds of morality. More has to be done as it constitutes a breach of a binding international law and an attempt by a government to suppress an entire religious community.

What are needed to stop the atrocities of the Iranian government against its Baha’i citizens are legal and public measures. Persecution of the Iranian Baha’is was at its highest but it subsided a little when international communities intervened and condemned it through different forums.

Any lessening in support from domestic and international communities would be deemed by the Iranian government as approval of their behaviour and persecutions against Baha’is will undoubtedly be intensified.

I am a member of the Baha’i community of Malaysia and am saddened by what is happening to my brothers and sisters in Iran. I feel defenceless and powerless, so this is my appeal on behalf of those imprisoned Baha’is in Iran to those in authority here to play their role in appealing to the Iranian authorities for the unconditional and immediate release of these prisoners of gross injustice.

The author has a Masters in Criminology with Forensic Psychology and performed her research on genocide and religious and cultural cleansing. An earlier version of the author’s article was presented at the Common Studies Session in Critical Criminology at the University of Barcelona, Spain.

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Many Bahais in Iran are small shop-keepers and service providers, because they are excluded from government service and employment in most sectors, and from higher education, so that small trading and services is virtually the only avenue Bahais in Iran have to earn a living. They need renewable licenses for their shops, and are periodically put out of business when the local authorities deny them a further license. Sometimes they are arrested and imprisoned or exiled as well. Others have their shops attacked by vandals or arsonists. From the news reports of these incidents, we get a picture of what kind of businesses the Bahais have. Not once have I heard of a Bahai gold merchant or jeweler being denied a license, or of the shop of a Bahai goldsmith being damaged. So this story falls into the category of transparent fabrications, so obviously false that a comment is not required.

However it got me thinking. The motive behind the story is probably not anti-Bahaism, but alarm at the gold merchants’ strike, and fear that it will spread. By saying that the Bahais are behind the strike, the inventor of this story is probably hoping to discourage individual merchants from joining in the strike. The story is circulated to warn shopkeepers, “if you shut your shop, people may think you are a Bahai.” Any perceived relationship to the Bahai Faith would have commercial, social and perhaps criminal consequences for the merchant and his family. The same may be true of the person who first thought up the story that the Bahais were behind the 2009 Ashura protests (although in that case, some Bahais have actually been charged with involvement), or the story about the Bahais running the BBC and VOA.

I think we can distinguish two different kinds of anti-Bahai fabrications: those that are primarily intended to smear the Bahais, and those that use existing anti-Bahai sentiment to serve other agendas. They reinforce one another in a vicious circle. The first kind I will call active anti-Bahai propaganda. Recent examples are the story about an unnamed Bahai man being arrested in an unnamed town for sexual relations with unnamed Muslim women, in a case that never came to court for unstated reasons. Or the one about two Bahai terrorists being arrested in broad daylight a park in Tehran, strangely enough without a single eyewitness of the arrest. When Bahais are actually arrested, which happens every week, we know fairly soon their names, and how they were arrested, and what they are charged with (the standard accusations are teaching the Bahai Faith and propaganda against the regime).

The Qom version of the blood libel story, with Bahais as the villains, is another kind of active anti-Bahai propaganda: historical libels.

The second kind of anti-Bahai propaganda feeds on the anti-Bahai sentiment, so I will call it passive anti-Bahaism. The story about the gold merchants is an example. The active anti-Bahai propaganda appears to be consciously generated and distributed, with government funding and support, but passive anti-Bahai propaganda is spontaneously generated by people with other agendas. The link between the two, is that the accumulation of individual stories about the Bahais being behind everything from local gold strikes to the United Nations, must leave the Iranian consumers with the impression that the Bahai Faith is a huge global conspiracy with tentacles everywhere. If the Bahais can arrange a strike, or a UN resolution, they could raise the price of bread and stop my mother getting her cataract operation.

The people who are producing active anti-Bahai propaganda would not want to give the impression that the Bahais are powerful in Iran, or the world, today. They are content to say things such as, the Bahai Faith was created by Russia, or England, or the Zionists, or is in league with Israel and Saudi Arabia and Freemasons, or was supported by the late Shah (who, in fact, persecuted the Bahais, often with the assistance of Muslim clerics). The last thing they would say, is that today there are Bahais behind every lamppost, becoming more and more numerous. But that’s the impression given by the spontaneously-produced passive anti-Bahai propaganda. The accumulation of those stories, which link the Bahais to any and every polemical target, turns anti-Bahaism from a-historical fabrications into a visceral threat to the men and women on Iranian streets today, and makes government policies against the Bahais seem like a justified cultural defence.

Originally posted on Sen’s Daily

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After being held for almost two years in the notorious Evin Prison without any charges brought against them or permission to meet their lawyers, the trial of the Yaran began in January 2010 and was concluded in June 2010. The trial was held in the 28th branch of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran and was essentially a show trial. Outside observers were not allowed into the courtroom despite it officially being a trial open to the public, but film crews of the regime were dispatched to tape the trial. The Baha’i seven, aware of the role the regime planned for them, refused to participate in some of the hearings.

The fictitious charges brought against the Baha’i leaders are espionage, initiation and expansion of illegal organizations, collecting and transmitting classified information to foreigners in the aim of disrupting national security, holding illegal meetings to plot the actions against the security of the state and spreading corruption on earth. These activities were coordinated with the “usurper regime that is occupying al-Qods” (Israel) and guided by the leadership of the Baha’is, the Universal House of Justice, which is located in Israel.

The seven Baha’is are the members of “Friends of Iran” (Yaran Iran), a national-level coordinating group for the Baha’i community in Iran. Six of the group, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm, have been arrested in their home in Tehran on May 14, 2008. Mahvash Sabet was arrested on March 5, 2008 during a visit to Mashad. All official Baha’i governing bodies were disbanded in Iran in 1983.

Update: Initial reaction of the Baha’i international community:

“If this news proves to be accurate, it represents a deeply shocking outcome to the case of these innocent and harmless people,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“We understand that they have been informed of this sentence and that their lawyers are in the process of launching an appeal,” said Ms. Dugal.

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1. Sentence of the Iranian Baha’i leaders halved to ten years
2. The 7 Baha’i Leaders Refused to Participate in their Show Trial in Tehran
3. Trial of 7 Baha’i leaders delayed yet again

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Struggle fought in hearts
Human rights in Iran

by Randolph Dobbs
08-Apr-2010

Human rights and globalization share a common vocabulary. No matter where people may live in the world they share a vital interest in the basic requirements of liberty, including the right to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion;” the right to “freedom of opinion and expression” and the “right to peaceful assembly and association.” These and 27 other specific freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were adopted by the United Nations more than 60 years ago.

Partly as a result of this declaration as well as a growing global view of social responsibility, human rights transcend national borders. Globalization is more than just economic interests—it includes a social and political interdependence that promotes human rights worldwide.

Unfortunately for the people of Iran and most especially for Iranian Baha’is, human rights are neither widely recognized by the Islamic government nor is their application evenly distributed. Yet human rights are universal exactly because they define the interests of those without power—even in authoritarian states like Iran.

No country in the world has unlimited power to do whatever it wants to its own people. The very idea of national sovereignty includes a dual responsibility: to respect the sovereignty of other countries but also to respect the rights of its own citizens. As a member of the U.N. and signatory to a number of international conventions, the Islamic Republic of Iran has to face some tough questions about the treatment of its own people and especially the 300,000 Iranian members of the Baha’i Faith.

Baha’is have been persecuted ever since their religion was founded in mid-19th century Persia (present-day Iran). The Iranian Baha’i community is often viewed as the canary-in-the-coal-mine regarding human rights abuses because as the nation’s largest non-Muslim religious minority they suffer the most discrimination—denied access to higher education, prevented from working in government jobs or receiving federal pensions to cite only a few examples.

Since obedience to government wherever Baha’is reside in the world is a matter of religious principle, the Baha’is in Iran are a convenient scapegoat for the Islamic regime which seeks to redirect public ire over its difficulties. Following the Ashura Protests last December, a group of Baha’is were arrested on January 3 under the guise that they were responsible for the anti-government turmoil. But Baha’is must also refrain from involvement in partisan politics whether local, national or international. In the spring of 2008, seven Baha’i leaders were rounded up during the night and have been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison ever since. Faced with trumped-up charges of “spying for the state of Israel” and “spreading corruption on earth” their fate may be decided at a trial in a Revolutionary Court set for April 10.

Their families and fellow Baha’is around the world have good reason to fear what may result should they be found guilty. Some 25 years ago members of Iran’s national-level Baha’i leadership were arrested in a similar manner and executed by the Iranian government.

The Islamic Republic of Iran promotes division within its own country by pitting one group against another. To make this policy effective Iran has tried to isolate its people from accurate reporting of the news. According to Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based organization that promotes freedom of the press, Iran has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world—a distinction it has earned not only by jailing foreign correspondents but also by depriving its own citizens of the freedom of thought and conscience.

Iran, in fact, controls every aspect of its domestic news even down to minor details. Last November the country’s largest circulation newspaper, the Hamshahri, was temporarily closed down after it published a photograph of a Baha’i temple in India as part of an advertisement for tourism to that country.

Any kind of criticism, foreign or domestic, only fuels the Iranian Islamic regime’s worst expectations. The government is sensitive to international embarrassment and highly reactive as is clearly shown by its response to ongoing public protests over the Iranian presidential election held last June.

The international community, including the American government, should continue to highlight Iran’s human rights abuses as such global attention makes it more difficult to continue rights violations without being noticed.

What is also needed is a sustainable policy that promotes human rights, encourages international support and does so in a way that doesn’t antagonize Iran’s historical anxiety over foreign influence or heighten concerns over the loss of traditional values—a sustainable policy, in other words, that appeals to the Iranian government’s better judgment. In essence, the abrasive relationship between Iran and the rest of the world, particularly between Iran and the West, masks a deeper truth. Iran needs the rest of the world more than the rest of the world needs Iran.

That “the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens” is an oft-quoted excerpt from the 19th century writings of the prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith, Bahá’u'lláh. Universal human rights and international conventions may not represent global governance, but the recent earthquakes in Haiti followed by those in Chile and just last week the modest quake in Los Angeles, pose an excellent metaphor for global unity and the interconnectedness of nations—what happens in one part of the world affects people living elsewhere.

Whatever happens in the show-trial of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran, the larger issue is the fate of the Iranian people. The question is: What kind of nation does Iran aspire to become? Will it remain a repressive society unable to overcome the effects of religious bigotry? Or will it live up to the ideals not only of international human rights but also Islamic standards of justice?

Bahai’s have the greatest respect for all religions. The sacred writings of the Baha’i Faith refer to Islam as “the blessed and luminous religion of God” and Iran, itself, as having a glorious future as a “focal center of divine splendors” to match its proud history of achievement.

In the face of injustice people turn to external interventions. They march in protest, conduct economic boycotts, work to enact various laws, abandon old policies and adopt new ones. Bahai’s believe that the ultimate struggle for justice in Iran will not be waged in the streets of Tehran, will not be contested in Islamic courts but will, instead, be fought in the hearts of the Iranian people.

AUTHOR
Randolph Dobbs is the secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of Los Angeles and a member of the Regional Bahai Council of the Southwestern States.

Comment:

I was truly touched and became uncharacteristically emotional while reading this piece by Randolph Dobbs. For a long time I have been looking for an opportunity to apologize to my Bahai ex-classmates and ex-neighbours for allowing myself to be brain washed by the men of religious pretensions to treat them with suspicion and mistrust. I have been waiting for a long time, nearly 35 years, for an opportunity to let off the guilt bottled inside me on a public forum such as this. Thank you “Iranian.com”.

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to say sorry. I particularly would like to say sorry to a lone Bahai classmate of mine who was desperately seeking friendship in the school playground but was cruelly turned down because he was Bahai. Sorry, I just had no courage to leave the mainstream of religious ignorance, bigotry and prejudice. I am guilty.

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Noble people of Iran,

We do not see the need to tell you of our love for Iran and Iranians. Anyone who has contact with the Baha’is of Iran is without a doubt well aware of their devotion to their land and their dear compatriots.

However, as a poet put it,

The guards of my cage broke my silence
They broke my heart filled with patience

The time to wait and hesitate has come to an end. The pen in the hands of the oppressive rulers writes nothing but defamation, distortion of facts, and derision. Their paper is soaked in the darkness of dogma, detestation, and despotism. My dear compatriots, you should also present a pen and paper, because you love freedom, and you love kindness and passion. The power of thought and heart is stronger than a thousand weapons.

We are Iranians of the Baha’i faith. Our desires will be reached with an Iran that is proud and Iranians that are honoured. On the contrary, we are deprived of our minimal civil rights [in Iran]. Although we do not have the right to attend universities in our country, we have not ceased to defend the dignity and honour of Iranians. We have shown compassion to this land and its people with all our heart and soul. Despite all the injustices we have to bear, this land is sacred and a source of pride for us.

To pursue our right to education, we went to many government organizations like the Ministry of Advanced Education, the Evaluations Office (responsible for post-secondary examinations), and the Presidential Office. [As a response] we were either insulted or threatened.

Conscious violations of human rights in Iran is not new. Everyone, in some way or another, is faced with it. Followers of the Baha’i faith seem to have been more stripped of their human rights than others. Baha’is have not experienced justice, fairness, and equality in the past thirty years.

The violators of these rights did not stop at insults and defamation. The regime has a dark record of burning Baha’is alive; looting and confiscating property owned by Baha’is; threatening, torturing, and imprisoning Baha’is. Despite the amount of cruelty Baha’is have endured, they have never submitted to the injustices.

Despite all these, we cannot complain about these oppressors; it is clear to everyone that power and wealth blind those who depend on it. They turn exalted feelings into hatred and violence such that one does not even recognize the humanity of others, let alone respect their rights.

The Baha’i youth who were engaged in serving their fellow citizens by helping disadvantaged children of their cities were arrested and detained for daring to assist their compatriots. The individuals who take their grievances on their right to education to officials are affronted and intimidated. Currently some are detained in prison. Mercenaries who know nothing of the Baha’i people are recruited to write whatever they want against followers of this faith to weaken their status in the society. Not a single word they write is true, and yet when we try to clarify the facts and uncover the truth, we are hit by legal prosecution on the false premises that we have acted against national security and have insulted Islam.

As we mentioned before, we do not expect much more of them. We are, however, disappointed at fellow citizens who listen and believe those who say whatever they want, distort the truth, defame and slander, and even break the law. We are heartbroken at the compatriot who harasses their fellow citizen out of religious dogma, and turns the schools attended by young Baha’i children to a place where they harass, belittle, and insult these defenseless youngsters. We are saddened by those who accept without research and review whatever they hear without seeing the impacts of such statements.

Whatever you do, you remain our compatriot and our fellow human being, and we will not cease to love you. It is not hatred and resentment, but love for you which remains in our hearts. I like you my bully and oppressive fellow citizen. We love you our oppressed and bullied compatriot. Whether you are Muslim, Christian, or you hold another belief; whatever your post and status, whether you are poor or rich; whether you are fair or unjust; whether you are educated or illiterate; whether you are black or white; we cordially love you.

The New Year is an excuse to renew thoughts and emotions. Let us celebrate it, and regardless of any dogma, let’s hold hands. Let’s rise with one heart and one soul, bonded by compassion and mutual respect, to serve the sacred soil of Iran.

A group of Baha’i students deprived of education

March 18, 2010
Source: Siavosh J. | Persian2English.com

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Below is the Human Rights Watch statement:

Iran: End Persecution of Baha’is
Dozens Detained Without Charge; Leaders Face Charges Carrying Death Penalty
February 23, 2010

(New York) – The Iranian government should immediately stop harassing and arbitrarily detaining members of the Baha’i community, Human Rights Watch said today.

The detention of 13 Baha’is on February 10 and 11 follows the arrest of 13 others in early January. The government alleges that those arrested in January helped to organize recent anti-government demonstrations but has not made public any charges against those detained in February. These arrests come during a broad government crackdown on opposition activists.

“The Iranian government seems to be using the post-election unrest as a cover for targeting the Baha’i community,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “These arrests are only the latest chapter in the government’s systematic persecution of the Baha’i.”

Unlike Iran’s Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian communities, which are accorded constitutional protection, the Iranian government does not recognize the Baha’i Faith and considers its adherents to be apostates from Shi’a Islam. Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the Iranian government has put in effect various discriminatory policies against the Baha’is, including limiting access to education and employment.

Since October 2009, authorities have detained at least 47 Baha’is in Tehran, Mashhad, Sari, Semnan, and Yazd, according to the United Nations office of the Baha’i International Community (BIC) in Geneva. In May 2008, the government arrested seven leaders of the Baha’i community in Tehran, who have been held in detention since then. Their trial began on January 12, but has been postponed to April 10.

The Judiciary has charged the seven community leaders with a range of national-security-related offenses, including spying for the benefit of foreigners, propaganda against the system, establishing and spreading illegal organizations, undermining the image of the Islamic Republic in the international community, and spreading “corruption on earth.” Most of these charges carry the death penalty. During the more than a year and a half that the five men and two women have been held, they have been allowed only limited visits from family and lawyers.

One of those detained on February 10 was Alaeddin Khanjani. According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters in Iran, Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) agents entered his home in Tehran at about 2:30 a.m., searched the premises, confiscated personal belongings including a computer and religious material, and took him into custody. Khanjani is the son of Jamaloddin Khanjani, one of the seven Baha’i leaders on trial in Tehran. Ministry of Intelligence agents had also arrested Alaeddin Khanjani’s adult daughter in January. Within several hours of Alaeddin Khanjani’s arrest, agents arrested seven more Baha’is, claiming they were being detained for their involvement in recent public demonstrations. On February 11, agents arrested five Baha’is in their homes in Tehran. No charges have been filed against any of the 13.

On January 3, MOI agents also raided the homes of 13 Baha’is and detained them, releasing three of them after they indicated they would not participate in further public demonstrations. In addition to the others arrested on February 10, one of those arrested on January 3 and then released was rearrested on February 10.

In a press statement on January 12, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran general prosecutor, said that the 10 Baha’is who have been held since January 3 faced charges of “organizing the unrest on Ashura [December 27] and sending photos of the unrest abroad.” In a previous statement on January 8, he claimed that authorities had found arms and ammunition in some of their homes. Dolatabadi denied that the arrests had anything to do with their Baha’i affiliation. Security forces have reportedly arrested hundreds of Iranians for their alleged involvement in the demonstrations on Ashura, a Shi’a day of mourning.

The authorities are holding those arrested on January 3 in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj and have not allowed them to contact their lawyers. According to the BIC, a few of them were allowed to contact family members after spending several weeks in prison.

The BIC also indicated that 60 Baha’is are currently in detention, with an additional 90 having been released but awaiting trial. Since 2004, 99 Baha’is have been convicted of various charges, including acting against national security, teaching against the Islamic Republic, propaganda against the regime, involvement in establishing illegal groups and organizations, and insulting the sacred institutions of Islam. These individuals are free pending appeal. Scores of others have been summoned and interrogated by security and intelligence agents without being taken into custody, according to the BIC.

The five Baha’is arrested in Tehran on February 11 are: Taraneh Ghanouni, Naghmeh Ghanouni, Shaida Yousefi, Aria Shadmehr, and Riaz Firouzmandi.

In addition to Alaeddin Khanjani, those arrested on February 10 are: Ashkan Bassari, Maria Ehsan Jafar, Bashir Ehsani, Romina Zabihiyan, Houtan Sistani, Simin Ghaffari, and Pedram Sanaei.

Those arrested on January 3 are: Mehran Rowhani, Farid Rowhani, Babak Mobasher, Leva Mobasher Khanjani, Payam Fanaian, Jinous Ghazanfari Sobhani, Artin Ghazanfari, Nikav Hoveydaei, Ebrahim Shadmehr, Zavosh Shadmehr, Negar Sabet, Mona Hoveydaei Misaghi, and Nasim Beiglari. Negar Sabet, Mona Misaghi, and Nasim Beiglari were released on January 3, but Mona Misaghi was summoned to the MOI agency’s office again on February 10 and rearrested.

The seven members of the Baha’i leadership whose trial began on January 12 are: Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm.

Background

Due to governmental restrictions on openly practicing their faith, Baha’is in Iran are unable to convene and administer a National Spiritual Assembly as in most countries where Baha’i communities exist. Instead, they have formed an informal coordinating body known as the “Friends of Iran.” The seven members facing trial consist of six leaders and the secretary of this coordinating body.

Haifa, in present-day Israel, is the final resting place of Baha’ullah – the founder of the Baha’i Faith – and the faith’s administrative headquarters since 1868, when Haifa was under Ottoman rule, Despite the fact that sites in and around Haifa were considered holy to the Baha’is well before the creation of the state of Israel, the Iranian government has repeatedly used the connection as an excuse to accuse Baha’is in Iran of spying for Israel, with which Iran has hostile relations.

During a recent review of its human rights record before the United Nations Human Rights Council, Iranian officials dismissed numerous concerns by member states regarding the government’s treatment of its Baha’i minority. Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Iran’s UN delegation, stated on February 15 that “no Baha’i in Iran is prosecuted because he is a Baha’i,” and the government rejected recommendations put forth by other governments calling for “an end to discrimination and incitement to hatred vis-à-vis the Baha’i.”

Related posts:

1. Five More Baha’is Arrested in Iran
2. Trial of Recently Detained Baha’is to Start “this Week” in Tehran
3. Serious Charges Emerge against Recently Detained Baha’is in Iran