Last updated: 18 November 2009

Note: This report is provided as a service to news media and others desiring current information about the Baha'is in Iran. All details have been verified by the Baha'i International Community.

Words in italics have been altered or added since the previous update.

The Baha’i community of Iran, numbering about 300,000 people, is the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the country.

Summary of latest news:

• Seven Baha’i “leaders” remain in prison with no trial date: The five men and two women who formerly comprised the group called Friends in Iran have been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison for a year and a half. Two announced trial dates have passed with no trial or court hearing of any kind being held. No new trial date has been given.

• Number of Baha’is currently in prison: About 35 in various cities, including the seven “leaders” in Tehran.

• International reaction: As in previous years, a resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran has been introduced at the United Nations by Canada and other countries, with committee action expected within days and a vote in the General Assembly likely next month.

• Recent acts of persecution: Harassment of Baha’is occurs at many levels – evidence that authorities aim to disrupt the daily lives of Baha’is, try to pressure them into denying or hiding their faith, and thus decimate the Baha’i community. For example:

  • Security agents continue to identify Baha’i homes, search the premises and confiscate Baha’i materials, then take the owners in for questioning, sometimes for hours and sometimes for actual detention that stretches into days, weeks, or months. Incidents of this type are reported almost weekly. In the city of Yasouj, a man was arrested in this way on 31 October, with no news forthcoming regarding his whereabouts. In Yazd, a Baha’i was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence on 19 October and has been detained ever since; his family has not been allowed to visit. Just in the past few weeks, interrogations have also been reported in Bushehr, Marvdasht, and three different towns of Khouzestan province.

  • The owner of an optical shop in the town of Khomein in Markazi province received official notice that he must close his business within two weeks. He was informed that all such optical shops owned by Baha’is anywhere in Iran will eventually be ordered to close. (See below for news of other optical stores.)

  • In Shiraz, a Baha’i was attacked at a gas station on a cold night in late October. It immediately became obvious that the object was not robbery. The assailants took his clothes, pretended to hang him, and burned his body repeatedly with cigarettes. In Iran today, perpetrators of this type of crime against Baha’is generally act with impunity.

  • Three Baha’is who were allowed to enroll in university in Semnan this year already have been expelled by order of the University Security Office. University officials refused to provide written documentation explaining the expulsion but told the students the order came from “a higher authority.” A new expulsion has been reported in Yazd, with the student told that the problem was that he was identified as a Baha’i.

  • Five people in Shiraz have been summoned to appear in court, with one family being told that the charges would be “illegal activities.” All five were arrested earlier this year and held for a number of weeks or months before gaining their release by posting exorbitant amounts of collateral, in some cases as much as the equivalent of $150,000 in property deeds.

  • Baha’is in Najafabad and Semnan have been prevented from burying their dead. In one case, a hospital refused to release the remains of a deceased Baha’i to his family but – unbeknownst to the relatives –sent his body to a different city for burial by strangers. More recently it has been reported that the local municipality has blocked the road into the Baha’i cemetery in Semnan.

Trial for Baha’i “leaders” again delayed:

Seven Baha’is imprisoned since the spring of 2008 were scheduled to go on trial on 18 October, but no trial was held and no new date was given. It was the second time the trial was delayed.

Attorneys associated with the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran – co-founded by Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi – are representing the Baha’is. The lawyers themselves have been harassed, including Abdolfattah Soltani, who was detained for a period in the aftermath of the June national elections.

The names of the seven defendants are Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mrs. Mahvash Sabet, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. Mrs. Sabet was arrested on 5 March 2008 and the others on 14 May 2008.

Jail conditions are harsh, and although all seven were at first held incommunicado, they are now allowed periodic visits with family members, albeit sometimes through a barrier.

Until their imprisonment, they were part of a group called the Friends in Iran that helped tend to the needs of the 300,000 Baha’is in Iran. The Friends group has now been disbanded, as have smaller committees that assisted Baha’is on the local level.

Earlier this year, authorities announced in the mass media that accusations against the seven prisoners would include “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic republic.” Later it was announced that they would also be charged with "spreading corruption on earth."

The Baha’i International Community categorically denies the accusations against the seven individuals and states the following:

• The accusation of spying is contrived and has long been used as a pretext to persecute Baha’is and as an attempt to impede the progress of the Bahá’í community. Since the 1930s, Baha’is have successively been accused of being tools of Russian imperialism, of British colonialism, of American expansionism, and, most recently, of Zionism. The Baha’i Faith has never been a part of any of these movements. There is no truth to this allegation, nor is there any evidence to support it.

• That the international headquarters of the Baha’i Faith is located within the borders of modern-day Israel is purely the result of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, being banished from his native Tehran and sent – by Persian and Ottoman authorities in the 19th century – to perpetual exile in the city of Acre, near Haifa. Baha’u’llah arrived in Acre in 1868, 80 years before the establishment of the state of Israel. The Iranian government is well aware of this history.

• Accusations that Baha’is “insult religious sanctities” and promote “propaganda against the Islamic regime” are completely without foundation – Baha’is respect all religions, including Islam, and are loyal to government.

About 35 Baha’is in prison

Counting the seven people in Tehran who formerly constituted the Friends in Iran, about 35 Iranian Baha’is are in prison because of their religion.

The number of Baha’is in detention varies frequently because new people are arrested but others released after posting cash, property deeds, or business licenses as collateral.

This year alone, Baha’is have been arrested, detained, or interrogated in Tehran, Ghaemshahr, Mashhad, Sari, Yazd, Shiraz, Semnan, Hamadan, Babol, Karaj, Tonekabon, Miandoah, Mahforouzak, Kashan, Nazarabad, Yasouj, Bushehr, Marvdasht, Najafabad, Khorramshahr, Abadan, and Mahshar.

The collateral required for temporary release from custody is often exorbitant. A woman in Semnan who was arrested during the summer and released two weeks later was required to post bail in the amount of 100 million tumans – approximately $100,000.

As of 18 November, the cases of at least 213 Baha’is are still active with authorities. These include individuals in prison, those who have been released pending trial, those who have appealed their verdicts, those awaiting notification to begin serving prison sentences, and a few who are serving periods of internal exile. Thousands more have been questioned, threatened, or deprived of pensions, livelihood, or education.

International reaction

Canada, along with cosponsors, again is presenting a resolution for vote by the United Nations General Assembly condemning human rights violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Such a resolution has been approved almost annually in recent years.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon released a report in mid-October criticizing Iran’s human rights record. He voiced concern about the use of excessive force after the presidential election in June, the harassment of women’s rights activists, the ongoing execution of juveniles, and the continued persecution of minorities, including Baha’is.

The U.S. House of Representatives on 22 October passed a resolution condemning the government of Iran for “state-sponsored persecution of its Baha’i minority and its continued violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights.” It is the 11th resolution by the U.S. Congress since 1982 to address the religious oppression of the Baha’is of Iran.

On 12 October in the Hungarian Parliament, a ranking official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Hungary “unequivocally condemns … the severe violations of human rights in Iran” and supports the “immediate release of the incarcerated Baha’i leaders.”

(See separate page for links to some of the statements made since the arrest in 2008 of the seven Baha’i “leaders.”)

The situation overall

The government campaign to eradicate the Baha’i community of Iran continues, with arrests, confiscation of assets, closing of businesses, long and frightening interrogations, raids on homes, denial of education and employment, harassment of schoolchildren, and other forms of persecution. The desecration of cemeteries and harassment over Baha’i burials are clear indications that the persecution is based solely on religion and not the result of any threat posed by Baha’is, as officials sometimes claim.

Destruction of cemeteries and preventing members of the Baha’i community from burying their dead is a particularly cruel form of harassment. In a recent case in Najafabad, a Baha’i family was prevented from burying a loved one when a hospital refused to release his remains, and it was later learned that the deceased was buried in another city without the family’s knowledge. In an earlier case in Semnan, authorities refused to allow a burial unless the family of the deceased followed Islamic rites; the family declined. Harassment of Baha’is at funerals is now being reported, too.

Universities and other institutions of higher education to a large extent remain closed to Baha’i students. In recent years, those who do manage to get admitted generally have been expelled during the course of their first year.

There are continuing reports of youth being denied enrollment in high schools and even primary schools. A young girl in Karaj was expelled this fall from her middle school and transferred to a different school; a letter from the first school states that she was polite and well-behaved and that “religious matters” were the reason for the expulsion.

Home raids continue in various cities and usually follow the pattern of agents from the Ministry of Intelligence searching a home; confiscating computers, mobile phones, books, and other materials; and taking residents into custody. Authorities also apply pressure to Muslim citizens to discriminate against and mistreat Baha’is.

One recent case involved a woman in Sari who was arrested and allowed temporary release only after posting the equivalent of $70,000 in bail. In another instance, a Baha’i woman in Semnan was sentenced to 3½ years in prison for, among other things, “membership in anti-regime groups associated with Baha’is.”

Economic persecution is acute, with both jobs and business licenses being denied to Baha’is. Numerous cases have been reported of long-time shop owners being forced to surrender business licenses under threat of arrest. The operator of one of five optical stores owned by Baha’is in Nazarabad – shops that were closed by authorities a year ago – managed to get a court verdict allowing her to reopen her shop, but the Ministry of Intelligence is preventing her from doing so.

Ad hoc committees disbanded

On 5 March 2009, the Baha'i International Community sent an open letter to Iran’s prosecutor general, Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, stating that the Baha’is of Iran were willing to change their administrative procedures if the government was now declaring even the small ad hoc committees illegal.

The Baha’is said they were willing to do this “for no other reason than to demonstrate yet again the goodwill that the Baha’is have consistently shown to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the past 30 years.”

(Beginning in the 1980s when the Iranian government banned formal Baha’i institutions, the small group known as the Friends in Iran tried to take care of the minimum spiritual and social needs of the Baha’i community, as did smaller groups at the local level known as the Khademin. The government knew of these committees and communicated regularly with them, but in February of this year authorities suddenly indicated that even these ad hoc groups were no longer acceptable.)

The pervasiveness of the persecution

In summary, harassment of Baha’is is pervasive and includes many incidents of all of the following:

• Arrests and detention, with imprisonment lasting for days, months, or years. In cases where the Baha’i is released, substantial bail is often required.
• Direct intimidation and questioning by authorities, sometimes with the use of high-intensity lights and physical mistreatment.
• Searches of homes and business, usually with Baha’i books and other items confiscated.
• School expulsions and harassment of schoolchildren.
• Prohibition on Baha’is attending universities.
• Court proceedings where Baha’is are accused of promoting propaganda against the government “for the benefit of the Bahaist sect.”
• Monitoring of the bank accounts, movement, and activities of Baha’is, including official questioning of Baha’is requiring them to give information about their lives, actions, neighbors, etc.
• Denial or confiscation of business licenses.
• Denial of work opportunities in general.
• Denial of rightful inheritances to Baha’is.
• Physical assaults, and efforts to drive Baha’is out of towns and villages.
• Desecration and destruction of Baha’i cemeteries, and harassment over burial rights.
• Dissemination, including in official news media, of misinformation about Baha’is, and incitement of hatred against Baha’is.
• Evictions from places of business, including Baha’i doctors from their offices and clinics.
• Intimidation of Muslims who associate with Baha’is.
• Attempts by authorities to get Baha’is to spy on other Baha’is.
• Threatening phone calls and letters to Baha’is.
• Denial of pension benefits.
• Denial of access to publishing or copying facilities for Baha’i literature.
• Confiscation of property.

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