Since 2009, arsonists have struck Baha’i homes or Baha’i-owned businesses in Semnan at least a dozen times. They have also set fire to buildings at the city’s Baha’i cemetery.
These acts have often been accompanied by the spray-painting of anti-Baha’i graffiti on Baha’i-owned buildings and properties or other forms of vandalism.
Incidents include:
The 1 February 2009 firebombing of a three-story apartment building that housed several Baha’i families. At around 3 a.m., two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the building, targeting specifically the Baha’i apartments. One firebomb hit the wall beside a window on the first floor and a second hit the balcony on the second floor. The family members heard the explosions and immediately extinguished the flames.
On 25 February 2009, the same building was attacked again – also by Molotov cocktails thrown at the windows – and the home of another Baha’i family in Semnan was also hit by a similar firebomb aimed at the windows. In both cases, the devices did not penetrate the windows and flames were quickly extinguished.
In the period from March through August 2009, at least three Baha’i shopkeepers in Semnan had their stores attacked by arsonists, often multiple times. Perhaps the most telling of these episodes concerned the case of Mr. Payman Shademan, whose properties endured a series of assaults, which can all be categorized as hate crimes. On 31 March 2009, Mr. Payman Shademan’s car was completely defaced with spray paint while it was parked at his house. The markings include anti-Baha’i graffiti. A few days later, on 2 April, Mr. Shademan’s shop was also spray painted with anti-Baha’i messages inciting hatred and suspicion. On 23 June, stones were thrown at Mr. Shademan’s shop. Then, on 29 June, attackers on motorbikes successfully set Mr. Shademan’s store ablaze, damaging a large portion of his merchandise. A few weeks later, a dead cat was hung on the door of Mr. Shademan’s shop – and soon after that the shop was attacked again by arsonists on motorbikes.
The residence of Mr. Yahya Hedayati and a shop belonging to Mr. Akbar Pourhosseini were attacked by arsonists on 16 February 2010. As with Mr. Shademan, Mr. Hedayati had been the focus of repeated harassment. In April and May 2009, on at least nine occasions, vandals broke his windows and carried out other kinds of attacks on his house. On 3 September 2010, a type of explosive or incendiary device was also thrown into his home.
The Baha’i cemetery, which serves both Semnan and the nearby town of Sangsar, was also attacked by arsonists and vandals in February 2009. Approximately 50 gravestones were demolished and the mortuary, situated at the cemetery, was set on fire. In addition, anti-Baha’i graffiti was sprayed on large steel water drums and tanks at the cemetery. The graffiti threatened death to “unclean, infidel Baha’is” and included references to “Israel and England.”
In mid-August 2009, a section of the Baha’i cemetery of Semnan where prayers are recited for the deceased was destroyed by assailants using a front end loader. They also blocked the door of the building in the cemetery where bodies are washed and prepared for burial, using the loader to cover it with soil.
Throughout Iran, arson, graffiti and vandalism has been increasingly used against Baha’is. Cases include:
In late 2010, at least a dozen Baha’i-owned shops in the city of Rafsanjan were hit by arsonists. The attacks, which heavily damaged some of the businesses, were accompanied by the distribution of a threatening letter, sent to 20 Baha'i homes and businesses. Addressed to "members of the misguided Bahaist sect,” the anonymous document demanded that Baha'is sign an undertaking to "refrain from forming contacts or friendships with Muslims" and from "using or hiring Muslim trainees.” The Baha'is were also told not to teach their Faith, including on the Internet.
A cleric from Qom visited the village of Khabr in Kerman province on 7 January 2009 and delivered a sermon in which he attacked the Baha’i Faith and encouraged the people of Khabr to set Baha’i-owned orchards on fire. The following day, about 10 meters of the fence surrounding an orchard owned by Imamali Rasekhi was set on fire. A second attempt to burn Mr. Rasekhi’s orchard was made a week later, but only part of its wall (shared with a Muslim orchard owner) was damaged. After the departure of the Qom cleric, a local cleric continued to urge Muslims to attack Baha’is – and soon after that anti-Baha’i graffiti then appeared on walls surrounding the homes and shops of some Baha’is from the village.
On 10 June 2008, an outbuilding on the property of the Mr. and Mrs. Mousavi, elderly Baha’is living in the village of Tangriz in Fars province, was destroyed by fire when it was doused with gasoline. The Mousavis, along with their two sons who were sleeping close to the building, narrowly escaped injury when the gasoline tank used to start the fire exploded. The Mousavis believe that the perpetrator thought they were all sleeping in the hut when he set the fire. Mr. Mousavi issued a formal complaint against the person they suspected, but the legal office has declined to pursue the case because the suspect swore on the Qur’an that he was not guilty. Out of respect for the Qur’an, the Mousavis have dropped the charges.
On 15 July 2008, Molotov cocktails were thrown into the front courtyard of the home of Khusraw Dehghani and his wife, Dr. Huma Agahi, in Vilashahr, only months after anonymous threats directly related to her being a Baha’i forced Dr. Agahi to close her clinic in nearby Najafabad where she had practiced medicine for 28 years.
On 18 July 2008, the house of the Shaker family in Kerman went up in flames, only weeks after their car had been torched. These events came after a series of threatening phone calls.
On 25 July 2008, the car of a prominent Baha’i in Rafsanjan, in Kerman province, was torched and destroyed by arsonists on motorbikes. Soheil Naeimi, the owner of the car, and 10 other Baha’i families in the town had received threatening letters from a group calling itself the Anti-Baha’ism Movement of the Youth of Rafsanjan that, among other things, threatened jihad (holy war) against the Baha’is.