BIC GENEVA — A group of 18 United Nations Special Rapporteurs and UN Working Group experts have released a joint letter of allegations rebuking the Islamic Republic of Iran for the recent rise in attacks against Bahá’í women. Women from Iran’s Bahá’í community face intersectional persecution as both women and as Bahá’ís.

“We express serious concern at what appears to be an increase in systematic targeting of Iranian women belonging to the Bahá’í religious minority throughout the country,” the UN experts said in their statement, “including through arrests, summoning for interrogation, enforced disappearance, raids on their homes, confiscation of their personal belongings, limitations on their freedom of movement as well as prolonged, consecutive deprivations of liberty.”

This statement was further confirmed this week with the sentencing of 10 Bahá’í women in Isfahan to a combined total of 90 years in prison.

In late July, the 18 experts sent a letter to the Iranian government, detailing abuses of the rights of Bahá’í women in the country and seeking a response from the authorities. Iranian officials were given 60 days to respond before the communication would be made public. No reply was received. The experts recently made public their letter on Iran’s continued persecution of the Bahá’í community.

UN Special Rapporteurs, and members of UN Working Groups, are independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate, monitor, and report on specific human rights violations worldwide. The experts hold mandates on the rights of women and girls, freedom of religion or belief, peaceful assembly, education, freedom of opinion and expression, and many others, as well as country-specific mandates on states of special concern such as the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Bahá’í women comprise two-thirds of all Bahá’ís persecuted in Iran at the present time, including through arbitrary detention, denial of education, home raids, separation from families, legal summonses, trials on baseless criminal charges and years of unjust imprisonment.

The statistic also underscores the disproportionate impact of persecution on Bahá’í women in the country.

“When Bahá’í women are attacked, entire families feel the pain of this injustice,” said Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) to the United Nations in Geneva.

“We have seen this again just this week,” continued Ms. Fahandej, “with the cruel and totally unjust sentencing of 10 innocent Bahá’í women, each to five or 10 years in prison. The children of some of these women, like so many others, will now be torn from their mothers. Wives, daughters and sisters are separated from their loved ones for no reason other than their faith.

“Since the 2022 uprising in Iran, the Islamic Republic has pursued a crackdown, in particular on women,” Ms. Fahandej added. “Bahá’í women, who already face persecution as Bahá’ís, including decades of arbitrary arrests, imprisonments, denial of education and work in the public sector, as well as other pressures, are affected even more by discriminatory policies that target them on account of both their gender and their faith. And sentencing these latest 10 women to prison, just for their beliefs, clearly demonstrates the urgent reality of the UN experts’ concerns.”

“These 18 UN experts, each representing the collective conscience of the entirety of humanity in specific areas, have now together called upon the Iranian government to end its abuses of Bahá’í women, and indeed all Bahá’ís. This exceptional action is a powerful signal to the Iranian authorities that they can no longer hide their despicable actions against Bahá’ís behind hateful propaganda and disinformation about the community. Today it has become evident to the global community that the Bahá’ís in Iran are persecuted for one reason alone: their beliefs,” Ms. Fahandej said, “and this statement by the 18 outstanding individuals, each chosen by the UN as experts in Human Rights, is a testament to this reality.”

Urging immediate action on the Iranian government, the UN experts said that all Bahá’í women should be released without delay, prisoners should be granted immediate and full medical care, and mechanisms should be created to hold perpetrators of human rights abuses against Bahá’í women accountable.

The experts also said they were “further concerned about the continued criminalization of freedom of religion or belief, freedom of opinion and expression and the right to take part in cultural life of members of the Bahá’í religious minority by the Iranian authorities.”

“The systematic nature of these violations represents a continuous pattern of targeted discrimination and persecution of this community and its members based on their religious affiliation and identity,” the UN experts added. “We are also concerned that the group of individuals affected face intersectional persecution: as women and as members of the Bahá’í religious minority. Further, we express concern about the notable chilling effect of the allegations described on other members of the Bahá’í religious minority and the exercise of their human rights and freedoms.”

The landmark intervention follows two reports by the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, established to investigate human rights violations against the Bahá’ís in the aftermath of the 2022 uprising, which gave extensive details on the impact of the government crackdown on Bahá’í women and the wider Bahá’í community. The reports called the Bahá’ís the “most persecuted religious minority in the Islamic Republic of Iran” and added that, since the protests, there has been a surge in hate speech against the Bahá’ís and a rise in the persecution of Bahá’í women.

The 45-year persecution of the Bahá’ís by the Islamic Republic of Iran was also detailed in an April 2024 report by Human Rights Watch, “The Boot on My Neck,” which determined that the treatment of the Bahá’ís by the Iranian government constitutes the crime against humanity of persecution.

Bahá’í women are exposed to the same pressures as all women in Iran, but additionally, to the denial of access to education and public employment and are arrested and imprisoned for adhering to the Bahá’í Faith.

“No human being should ever be subject to persecution because of their gender, belief, race, or ethnicity,” said Ms. Fahandej.

She added: “Empowering women makes a society more peaceful, stable and prosperous, and it is the right thing to do. But sadly, in Iran, not only are women pressured from every side, but those belonging to religious minorities such as the Bahá’ís face double discrimination, adding to the social and economic pressures they and their families face. Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, started his term with promises of ‘equality for all.’ He must now demonstrate that his words extend also to the Bahá’ís —who have tolerated every gross violation of human rights imaginable and who deserve to live as equal citizens in their own country.”