Escalating Persecution Targets Baha'i Community In Iran

In a surge of persecutions against the Baha'i religious community in Iran, 36 new incidents have come to light in recent days, disproportionately impacting women.

Ten women, many of them young, were apprehended in Esfahan (Isfahan), central Iran, earlier this week, with an additional three arrests reported in Yazd, the Bahai’s International Community reported.

The arrests were marked by home invasions and the confiscation of personal possessions, including electronics, books, cash, and even gold. In a particularly disconcerting instance, more than ten agents were involved in the raid during one woman's arrest.

Each of the arrested Baha'i individuals and the victims of home invasions carried out by the Iranian government has a profoundly personal and harrowing account of persecution that has permeated every aspect of their lives, the statement says.

The recent wave of arrests and harsh prison sentences follows over a year of heightened attacks on Iran's Baha'i community. Dozens of Baha'is have been subjected to arrests, trials, sentencing, or bans from university education and livelihoods in recent months. In August, the Baha'i International Community reported that 180 Baha'is, including a 90-year-old man had been targeted.

Two other Baha'i women, Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, who had previously endured a decade in prison from 2008 to 2018, were re-arrested in July 2022 and are currently serving a second 10-year jail term.

In Iran, approximately 300,000 Baha'is reside, and they frequently document a pattern of systematic rights violations. The violations encompass harassment, forced displacement from their residences and businesses, and unequal treatment with regard to government employment and access to higher education.