Updates on Baha’is in Iran

For over 40 years and to this day, the entire Bahá’í community in Iran has been subject to continuous, multidimensional and state-sponsored persecution, affecting every one of its members across generations and within every phase of life and even in death. While the specific tactics employed by the Iranian authorities have sometimes changed, including as a result of external pressure, there is no doubt that their aim of destroying the Bahá’í community as a viable entity in Iran continues in full force. Through various means, new and old, the authorities maintain focus on this goal by striving to exclude Bahá’ís from the public sphere and prevent them from expressing their beliefs; impoverish them economically; undermine their intellectual advancement; erase traces of their history and culture; as well as spread disinformation about them and incite the public so as to create an environment of hatred against them.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, early adherents of the Bahá’í Faith faced violent opposition from the ruling establishment in Iran, which responded to its growth with fierce opposition, inciting violence against followers of the new religion. The persecution continued intermittently thereafter with varying degrees of severity and the Bahá’ís were often being used as scapegoats.

From the early 1980s, Bahá’ís have suffered under a new wave of persecution, this time systematic and, clearly, state-sponsored. The campaign initially targeted many Bahá’ís of influence and those who served on Bahá’í administrative institutions at the local and national levels. In August 1980, for example, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly—an elected national council that forms part of the Bahá’í administrative structure in all countries—together with two individuals serving on other Bahá’í institutions, were abducted by a group of armed men from their meeting in a private home and taken to an unknown location. These individuals disappeared without a trace, presumably the victims of extrajudicial killings, although the government authorities have never admitted to this fact. In the years that immediately followed, members subsequently elected to this council, as well as scores of other Bahá’ís, were executed by the government without due process of law. On 29 August 1983, the Iranian Attorney General announced a legal ban on all Bahá’í administrative and community activities in Iran, making membership of Bahá’í administrative institutions a criminal offense.

In response to this announcement, in an open letter dated 3 September 1983, addressed to Iranian authorities, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran detailed the abuses faced by the Bahá’ís in the Islamic Republic, and appealed to the Iranian people and the Islamic government to restore their rights as Iranian citizens and as human beings. This letter was the final act of the National Spiritual Assembly before it voluntarily dissolved itself and the rest of the administrative structures within the country as a demonstration of goodwill towards the government.

Since then, over 200 Iranian Bahá’ís have been executed or murdered, thousands have been arrested, detained and interrogated, and tens of thousands more have been deprived of jobs, pensions, and educational opportunities. The Bahá’í community’s holy places, cemeteries, and properties have been confiscated, vandalized, or destroyed, and many Bahá’ís have had their homes and other property seized or damaged.

The official policy of the Iranian government against their Bahá’í citizens is summarized in a government memorandum obtained in 1993 by the United Nations Special Representative on the Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Produced in 1991 by Iran’s Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and approved by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, this document, entitled “The Bahá’í Question”, sets forth specific guidelines for dealing with the Bahá’ís. It states that “[t]he government’s dealings with [Bahá’ís] must be in such a way that their progress and development are blocked.” It outlines a series of measures to restrict the educational, economic, and cultural life of Iranian Bahá’ís. This memorandum remains in effect today.

In 2008, all seven members of the Yárán, or “the Friends”—an ad hoc group tending to the social and spiritual needs of the Bahá’í community in Iran, created because of the ban on Bahá’í administration and with the knowledge and approval of the government—were arrested. They were suddenly declared illegal and disbanded, with each individual sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment of which they served 10 years and were finally released in 2018.

The above endeavours to oppress the Bahá’ís are facilitated by the fact that, within Iranian society, people’s religious beliefs are more socially discernable. Furthermore, in many official registration forms—such as those for enrolling in school and applying for university or business licenses—individuals are required to declare their religion. Bahá’ís answer these questions truthfully, yet this very honesty of the Bahá’ís is used as an instrument with which to oppress and punish the community. Not only this, authorities also monitor and surveil the Bahá’ís to collect information for the systematic implementation of the state’s program of persecution.

In recent years, Iran has witnessed economic and health crises, afflicting the entire population, including the Bahá’ís, who experience these in addition to the gross discrimination that is targeted against them. Despite these crises afflicting the nation, the systematic program of persecution against the entire Bahá’í community has increased in intensity. For instance, although some Bahá’ís were released from prison due to measures employed by the authorities in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of pending court cases around the country have steadily increased, thereby subjecting hundreds of Bahá’ís and tens of thousands of their relatives to intense psychological pressure and ill-treatment as Bahá’ís have been forced to endure cycles of arrests, pay heavy bails, and spend months or even years awaiting to be called to court or to be imprisoned at any time. Furthermore, hundreds of Bahá’í-owned shops remain sealed by the authorities, depriving thousands from receiving viable incomes. For Bahá’ís, the entire public sector and numerous professions remain precluded, university studies inaccessible, and properties confiscated. Moreover, the authorities have leveraged the increasing presence of the Iranian population on the Internet to spread hate speech about Bahá’ís and their beliefs to various segments of society with increasing sophistication.

It is safe to say that no Bahá’í in Iran remains untouched by this persecution, as the authorities strive to heighten a state of constant insecurity against the Bahá’ís across every aspect of life. This represents the latest phase in a calculated plan by the authorities to eliminate the entire Bahá’í community of Iran through its gradual strangulation.

To date, Iran has been reviewed three times under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in February 2010, in October 2014, and more recently in November 2019. In 2010, Iran accepted a number of recommendations, while also claiming that some others had either already been implemented, or were in the process of implementation. In 2014, of the 10 recommendations that dealt specifically with the situation of the Bahá’ís, only two of them were partially accepted by the Iranian government. However, the Bahá’í International Community, in a recent analysis of the implementation of these recommendations, accepted by Iran in 2010 and 2014, confirmed that, in fact, not a single one has yet been implemented. In effect, by failing to abide by the commitments and assurances it made to the international community, Iran has gravely undermined the entire UPR process. In the most recent third cycle UPR, Iran also supported, or partially supported, a number of recommendations, which it has again failed to adhere to. The sections that follow provide an overview of the current situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran in relation to the third cycle UPR and contain a sample of the latest reported and confirmed cases of persecution.

Read more here: https://www.bic.org/focus-areas/situation-iranian-bahais/current-situation