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According to information received from the National Spiritual Council of the Bahá’í in Germany six members of the National Coordination Group of the Bahá’í in Iran arrested on the morning of 14th May by the secret service „for reasons of security” and taken to the notorious Evin prison in Teheran.
The persons concerned are:
– Ms. Fariba Kamalabadi,
– Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani,
– Mr. Afif Naeimi,
– Mr. Saeid Rezaie,
– Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli und
– Mr. Vahid Tizfahm.
On 5th March 2008 Ms. Mahvash Sabet, the chairperson, the seventh member of the coordination group, was arrested after being summoned by the secret service to go to the town of Mashhad on the pretext of giving information on the burial of a deceased Bahá’í.
The seven persons arrested had in recent years formed an administrative body hitherto tolerated by the Iranian government to deal with matters pertaining to the more than 300,000 Bahá’í.
Other Bahá’í are also in custody merely on account of their religious affiliation: Ms. Haleh Roohi, aged 29, Ms. Raha Sabet, aged 33, and Mr. Sasan Taqva, aged 32, have been serving a four-year prison sentence since November 2007 because they had organised a social education project for children in Shiraz. A further 50 (according to other sources 51) Bahá’í who were involved in the project were placed on probation for one year and have to take part in re-education courses.
The Bahá’í in Iran: systematically persecuted and suppressed
The Bahá’í religion was developed in the 19th century in Iran by its founder, Baha’u’llah frfom Shiite Islam. It has today approximately 7.7 million members. Over 300,000 Bahá’í live in Iran, where they form the largest religious minority of the country.
Ever since its earliest days the Bahá’í community has been the target of persecution and pogroms. Particularly since the declaration of the Islamic Republic in 1979 the Bahá’í community has been systematically discriminated, suppressed and persecuted. At least 210 Bahá’í have been executed and several hundred imprisoned. Firms, offices and factories have been plundered, cattle slaughtered, the harvest seized or stolen, residential buildings attacked and set on fire, the inhabitants massacred, burnt alive or forced to convert to Islam. All administrative structures of the Bahá’í have been dissolved and banned, cemeteries and other holy places of the religious community destroyed. At least 10,000 of the faithful have fled abroad.
In the 1990s the human rights situation relaxed somewhat and the bloody persecution was ended. However up to the present day the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran denies the Bahá’í central human and civil rights.
By contrast with the Christians, Jews and Zarathrustrans the Bahá’í are not mentioned in Article 13 of the Iranian Constitution as a religious minority worthy of protection – indeed they are seen as a „heretical” group. The „distortion” of Islamic teaching is viewed by the Iranian authorities as an especial danger which must be combated.
This finds expression in many kinds of discrimination and suppression, which mark the everyday life of the Bahá’í in Iran.
The public practice of their religion is strictly forbidden. Likewise they are denied entry to institutions of higher learning – in some areas also to schools. They are also forbidden to found their own educational institutions. Employers who give jobs to Bahá’í are threatened with the closure of their businesses. The direction comes also from the highest government offices not to accept the Bahá’í as trading partners. Crimes against the Bahá’í are not prosecuted. Slander against them in the media is not only tolerated but encouraged.
Increasing gravity of the situation
The situation of the Bahá’í has deteriorated considerably in recent years. Particularly since Mahmud Ahmadinejad took office, whose rule is marked by a very strict definition of Shiite Islam, the Bahá’í have been subject to increasing discrimination and vilification.
The Iranian government is also striving for a tightening-up of the criminal law. The plan is for apostasy, i.e. the renunciation of the Islamic faith, to carry in future the obligatory death penalty. This injunction would have not only for the Bahá’í, but also for Christians, Jews and members of other religious communities, very serious consequences.
Take action!
Please support our online appeal to the Iranian government.
Protest with us against the proposed Apostasy Law, call for an end to the discrimination and suppression of the Bahá’í and the release of all those who are only in custody on account of their religious affiliation!
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