Religious persecution in Iran: STP recalls fate of the imprisoned Bahá'i leaders and warns about a deteriorating human rights situation

On occasion of the sixth anniversary of the arrest of seven leading members of the Iranian Bahá'is on May 14, 2008, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) recalls the fate of the two innocent women and five men and warned that the ongoing deterioration of the human rights situation in Iran must not be ignored. The seven Bahá'is were sentenced to 20 years in prison simply because of their religious affiliation. "Europe and the U.S. continue to focus on the nuclear program of the government in Tehran – while serious human rights violations, including the persecution of other faiths in the predominantly Muslim country, are largely ignored," criticized the STP in Göttingen on Wednesday. 

While Iran's new president Hassan Rohani had promised "more freedom and a rule of law" before his election in June 2013, there are now more and more reports about arrests of opposition leaders, dissidents or dissenters as well as torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners in Iranian prisons. Especially in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where the seven Bahá'is are permanently or temporarily detained, the prison guards frequently attack the prisoners. For example, prisoners were beaten and abused for several hours on April 17, 2014. 

The seven members of the informal Bahá'i leadership, also known as Yárán (Friends) are the two women, Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet, who had already been arrested on March 5, and the five men Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Vahid Tizfahm. At first, they were all detained in Evin prison. Later, the men were transferred to Gohardasht Prison (also known as "Rajai Shahr") in Karaj, to the north-west of Tehran. 

In Iran, there are about 300,000 Baha'is. Other than the Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, their religious community is not officially recognized. The Baha'i are often accused of "spying for Israel". In reality, the Bahá'i visit Israel as pilgrims, because this is where Baha'ullah, the founder of the religious community, died and was buried in 1892 (in the former Ottoman Empire). There are approximately 7.7 million Bahá'i all over the world. In Germany, there are about 5,000.

Kamal Sido is available for further questions: +49 551 499 06 18 or nahost@gfbv.de.