Iran’s oppression of Baha’is is unfolding with greater intensity – GlobeNewswire

Washington, D.C., May 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Bahai International Community is concerned that a recent intensification of the persecution of the Bahais in Iran appears to be underway, signaling the implementation of a larger plan by the Iranian government to increase the persecution of the community, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the country.

A campaign of raids on Bahai homes and baseless arrests of Bahais is currently unfolding across Iran. So far, dozens of Baha'i homes have been raided by authorities in Baharestan, Isfahan, and Shiraz, resulting in the detention of over 20 Bahais and more who can be called to prison at any time. These raids and arrests are the latest in a long list of recent incidents of persecution, including the confiscation Bahai-owned properties in the village of Ivel in Mazandaran Province, a confidential directive from the Commission on Ethnicities, Sects and Religions in the town of Sari in Mazandaran Province to monitor and suppress Bahais, and the banning of the Bahais of Tehran from burying their loved ones in land previously allocated to them in Tehrans Khavaran cemetery. Such incidents are nothing less than an extensive government campaign, the aim of which is the systematic eradication of the Bahai community as a viable entity.

Waves of courageous domestic and international support for the Bahais in Iran has generated a global outcry in solidarity for the most basic human rights of Iranian citizens. As a result, one facet of the Governments campaign was reversed, as the Bahais of Tehran have now been able to bury five of their dead in Tehran's Khavaran cemetery, returning the situation to the previous arrangement which had been made for the community.

The recent events have proven that unity and solidarity are at the center of the achievement of human rights for all Iranians, said Diane Alai, representative to the United Nations of the Bahai International Community in Geneva, This support and solidarity is now essential in responding to the intensification of the persecution of the Bahais in Iran that is currently underway.

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Iran's oppression of Baha'is is unfolding with greater intensity - GlobeNewswire