Persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran

On February 23, 2010, Human Rights Watch issued the following statement calling on Iran to end its persecution of the country’s Baha’i minority. The Iranian government should immediately stop harassing and arbitrarily detaining members of the Baha’i community, Human Rights Watch said today. The detention of 13 Baha’is on February 10 and 11 follows the [...]

The third court session for seven Baha’i leaders imprisoned in Iran is scheduled for April 10, a day earlier than originally announced. Diane Ala’i, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, said attorneys in Iran have now received written notice of the court date, confirming it as Saturday, April 10. [...]

The trial proceedings for seven Iranian Baha’i leaders who have been in prison for nearly two years will continue on Sunday, April 11, according to information conveyed orally to their attorneys. Government-sponsored news media reported that at their first hearing on January 12, 2010, the seven were charged with espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic [...]

On February 17, Amnesty International issued a statement criticizing Iran for rejecting “important recommendations by the United Nations to improve human rights in the country,” including a recommendation that would end discrimination against the nation’s Baha’i minority. From the statement… While accepting a recommendation to cooperate with UN’s human rights experts, Iran rejected several others [...]

On February 16, “Faith Complex,” a program of the Washington Post and Georgetown University, published an interview with  Baha’i author Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing of Washington, D.C. The 11-minute program provides an overview of the past and present persecution of the Baha’i Faith in Iran. You can watch it via the Washington Post.

On February 15, 2010, the United States and other member-nations of the U.N. Human Rights Council expressed concern over Iran’s human rights record, particularly since the crackdown that followed the country’s disputed presidential election last June. The session was part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a relatively new procedure that seeks to review the [...]

On February 14, 2010, English-language news outlets, including the Associated Press, Reuters and Voice of America, reported that at least five more Baha’is have been arrested in Iran. This follows the arrest of 13 Iranian Baha’is on January 3; ten of whom remain in prison. There are currently around 60 Baha’is in prison throughout Iran, [...]

Seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders appeared in court yesterday in Iran for the second closed session of their trial. Family members were not permitted into the courtroom and the hearing, which lasted just over one hour, does not seem to have gone beyond procedural issues. No date was given for any future sessions. The seven defendants—Mrs. [...]

The Baha’i International Community has issued a statement condemning the trial of 16 individuals in Iran on January 30 as a “violation of all internationally accepted standards of legal due process.” The statement highlights the lack of proper legal representation for the defendants and the use of unreliable “confessions” in the trial. One of the [...]