Persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran

Frequently asked questions about the persecution the Bahá’ís in Iran:

1) Why are Baha’is persecuted in Iran?
The main reason is that the Baha’i teachings are seen as a threat to the clergy in Iran. Baha’is have been persecuted in Iran since the inception of the Faith in 1844. Some of the social teachings of the Baha’i Faith, such as the equality of women and men and the principle of each individual’s responsibility to investigate truth for his or herself, have for decades been seen as a threat by the ultra-conservative clerical regime. At the theological level, the Baha’i Faith began centuries after Islam, which contradicts the notion held by some Muslims that the Prophet Muhammad is the last source of divine guidance in human history.

2) Why are Baha’is accused of spying for Israel?
As another pretext for blatant religious persecution, the Iranian government has for more than a century attempted to portray the Baha’is as spies for foreign powers. During the nineteenth century, Baha’is were often accused of being Russian spies. In the twentieth century, they have been portrayed as British and American spies.

The more recent accusation of spying for Israel has associated with it a historical irony. In 1868, the Shah of Persia and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire collaborated to exile Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, to the penal colony of Akka, which at that time was a remote prison outpost in the Ottoman Empire. Baha’u’llah died outside the city of Akka in 1892, and this became the World Center of the Baha’i Faith. The fact that these events took place some eight decades before the establishment of what is now the State of Israel, and by the hand of the Shah of Persia, is ignored by those who look for an angle to justify persecution of the Baha’is. Baha’is throughout the world communicate with their World Center on spiritual matters, just as any religious community communicates with its center of spiritual guidance.

Today, all local and national Baha’i governing council’s have been disbanded in Iran. Read an open letter from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran from 1983, about the banning of Baha’i institutions in the country.

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