Persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran

On Wednesday, September 22, The Wall Street Journal published an opinion article by Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recommending more than a dozen questions for journalists to ask Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his U.S. visit this month. The question of Baha’i rights was among them: Why does the Islamic Republic [...]

NEW YORK,  May 12, 2009 (BWNS) – The seven Baha’i leaders currently imprisoned in Iran are facing the anniversary of their arrest this Thursday, along with new and extremely grave accusations, after spending a year in jail without formal charges or access to their lawyer, Shirin Ebadi.

GENEVA — April 19, 2009 (BWNS) – The Baha’i International Community joined two human rights organizations in calling on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to address discrimination in his own country when he speaks this week at the conference known as Durban II.

GENEVA (AFP) — Human rights groups on Sunday challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to eliminate severe discrimination in Iran, ahead of his arrival at a UN conference against racism and intolerance in Geneva. A number of references were made to the persecution of the Baha’i community in Iran.

As noted on the February 11, 2009 Congressional Record, Representative Frank R. Wolf expressed concern over the upcoming trial of the seven Baha’i leaders.

Felice D. Gaer and Michael Cromartie, Commissioners on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, posted an article titled “Enabling Ahmadinejad” in the ‘On Faith’ section of The Washington Post.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a statement on September 17 expressing concern over the institutionalization of a penal code in Iran that would introduce the death penalty in cases of apostasy.  Substantial mention is made about the Iranian Baha’i community in the following statement: USCIRF Concerned Over Apostasy Death Penalty Threat to Christians, [...]

The Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom published a piece in today’s National Review Online about a private iftar dinner that will be held in New York next week to celebrate the end of Ramadan.  The president of Iran will be the guest of honor at this dinner.  Significant reference is given to the deteriorating [...]

On June 1, 2008, Ms. Souhayr Belhassen, president of FIDH, and Mr. Joe Stork, deputy director, of the Middle East and North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch, wrote an open letter to President Ahmadinejad expressing concern over the fate of the seven detained Baha’i leaders.

On May 2, 2008, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced its recommendations to the State Department for Countries of Particular Concern for 2008. Iran was among these countries and its treatment of Bahá’ís was listed among reasons for the recommendation of Iran:

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (IL) Op-Ed published in the Chicago Sun Times on September 30.

The New York Times published an article by Laurie Goodstein about the president of Iran’s meeting with Christian leaders from the United States and Canada. The Baha’is were asked to comment about this event, and the following reference was included in the article: “But even the Bahais, a minority religious group that has suffered persecution [...]