Persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran

Listen to the recorded session: http://www.cfr.org/iran/iranian-crackdown-regime-against-baha/p26439

In some 40 years as a university professor, I have been privileged to teach students who went on to serve their people as senators, ambassadors, prominent scholars and even U.S. president. None of this would have been possible had I lived in my family’s homeland of Iran. As a member of the Bahai faith, I would have been barred from teaching freely—and I might even have been imprisoned, as seven Bahai educators now are.

The upcoming trial of seven Iranian Baha’i leaders was mentioned in an editorial published by Voice of America on Sept. 21, 2009, and excerpted below. Another group facing unjust charges are the 7 leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran. The 5 men and 2 women were arrested in the [...]

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 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom held a public hearing on February 21, 2008, entitled “Advancing Religious Freedom and Related Human Rights in Iran: Strategies for an Effective U.S. Policy”.