Tag Archives: bahai persecution

Last week, Bahá’ís of the world were informed that a website, “Archive of Bahá’í Persecution in Iran,” is now available. It provides “a resource of unparalleled significance” for anyone seeking irrefutable evidence of Baha’i persecutions.

Religious freedom is priceless to Fereshteh Momeni. An Iranian Baha’i now living in Medical Lake, she lived through the Iranian revolution in 1979 and her country’s transition into the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is why she appreciates the information in the 2023 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report that identifies countries with the worst religious freedoms.

Consider the fate of two Baha’i women in Iran who, in November, were sentenced to their second 10-year prison terms after a hiatus of four years. Mahvash Sabet, 69, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 60, were first incarcerated in 2008 and released in 2018. At the time they were part of an informal group of five men and two women who tended to the basic pastoral needs of the Iranian Baha’i community. This was with “full knowledge of the Iranian government,” according to the Baha’I International Community (BIC) in Geneva. The BIC represents the worldwide Baha’i community at the UN and other international forums.

The latest example of Iran’s ongoing Baha’i  persecutions was described in yesterday’s New York Times as “a sweeping crackdown on its Baha’i community, a long-persecuted religious minority.” According to residents, rights groups, and the government itself, “dozens of people” have been arrested, and Baha’i properties have been destroyed.

State-sponsored persecution of Baha'is in Iran inspire two new bills in Congress.