Iran Update

Six months after the appeal court reduced to 10 years the jail terms handed down to Iran's seven Baha'i leaders, the prisoners have now been told by prison authorities that their original 20-year sentences have been reinstated.

In September 2010, one month after the seven were originally sentenced to 20 years in prison, Iran's appeal court revoked three charges that accused them of engaging in acts of espionage, collaboration with the State of Israel, and the provision of classified documents to foreign nationals with the intention of undermining state security. Nothing has been seen in writing by the prisoners or their attorneys regarding the decision to revert to the 20-year sentences, nor have official copies of the original verdict or the ruling on appeal ever been seen.

See http://news.bahai.org/story/814

Since August 2004, some 379 Baha’is have been arrested in Iran. There are about 79 Iranian Baha’is currently in prison because of their religion.To date, the cases of some 315 Baha’is are still active with authorities. These include individuals in prison, those who have been released pending trial, those who have appealed their verdicts, those awaiting notification to begin serving prison sentences, and a few who are serving periods of internal exile. Thousands more have been deprived of education, questioned, threatened, denied their pensions, or debarred from earning a livelihood.

Arrests and detentions are continuing throughout the country. Most of the detentions followed the familiar pattern of agents of the Ministry of Intelligence showing up at the homes of Baha’is, searching the premises and confiscating items such as computers and books, then arresting the residents. Recent such arrests have occurred in Semnan, Mashhad, Bandar Abbas and Ghaemshahr.  

The Baha'i International Community has confirmed the arrest of four Baha'is during March in connection with the provision of kindergarten-level education in Iran's Kerman Province. Two other Baha'is from the city of Kerman were also arrested on Sunday 13 March. Their involvement in education projects has not yet been confirmed. Three Baha'is from Isfahan – including two 18 year olds – were arrested earlier this month while teaching children. They were subsequently released.

A recent wave of arson attacks on Baha'i-owned businesses in Rafsanjan, Iran, appears to be part of a campaign to fracture relationships between Baha'is and Muslims in the city. After around a dozen attacks on shops - carried out since 25 October 2010 - some 20 Baha'i homes and businesses have been sent a warning letter addressed to "members of the misguided Bahaist sect." The anonymous document demands that Baha'is sign an undertaking to "refrain from forming contacts or friendships with Muslims" and from "using or hiring Muslim trainees." The Baha'is are also told not to teach their Faith, including on the Internet. Should the conditions be accepted by the recipients, the letter states, "we will guarantee not to wage any attack on your life and properties."

See http://news.bahai.org/story/805

Economic pressure on Iran’s Baha’i community is acute, with both jobs and business licenses being denied to Baha’is. Government jobs,  including not only in the civil service but also in such fields as education and law, have been denied to Baha’is since the years immediately following the Revolution and Muslims often are pressured to fire Baha’is in their employment in the public sector.

Numerous cases have been reported of long-time shop owners being forced to surrender business licenses under threat of arrest. Baha’is have been forced out of their places of business, among them doctors evicted from their offices and clinics.

Bahá’í-owned businesses frequently  come under attack from vandals and arsonists. Optical shops owned by Baha’is have often been targeted for closure. On 29 January, the residence and optical shop belonging to a Baha’i in Sari, Mazandaran, were raided by Ministry of Intelligence agents who confiscated personal belongings including a computer and cellular phone.  A water treatment equipment shop belonging to a Baha’i in Karaj was recently sealed up on the grounds that its owner was “teaching” the Baha’i Faith. Further, a sugar manufacturing company in Babolsar was sealed on the grounds that Baha’is are debarred from engaging in the manufacturing of any food ingredients. The owner of a cosmetics and beauty store in Bojnord was fined 600,000 tuman (US$600) and had about eight million tuman (US$10,000) worth of goods from his shop confiscated by the Ministry of Intelligence. 

Authorities also use the tactic of arresting Baha’is and demanding huge sums of money, or the equivalent in property deeds for bail, as a method of impoverishing the Baha’is.

In a statement on 1 April, Baroness Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, said she was “disturbed” by the news of the reinstatement of the original 20-year prison sentences against the seven former Bahá’í leaders, and called upon the Iranian authorities to “immediately release” them.

Amnesty International described the reimposition of the 20-year jail terms as “outrageous”. "Yet again, the Iranian authorities are manipulating their own justice system to persecute members of a religious minority,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Instead of doubling their sentences, the authorities should be setting the Baha’i leaders free, right now, and guaranteeing their freedom to practice their religion free from threat or persecution.”

Commenting on the 20-year prison sentence, Mark C. Toner, Acting Deputy Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said, ”We condemn this unprecedented step as a violation of Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.” Mr. Toner’s remarks follow President Barack Obama’s address to the Iranian people on the Persian New Year. "Young and old; men and women; rich and poor – the Iranian people have been persecuted," the President said on 20 March 2011. "Hundreds of prisoners of conscience are in jail. The innocent have gone missing. Journalists have been silenced. Women tortured. Children sentenced to death. The world has watched these unjust actions with alarm. We have seen...the Bahai community and Sufi Muslims punished for their faith..."

Members of all political parties in the Dutch parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs addressed a letter to the Iranian Parliament on 17 March, calling for the immediate release of the seven imprisoned Bahá’í leaders. The letter also urged a change in policy regarding the Bahá’í Community,and calls for the release of a Church leader - who has been sentenced to death - and another Iranian citizen who has been accused of apostasy.

More than 90 prominent citizens from throughout India renewed their call for the release of Iran’s seven jailed Baha’i leaders in an open letter dated 14 March. “As citizens of India, a country that has rightfully prided itself in exemplifying for the world the spirit of coexistence and tolerance, we express our deep concern for the imprisoned Bahá’ís and their families” they said.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 10 March, concerning the European Union’s approach to Iran, condemning in particular the systematic persecution of the Baha'i community and reiterating its call for the release of the seven Baha'i leaders.

The governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States of America, as well as the European Union and the President of the European Parliament, earlier condemned the harsh sentences received by the seven Baha’i leaders. Groups focused specifically on human rights have also launched letter-writing campaigns encouraging supporters to call for justice.

(For details of these and many other statements, see separate section on international reaction. Some of the media reports can be viewed here.)

On 21 November 2010, Ministry of Intelligence officers from Sari arrived at the home of a Baha’i in Ramsar, Mazandaran province, when there were a number of other Baha’is also present, with a writ for the arrest of two Baha’i men who were there. The officers also interrogated every person in the house. A woman who objected to the arrest was also detained and released the next day. The raid follows similar action that took place in Noor on 3 November. On that occasion, Ministry of Intelligence officers arrested the homeowner and another community member. The officers also had every person in the house fill out a detailed questionnaire about themselves and their extended family members. Three days later, two Baha'i households in the city of Noor were searched by officers who took away Bahá’í materials, as well as some other personal belongings including computers. Two weeks later, a woman and her daughter who lived at one of those households were arrested and taken to Sari prison.

In recent years, there has been an increase in false portrayals of the Baha’is in the press, on radio, television and even in scholarly publications. From 5 to 10 February 2011 in Abadeh, Fars province, anti-Baha’I propaganda was posted on the announcement board of the town. On 1 February, residents of a neighbourhood in Ardestan, Isfaham, were assembled to commemorate the passing of the Prophet Muhammad. As the assemblage passed through the neighbourhood which is largely occupied by Baha’is, anti-Baha’i slogans such as “Down with the Baha’is” were shouted and the windows of some Baha’i homes were broken by the crowd. On 11 February, in Vilashahr, anti-Baha’i slogans were shouted and written on the walls and on the streets and sidewalks.

Since 2005, for example, the semi-official Kayhan newspaper has run more than 200 false, misleading or incendiary articles about Baha’i teachings, history and activities – an effort that has been echoed on television and radio. The Kayhan articles engage in a deliberate distortion of history, make use of fake historical documents, and falsely describe Baha’i moral principles in a manner that would be offensive to Muslims.

Recently, a Muslim-owned hair salon in the city of Sari was ordered by the Ministry of Intelligence not to employ any Baha’is nor to provide services to Baha’is.

The vandalization of Baha’i cemeteries has become commonplace.

Harassment over Baha’i burials and the desecration of cemeteries are clear indications that the persecution is based solely on religion and not the result of any threat posed by Baha’is, as officials sometimes claim. In the past year or so, Baha’i cemeteries in Tehran, Ghaemshahr, Marvdasht, Semnan, Sari, and Isfahan have been defaced, bulldozed, or in some way blocked to the Baha’i community. In late April, a small Baha’i cemetery in Gilavand with only four graves was desecrated by intruders using a tractor; all four tombs were destroyed. Earlier, in March, a Baha’i family in Najafabad was prevented from burying a loved one in the Baha’i cemetery there, despite their having secured a permit to do so.

Denial of access to higher education for Iranian citizens identified as Baha’is has been well documented in recent years. Many recent cases were reported by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, on 7 December 2010. Its partial list of 70 students barred or expelled from universities in 2010 on political or religious grounds includes 17 Baha’is.

Bahai school children at all school levels continue to be monitored and slandered by officials in schools. Secondary school students often face pressure and harassment, and some have been threatened with expulsion. Religious studies teachers are known to insult and ridicule Baha’i beliefs. In a few reported cases, when Baha’i students attempt to clarify matters at the request of their peers, they are summoned to the school authorities and threatened with expulsion if they continue to “teach” their Faith.

Recently, in Ramsar, a student at a technical and vocational institute was expelled for being a Baha’i.In Karaj, the parents of a first-year high school student were told that she would be expelled unless they signed an agreement that would force her to take part in the school’s political and religious events.

A Ministry of Education policy now requires declaration of religion on the registration form for the entrance exam for schools for gifted students. In the past, Baha’i pupils were allowed to take the entrance exam but any known Baha’i accepted to one of these schools was later denied admission. The new form only allows students to select between Muslim, Christian, Jew and Zoroastrian.

Universities and other institutions of higher education to a large extent remain closed to Baha’i students. In recent years, those who do manage to get admitted generally have been expelled during the course of their first year.

At Tarbiyyat Moallem University in Tehran, two Baha’is were able to get to their eighth semester but in February were finally expelled; one of them was told openly that by law, Baha’is have no right to post-secondary education.

Other recent expulsions have occurred in Semnan, Zanjan, Yazd, Gonbad, Khoramshahr, and Chabahar. There are continuing reports of youth being denied enrollment in high schools and even primary schools, and of students being harassed by teachers and other officials.

Harassment of Baha’is is pervasive and includes many incidents of all of the following:

• Arrests and detention, with imprisonment lasting for days, months, or years. In cases where the Baha’i is released, substantial bail is often required.
• Direct intimidation and questioning by authorities, sometimes with the use of high-intensity lights and physical mistreatment.
• Searches of homes and business, usually with Baha’i books and other items confiscated.
• School expulsions and harassment of schoolchildren.
• Prohibition on Baha’is attending universities.
• Court proceedings where Baha’is are accused of promoting propaganda against the government “for the benefit of the Bahaist sect.”
• Monitoring of the bank accounts, movement, and activities of Baha’is, including official questioning of Baha’is requiring them to give information about their lives, actions, neighbors, etc.
• Denial or confiscation of business licenses.
• Denial of work opportunities in general.
• Denial of rightful inheritances to Baha’is.
• Physical assaults, and efforts to drive Baha’is out of towns and villages.
• Desecration and destruction of Baha’i cemeteries, and harassment over burial rights.
• Dissemination, including in official news media, of misinformation about Baha’is, and incitement of hatred against Baha’is.
• Evictions from places of business, including Baha’i doctors from their offices and clinics.
• Intimidation of Muslims who associate with Baha’is.
• Attempts by authorities to get Baha’is to spy on other Baha’is.
• Threatening phone calls and letters to Baha’is.
• Denial of pension benefits.
• Denial of access to publishing or copying facilities for Baha’i literature.
• Confiscation of property.