Persecution of the Baha’is

Mar 05, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Five Baha’i citizens of Iran were sentenced to one year in jail, each, by the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad Iran in recent weeks.
According to Human Rights Activists’ News Agency in Iran Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad, presided over by Judge Soltani, sentenced four Baha’i citizens of Mashhad to one-year imprisonment each, on charges of propaganda against the regime.
Those sentenced were Dori Amiri, May Kholousi, Saghi Fadaei, and Shayan Tafazoli. Their case has been in motion since 2014. Last month, another Baha’i citizen of Mashhad, Fataneh Nabilzadeh, was sentenced to one year in prison by the same court.
Dori Amiri, May Kholousi, Saghi Fadaei, and Shayan Tafazoli were arrested in June 2014 by Mashhad’s security forces. They were released on bail, and tried in two court hearings, December 14, 2014, and June 17, 2017.
Judge Soltani convicted these people for propaganda against the regime and sentenced each one to one-year imprisonment. The verdict was communicated to these citizens in recent days.
The sentences are not definitive and are eligible for review within 20 days.
Reports received by HRANA (News Agency), Fataneh Nabilzadeh, also a Baha’i citizen in Mashhad, was arrested in August 2014, along with Peyman Sarraf and Diane Teimuri, in her private home in the city. Ms. Nabilzadeh was sentenced by Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad last month to one year in prison for propaganda against the regime.
Baha’i citizens in Iran are systematical deprived of religious freedoms and civil rights.
This systematic exclusion is carried out contrary to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.”
According to unofficial sources in Iran, there are more than three hundred thousand Baha’is, but the Iranian constitution recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism and does not recognize the Baha’i Faith.
For this reason, Baha’is rights in Iran have been systematically violated throughout the
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof.
The tendency of societies or groups within society to alienate or repress different subcultures is a recurrent theme in human history.
Moreover, because a person’s religion often determines to a significant extent his or her morality, worldview, self-image, attitudes towards others, and overall personal identity, religious differences can be significant cultural, personal, and social factors.
Religious persecution may be triggered by religious bigotry that is members of a dominant group denigrating religions other than their own or by the state when it views a particular religious group as a threat to its interests or security.
At a societal level, this dehumanisation of a particular religious group may readily turn into violence or other forms of persecution. Indeed, in many countries, religious persecution has resulted in so much violence that it is considered a human rights problem.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Baha’is have been systematically persecuted as a matter of government policy.
During the first decade of this persecution, more than 200 Baha’is were killed or executed, hundreds more were tortured or imprisoned, and tens of thousands lost jobs, access to education, and other rights – all solely because of their religious belief.
Yours faithfully
Rooplall Dudhnath

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