Source: www.hra-news.org
Translation by Iran Press Watch
HRANA News Agency: In continuing efforts to put pressure on the Baha’i community by preventing them from carrying out economic activities, three Baha’is have been fired from their jobs in Shiraz in the last few days.
An informed source told the HRANA reporter: “In the continued efforts to put economical constraints on Iranian Baha’is, Mr. Sahba Haghbeen (civil engineer), his wife, Mrs. Samira Behinayeen (civil engineer) and Mr. Payam Goshtasbi (accountant) may have been fired as the result of an order from security officials. It is likely the CEOs of these private companies were pressured to fire their Baha’i employees.
Iranian Baha’is were fired from government jobs in the process of religious cleansing after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and have been subjected to economic pressure in different ways by the Iranian government ever since. Iranian Baha’is have been dealing with confiscation of their property, being fired from private offices and companies, and having their businesses shut down.
UN Human Rights Rapporteurs on Iranian affairs have repeatedly objected to the treatment of Baha’is by the Iranian government since the Revolution, and have presented it as an obvious example of the Iranian government’s neglect of human rights treaties.
Baha’is in Iran are denied religious freedoms. This systematic deprivation contravenes Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in which every citizen is guaranteed the right to freedom of religion, and the right to be converted from any religion in accordance with their personal convictions, as well as the freedom to express this individually or collectively, and publicly or privately.
According to unofficial sources in Iran, there are more than 300,000 Baha’is there, but the Iranian constitution recognizes only the religions of Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, and does not recognize the Baha’i Faith; therefore, for the past 39 years Baha’i rights have been systematically violated in Iran.
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