Father Suffers Heart Attack as Baha’i Daughter is Taken Away by Intelligence Agents

The father of a Baha’i citizen arrested in Shiraz has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack in the course of the raid, local sources have reported.

Shaghayegh Khaneh Zarin was arrested at home by Ministry of Intelligence agents at 8am on Sunday. Her father Farzad was on the way out of the house at the time and collided with the agents in the street. He was ordered back into the house and, without explanation, looked on as they searched the property and ordered his daughter to prepare to leave.

Sources close to the family said Farzad then began to suffer from chest pains. Officers initially blocked Shaghayeh from calling an ambulance and tried to calm him down themselves, only allowing the call to be placed after it became apparent he needed real medical help. They then forced the family to tidy up the house during the wait.

In front of an assembled crowd of neighbors in the street, Shaghayeh was then taken away to Shiraz Intelligence Detention Center. At the time of writing her father was still in hospital in a grave condition.

At least three Baha’i women were arrested in Shiraz on Sunday. Apart from Shaghayegh Khaneh Zarin, two others have so far been named: Jila Sharafi Nasrabadi, and Negar Ighani. All are being held in the same detention center. The charges against them are currently unknown.