Excerpt from the Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Baha’is in Iran

May 3, 2024 , editor , Leave a comment

In 2023, authorities conducted individual and mass arrests of Baha’is across Iran, taking them to undisclosed locations and imposing excessively long prison sentences.

Iranian security officials beat and brutalized Baha’is during raids and searches of private homes.

In November, Iranian security forces arrested scores of Baha’is in cities including Hamadan, Mehrshahr, Yazd, Karaj, Alborz, and Tehran.

The government has targeted Baha’i women in particular, including 10 arrested in Isfahan in October.

Approximately two-thirds of Iranian Baha’i prisoners are women, including Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, members of Iran’s former Baha’i leadership (Yaran-e-Iran). Both are serving a decade in prison after having previously served an identical sentence in the early 2010s.

Authorities also targeted Baha’i cemeteries in Arak, Alborz, and Golestan. Local municipalities seized and confiscated Baha’i land, restricted Baha’i access to burial grounds, and declared intentions to sell Baha’i-owned property exclusively to Muslims.