All seven Bahá’ís who form a group that sees to the needs of the Bahá’í community of Iran have been arrested, six of them in early-morning raids on 14 May 2008 at their homes in Tehran. They are, seated from left, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie, and, standing, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, and Mahvash Sabet.
The Bahá’í World News Service has just published its story about the arrest yesterday (14 May) of six of the seven members of the Friends in Iran, the informal national group that coordinates Bahá’í activities in Iran in the absence of the long banned formal Bahá’í administration.
The story quotes Bani Dugal, the Bahá’í International Community’s principal representative to the UN:
“We protest in the strongest terms the arrests of our fellow Bahá’ís in Iran. Their only crime is their practice of the Bahá’í Faith.
“Especially disturbing is how this latest sweep recalls the wholesale arrest or abduction of the members of two national Iranian Bahá’í governing councils in the early 1980s – which led to the disappearance or execution of 17 individuals.”
“The early morning raids on the homes of these prominent Bahá’ís were well coordinated, and it is clear they represent a high-level effort to strike again at the Bahá’ís and to intimidate the Iranian Bahá’í community at large.”
I have to say this whole thing is deeply worrying and makes me feel sick at heart. The Iranian authorities are persecuting the Iranian Bahá’ís systematically and constantly. And the tide of persecution is definitely rising. Iran has an appalling human rights record, not just against Bahá’ís, but there is a particular hatred of the Bahá’í community. Put all these things together, add on the arrest of the Bahá’í leadership – it makes me fear for what may happen next.
You can read more about the history of the persecutions of the Bahá’ís in Iran here. And you can read here about the calls by Amnesty International and the US State Department for the release of Bahá’ís who were arrested and imprisoned in Shiraz last year.
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, arrests, persecution, human rights
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