There are around 300,000 Baha’is in Iran, where the Baha’i faith originated. They face tremendous persecution.

The U.S. State Department reported that in 2022, “in July and August, security forces in cities across the country conducted multiple raids of Baha’i homes, confiscated property deemed ‘illegitimate wealth,’ and arrested Baha’is in their homes or workplaces on unsubstantiated charges including ‘causing intellectual and ideological insecurity in Muslim society.’ In October, the organization Baha’is of the United States stated that more than 1,000 Baha’is were being held within the criminal justice system.”

“Two Baha’i Women in Babol Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison and Social Restrictions,” HRANA, October 23, 2024:

Suzan Eid Mohammadzadegan and Niusha Badiei Sabet, two Baha’i citizens, have been sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison, along with additional social restrictions, by Branch 1 of the Babol Revolutionary Court.

In the court’s ruling, delivered to the defendants today, each was sentenced to five years in prison, with time served during pre-trial detention considered. Additionally, both women have been banned from all educational and training activities for 18 months. They were convicted of “engaging in educational or promotional activities contrary to the sacred Sharia of Islam.”

Eid Mohammadzadegan and Badiei Sabet were arrested on August 15, 2023, at Mohammadzadegan’s residence in Babol by security forces, who did not present a judicial warrant. The two were eventually released on bail on September 11, 2023, from Babol Prison.

Mohammad Sadegh Akbari, head of the judiciary in Mazandaran Province, had previously justified the closure of two schools and ten educational and sports centers in Babol by claiming these institutions were promoting the Baha’i faith. He also mentioned the arrest of two individuals, describing them as “prominent Baha’i instructors in Iran.”…