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.”

“Arrests, Imprisonments of Baha’i Soar as Iran’s War on Religious Minority Intensifies,” Center for Human Rights in Iran, November 5, 2024:

November 5, 2024 – The Islamic Republic has intensified its crackdown on the Baha’i community, the country’s largest unrecognized religious minority, with soaring arrests and detentions that have particularly targeted Baha’i women, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) and the Baha’i International Community (BIC) said today.

While the Iranian government has for decades relentlessly persecuted members of the Baha’i faith, arresting and imprisoning their leaders and blocking them from school, jobs, and business ownership, the state’s assault on the community has greatly intensified, with over a thousand Baha’is—predominantly women—now facing court proceedings or lengthy prison sentences.

“The Iranian government’s full-out assault on the Baha’i community demands far greater global attention—the Islamic Republic is aggressively trying to erase an entire community simply for their desire to practice their faith,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of CHRI.

“By targeting Baha’i women for especially brutal persecution, the Iranian authorities are not only devastating families and attacking the very heart of the community’s resilience, they are intentionally broadening their escalating war on women,” Ghaemi added.

“When Baha’i women are attacked, entire families feel the pain of this injustice. The targeting of Baha’i women—who are doubly marginalized both as women and as members of a religious minority—demands urgent global attention. Sentencing so many Baha’i women to prison just for their beliefs demonstrates the urgent need for governments to demand that Iran ends this persecution,” said Simin Fahandej, the Baha’i International Community’s representative to the UN….