Baha’is say Iran is marginalising them

Despite Rouhani’s promises, government has issued more than 20,000 pieces of anti-Baha’i propaganda

The Baha’i International Community said yesterday that Iran’s effort to crush the religious minority has continued unabated and intensified on some fronts despite President Hassan Rouhani’s promises to end religious discrimination.

In a 122-page report, the community said Rouhani’s government has stepped up its “campaign to incite hatred against Baha’is” including by disseminating more than 20,000 pieces of anti-Baha’i propaganda in the Iranian media.

Since Rouhani was inaugurated in August 2013, the report said at least 151 Baha’is have been arrested, and at least 388 incidents of economic discrimination have been documented ranging from threats and intimidation to shop closings.

Iran has banned the Baha’i religion, which was founded in 1844 by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by followers. In 2013, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa, or religious edict, urging Iranians to avoid all dealings with Baha’is.

The report said that “on every front the Iranian government is facing pressure to end the decades-long, systematic persecution of Baha’is.”

But instead of keeping its promises to end religious discrimination, the report said, “the government has shifted its strategy of oppression, moving away from arrests and imprisonments to more easily obscured measures such as economic and educational exclusion.”

Bani Dugal, the Baha’i chief UN representative, said “taken altogether, what we have seen is an overall shift in tactics by the Iranian government, apparently as part of an attempt to conceal from the international community its ongoing efforts to destroy the Baha’i community as a viable entity.”