Iran Intensifying Harassment Of Baha’i Religious Minority
Iran’s security forces have arrested several members of the Baha’i religious community regarded by the clerical government as heretics, and raided more than 20 households.
Iran’s security forces have arrested several members of the Baha’i religious community regarded by the clerical government as heretics, and raided more than 20 households.
Fariba Kamalabadi, Mahvash Sabet (Shahriari) and Afif Naimi, three former directors of the Iranian Baha'i community known as "Yaran", were among those who were arrested on Sunday, July 31, in Tehran and Karaj. The three had been detained before in 2018 and spent 10 years behind bars.
Several arrests were also reported in the cities of Sari in the northern Mazandaran province and Qazvin, near the capital.
Iran’s intelligence ministry claimed on Monday that the arrested Baha’is were linked to the Baha’i center in Israel, where the religious group’s international headquarters are located, and had collected and transferred information there.
The Worldwide Baha’i Community said in a July 20 statement that Tehran had intensified its systematic campaign to suppress the religious minority in recent weeks, either arresting, summoning to court, putting on trial or closing the businesses of at least 20 Baha'i citizens just in July.
According to the community, in June at least 44 Baha'is were detained, summoned to court, put on trial or given prison sentences, or had their homes searched.
The 1979 constitution of the Islamic Republic recognizes only Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.
Baha'is, who number around 300,000 in Iran, say their rights are systematically violated and they are often harassed, forced to leave their homes and businesses, and are deprived of government jobs and university education.
The 23-year-old Khalid Mehdiyev, reportedly from the Republic of Azerbaijan, was observed loitering outside the home of Masih Alinejad, a well-known Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist on July 27 and 28.
A sealed complaint filed by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent at the Southern District of New York on July 29 and seen by Iran International says that the suspect was loitering outside a Brooklyn home, without naming Alinejad, and even tried to enter the residence and looked through the windows. Other reliable information received confirms that the incident happened at Alinejad’s address.
On July 28, as the man left the location after sitting in a Subaru SUV for hours and walking around the building, he was stopped by New York City police (NYPD) for a traffic violation.
The complaint filed does not say if the NYPD was tipped off by federal agents about the vehicle, or the traffic stop was a coincidence.
As the man was detained at a NYPD precinct and questioned, police found a Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifle in a suitcase on the back seat of the car and $1,100 in cash. Mehdiyev first denied that the suitcase and the gun were his, but then changed his story and admitted that the weapon was his, and he was “in Brooklyn because he was looking for someone.”
“At that point, MEHDIYEV invoked his right to counsel and stated that he would not discuss the matter further at that time,” the complaint filed at court says.
The gun with a round in the chamber, two magazines with more than 60 rounds, had its serial number erased. The police also found two other license plates in the car with different numbers and issued by different states, than the Illinois plate on the vehicle.
Alinejad, who campaigns against mandatory hijab and other rights issues was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by Iran’s intelligence network last year. She has a considerable following in Iran especially among women with over 7 million followers on Instagram and 373,000 on Twitter.
The clerical regime in Iran does not hide its disdain about the female activist and has banned women from sharing any information or videos with her. State-controlled media routinely castigate her and use labels such as CIA agent to discredit her activism.
Her most recent campaign that elicited the wrath of the Islamic Republic was a call to women to in Iran remove their headscarves on July 12. Many women did and sent their videos to Alinejad or shared it on social media. Regime officials reacted by saying that hijab was their “red line”.
At this point it is not confirmed that Mehdiyev’s target was Alinejad, or if he has any links with Iranian spy networks. In the coming days more revelations might follow. Alinejad also has not yet publicly reacted to the news.