Abuses of Religious Freedom
(This has been taken from the latest U.S. State Departments report)

According to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, more than 200 Baha'is have been killed since 1979, and 15 have disappeared and are presumed dead.

Baha'i groups outside the country reported that government authorities increased their harassment and intimidation of the members of the Baha'i community during the reporting period and extended the harassment to sympathetic Muslim neighbors, friends, and colleagues of Baha'is. According to Baha'i groups outside the country, the Baha'i community in the city of Abadeh in southern Iran experienced a particular increase in harassment.

The Government continued to imprison and detain Baha'is based on their religious beliefs. The Government arbitrarily arrested Baha'is and charged them with violating Islamic Penal Code Articles 500 and 698, relating to activities against the state and spreading falsehoods, respectively. Often the charges were not dropped upon release, and those with charges still pending reportedly feared re-arrest at any time. Most were released only after paying large fines or posting high bails.

Between July 7, 2007, and May 8, 2008, the Government reportedly arrested at least 41 Baha'is. As of March 2008 at least 12 remained in detention. The Government never formally charged many of the others but released them only after they posted bail. For some, bail was in the form of deeds of property; others gained their release in exchange for personal guarantees or work licenses.

There were also reports of attacks on Baha'is by unidentified assailants, including the killings of two elderly Baha'i women. On February 16, 2007, an 85-year-old Baha'i woman, Behnam Saltanat Akhzari, was killed in her home by a masked intruder. The following day, a 77-year-old Baha'i woman, Shah Beygom Dehghani, was also assaulted in her home by a masked intruder and died on March 7, 2007. There were no pending prosecutions during the reporting period.

On May 27, 2008, security officials arrested two officials of the Baha'i community in Isfahan and one other member of the Baha'i community, reportedly on charges of burying their dead at a particular site that had been used for the past 15 years. They remained detained in Isfahan prison at the end of the reporting period.

On May 14, 2008, authorities arrested six leaders of the Baha'i community at their homes in Tehran and detained them in an unknown location. The six community leaders, Fariba Kalamabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm, are members of a national coordinating group of the Baha'i community. Another member of the coordinating group, Mahvash Sabet, was arrested in Mashhad on March 5, according to the Baha'i International Community.

In May 2008 an exhibition titled the "Fraudulent Myth" opened with the goal of marking the "Anniversary of the Establishment of the Zionist Regime." The exhibit, which took place in Qom, was planned by the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The works of 230 artists from the country and abroad are represented in the exhibition. Most of the items represent the Jews in an anti-Semitic manner. Hamid Rasaim, Advisor to Culture and Islamic Guidance, stated that the cartoon caricatures were especially blunt and each of them questioned the Holocaust, or as the Iranian Minister defined it, "That Fraudulent Myth."

On March 17, 2008, the Intelligence Ministry detained a Baha'i man, Mohammad Ismael Forouzan. Forouzan had a pending appeal against a 1-year prison sentence for unknown charges. When he appeared at the Ministry, he was informed that his appeal had been denied and that his prison sentence would begin that same day.

On March 15, 2008, the appeal court of the Province of Hamadan overturned the guilty verdicts against four Baha'is. Mouzaffar Ayyoubi, Parviz Saifi, and Behrouz Rashedi were arrested on June 18, 2006, and Shahreza Abbasi was arrested on December 13, 2007. All four had been released on bail following their arrests and appealed the judgments of "teaching against the regime." The appeal court ruled that, in view of the appellants' claim, not only were they not against the Government, but they were absolutely obedient to it, and therefore teaching the Baha'i faith could not be regarded as teaching against the regime.

On March 9, 2008, authorities arrested Touraj Amini, Iraj Amini, and Payman Amoui on charges of teaching the Baha'i faith. Iraj Amini and Payman Amoui were released on March 10, and Touraj Amini was released on March 17.

On January 31, 2008, Intelligence Ministry authorities arrested Foad Ettehadolhagh and interrogated him about the activities of the Baha'i community in Shiraz, for which he coordinated affairs on an ad hoc basis. He was released following the interrogation.

On January 31, 2008, police in Hamedan arrested and detained Aziz Pourhamzeh, Kamran Aghdasi, and Fathollah Khatbjavan. They reportedly remained in prison at the end of the period covered by this report.

On January 27, 2008, Pouriya Habibi and Simin Mokhtari were arrested and detained on charges of teaching the Baha'i faith. They reportedly remained in Evin prison at the end of the period covered by this report.

On January 15, 2008, Foad Agah was arrested and detained by the Intelligence Ministry, reportedly in the process of collecting photocopies of Baha'i pamphlets. He was released on January 21. A Muslim friend of Agah's, Ali Karimi, was with him at the time and was also detained but released within 24 hours. On December 28, 2007, Mandana Kamali was arrested and detained by officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. She was interrogated about the activities of the Baha'i community in Shiraz, as she is a member of a local coordinating group for the Baha'i community in Shiraz. She was released on bail on January 10, 2008.

On December 25, 2007, Hormoz Hashemi was arrested in Shiraz for having distributed informational materials about the Baha'i faith. He reportedly stated during interrogation that he received the materials from Mandana Kamali. He was released on January 10, 2008.

On December 13, 2007, the Intelligence Ministry arrested and detained Shahreza Abbasi. Ministry officials searched his home and collected Baha'i religious materials. He was released on bail on December 21, 2007.

On November 19, 2007, the Intelligence Ministry summoned and detained Raha Sabet, Sasan Taqva, and Haleh Rouhi. The three had been arrested previously in May 2006, along with 51 other Baha'i individuals, on charges of teaching the Baha'i faith indirectly through their participation in a community education program. Fifty of those individuals were sentenced to 1 year in prison, commuted to 3 years' suspended sentence. However, Sabet, Taqva, and Rouhi were each sentenced to 4 years in prison. They were reportedly allowed temporary release for 10 days on April 9, 2008, and were in detention at an Intelligence Ministry detention facility in Shiraz at the end of the period covered by this report.

On November 18, 2007, a Baha'i man, Fayzullah Rowshan, began serving his 1-year prison sentence for "teaching activities against the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Rowshan was sentenced by the revolutionary court on April 25, 2007.

On November 13, 2007, authorities arrested Diyanat Haghighat, reportedly for seeking redress for expelled Baha'i students, including his daughter, Nasim Haghighat. He was released on November 27, 2007. Nasim Haghighat was charged with insulting Islam but was not detained.

On September 25, 2007, Jamaloddin Khanjani, a member of a group that coordinates the affairs of the Iranian Baha'i community, was detained by the Intelligence Ministry for five days and interrogated. He was released on October 1, 2007, but the Intelligence Ministry summoned him three more times for questioning during 2007.

The Government seized many Baha'i properties following the 1979 revolution and has not returned any, including Baha'i cemeteries, holy places, historical sites, administrative centers, or other assets. Many properties have been destroyed. Baha'is were generally prevented from burying and honoring their dead in accordance with their religious tradition.

The property rights of Baha'is were generally disregarded, and they suffered frequent government harassment and persecution. The Government raided Baha'i homes and businesses and confiscated large numbers of private and business properties, as well as religious material, belonging to Baha'is. The Government reportedly seized numerous Baha'i homes and handed them over to an agency of Supreme Leader Khamene'i. The Government also seized private homes in which Baha'i youth classes were held, despite the owners having proper ownership documents. In one case on January 27, 2008, members of the Basij militia reportedly bulldozed part of a Baha'i family's home in Abadeh.

The Baha'i community reported that the Government's seizure of Baha'i personal property and its denial of Baha'i access to education and employment was eroding the economic base of the community and threatening its survival. On June 29, 2006, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing found that government expropriations of property in the country "seem to have targeted disproportionately" the property of Baha'is and other ethnic and religious minorities. He further mentioned that many of the confiscation verdicts made by Iranian Revolutionary Courts declared that "the confiscation of the property of the evil sect of the Baha'i [were] legally and religiously justifiable."

There were reports during the reporting period of authorities forcing Baha'i businesses to close, placing restrictions on their businesses, and asking managers of private companies to dismiss their Baha'i employees.
Baha'is faced government-sanctioned discrimination in the workplace. Baha'i graveyards in Abadeh and other cities were desecrated, and the Government did not seek to identify or punish the perpetrators.
Baha'i groups outside the country reported vandalism of Baha'i cemeteries, the desecration of a body exhumed from a Baha'i grave in Abadeh, and attacks against a Baha'i cemetery in Najafabad.

Since the National Association of Chambers of Commerce began collecting employment data on Baha'is, there were reported problems for Baha'is in different trades around the country. Baha'is experienced an escalation of personal harassment, including receiving threatening notes, CDs, text messages, and tracts. There were reported cases of Baha'i children being harassed in school and subjected to Islamic indoctrination. Baha'i girls were especially targeted by students and educators, with the intention of creating tension between parents and children.

There was concern from several groups about the rumored resurgence of the banned Hojjatiyeh Society, a secretive religious-economic group that was founded in 1953 to rid the country of the Baha'i faith in order to hasten the return of the 12th Imam (the Mahdi). Although not a government organization, it was believed that many members of the administration were Hojjatiyeh members and using their offices to advance the society's goals. However, it was unknown what role, if any, the group played in the arrests of numerous Baha'is during the reporting period. Many Baha'i human rights groups and news agencies described the goals of the Hojjatiyeh Society as the eradication of the Baha'is, not just the Baha'i faith. The group's anti-Baha'i orientation reportedly widened to encompass anti-Sunni and anti-Sufi activities as well.

On May 26, 2008, the government-affiliated newspaper Kayhan reported, "The popular movement dedicated to combating Baha'ism will soon announce its existence through the establishment of an Internet website."