The Cutting Edge

The six leaders are being held at Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison. The names of the arrested in the photo are, in the front row seated from the left, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie. Standing from the left are Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, and Afif Naeimi. On the far right is Mahvash Sabet, detained since March.

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For Baha’is around the world, May 14 came as a chilling reminder of how bad things can become for their community in Iran. In dawn raids that dragged on for hours, Intelligence Ministry officers arrested six of the seven members of Iran’s national Baha’i leadership, the worst assault on Baha’is in almost 30 years. The seventh leader has been in detention since March 5. No one knows why.

The last major round-up and detentions of national Baha’i leaders came in the early 1980s. In 1980, all nine members of the national leadership were abducted and then disappeared.

“The manner in which the six individuals were taken from their homes (is) frighteningly similar, and we are concerned for their safety as well as about further persecution of the Iranian Baha’i community,” said Kit Bigelow, director of external affairs for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S.

Baha’is in Iran are already feeling the shock waves of losing their main administrators: even days after the arrests, the outside world could glean few details about why or how the arrests had happened. Some government agents present at the arrests indicated that the six leaders would be taken to Evin Prison--a fact the Baha'i community initially publicized. But at the end of May, the community discovered with dismay that their leaders' whereabouts are still unknown, including that of the seventh missing since March. Officials are giving relatives conflicting stories. In such cases, relatives often have to move from court to court to learn the location of their loved ones.

Baha’is have no official clergy, and since their spiritual assemblies were outlawed after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, they have relied on electing national and local committees as leaders of the faith. With all seven national leaders in detention now, Iran has succeeded in severely disrupting the life and communication of its Baha’i community.

Since August 2004, Iranian authorities have arrested 167 Baha’is, according to the Baha’is of the U.S. Often officials will search their homes and confiscate books, CDs and DVDs. Most of the time, Baha’is in Iran enjoy no due process and have no formal charges filed against them. Recently, however, authorities have charged Baha’is with propaganda against Islam or the state or teaching against the regime.

The Baha’i faith was founded in Iran about 150 years ago, but the Iranian government severely restricts the lives and religious practices of the nation’s 300,000 members. While Baha’is make up Iran’s largest religious minority, they also suffer more official discrimination and harassment than followers of other minority faiths.  Baha’is are barred from serving in the government and military, and are often denied admittance to state universities.

In 2005, three of the six Baha’i leaders were arrested and questioned. One of them, according to Amnesty International, was Fariba Kamalabadi, who helps coordinate coursework for Baha’is who want to study their faith. Authorities summoned seventh leader Mahvash Sabet to Mashhad over the burial of someone in the city’s Baha’i cemetery, and then detained her in March. Thought to be in Evin Prison, she is also missing.

The leaders’ detentions have sparked an international outcry—including a reprimand from the U.S. State Department—but only time will tell if Iran will respond to pressure and release the Baha’is. Iran’s record on religious freedom has long been abysmal. But these latest arrests, along with the government’s consideration this year of a new apostasy law signal that conditions are worsening. The law would impose the death penalty on those who stray from Islam, as Baha’is are consistently accused. Having long been watched by their government, Baha’is are now anxiously watching Iran to see what will happen next.

Priya Abraham is Director of Communications for the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.