May 14, 2008

Washington, DC – The Institute on Religion and Public Policy has learned that officers of Iran's Intelligence Ministry yesterday arrested six of the seven members of the country's national Bahá'í leadership, the worst assault on Iran's Bahá'ís in almost 30 years. The seventh leader has been in detention since March 5.

According to information received from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States, the arrests came during morning raids on May 14. The six leaders are being held at Tehran's infamous Evin Prison. The names of the arrested in the above 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.

The last major round-ups and detentions of national Bahá'í leaders came in the early 1980s. In 1980, all nine members of the national leadership were abducted and then disappeared. Bahá'ís have no official clergy, and since their spiritual assemblies were outlawed after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, have relied on electing national and local committees as leaders of the faith.

The Iranian government severely restricts the lives and religious practices of Bahá'ís, who number about 300,000 and are Iran's largest religious minority. Bahá'ís also suffer more official discrimination and harassment than followers of other minority faiths. Bahá'ís are barred from serving in the government and military, and are often denied admittance to state universities.

"For three decades, Bahá'ís have suffered egregious persecution for their faith," said Institute President Joseph K. Grieboski. "These latest arrests, however, are particularly disturbing because they signal that the government is worsening its abuse of and increasing its attacks against Bahá'ís. We call on the international community to pressure Iran to release immediately the seven national leaders it has detained, and to help secure the freedom to worship for Bahá'ís that is a fundamental right of all people."

About Institute on Religion and Public Policy

Nominated for the 2007 Nobel Prize in Peace, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy is an international, inter-religious non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring freedom of religion as the foundation for security, stability, and democracy.

The Institute works globally with government policymakers, religious leaders, business executives, academics, international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and others in order to develop, protect, and promote fundamental rights – especially the right of religious freedom – and contributes to the intellectual and moral foundation of the fundamental right of religious freedom. The Institute encourages and assists in the effective and cooperative advancement of religious freedom.

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