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Fresh wave of arrests and raids across Iran as Bahá’ís absurdly accused of “colonialism”

Truthseeker

Non-debating member when I can help myself
“Senseless cruelty”: Fresh wave of arrests and raids across Iran as Bahá’ís absurdly accused of “colonialism” | BWNS

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence issued an appalling statement of oppressive hate propaganda against the persecuted Bahá’í religious minority yesterday in an attempt to justify the raids on the homes and businesses of 52 Bahá’ís across Iran and the arrest or imprisonment of 13 individuals.

The Ministry of Intelligence issued a formal statement about the moves—which came after weeks of escalating pressure on the Bahá’ís—and claimed the arrests were against members of the “Bahá’í espionage [political] party” and that those arrested were “propagating the teachings of the fabricated Bahá’í colonialism and infiltrating educational environments” including kindergartens. The mention of kindergartens is an apparent pretext for the targeting of a number of Bahá’ís who are preschool teachers...

“We are outraged that a significant number of Bahá’ís, among them Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi and Afif Naemi, have been detained again in Iran,” said Diane Ala’i, representative of the BIC to the United Nations...

Sabet, Kamalabadi and Naemi were members of a group of people known as the “Yaran,” or “Friends” of Iran, which until 2008 served as an informal leadership of the Iranian Bahá’í community. All seven of its members were arrested in 2007 and 2008 and jailed for a decade. The Yaran tended to the basic spiritual and material needs of the community—Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority—and did so with the knowledge and acceptance of the Iranian authorities at the time. But the Yaran was disbanded as a result of their original arrests and has never been regrouped or reestablished. The implied statements by the Ministry of Intelligence that they are part of a so-called “core members” of the Bahá’í “espionage party” is therefore absolutely false in every sense.

The raids and detentions come days after 20 Bahá’ís in Shiraz, Tehran, Yazd, and Bojnourd were arrested, jailed, or subjected to home searches and business closures, and less than a month since 44 others across Iran were also detained, arraigned or imprisoned. Twenty-six individuals among the 44, who were in Shiraz, were sentenced to a combined total of 85 years in prison.
 
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