Security forces laid siege to a village in northern Iran Tuesday and started demolishing houses and farms belonging to members of the persecuted Baha’i faith.

Simin Fahandej, a spokeswoman for the Baha’i International Community, told Iran International Tuesday that over 200 security forces were deployed to block the roads leading to Roshankouh, a village in Mazandaran Province, and begin demolition of the houses and farms belonging to Bahai’s.

According to Fahandej, security forces arrested some Bahai’s who tried to stop the operations, confiscated mobile phones of some villagers to prevent them from recording videos and publishing them on social media, and warned locals not to take any photos or videos of their operations.

A video posted on social media by the Baha’i International Community Tuesday shows security forces using heavy construction machinery to demolish buildings in Roshankouh.

Since early June security forces and the judiciary of the Islamic have intensified pressure on the followers of the Baha’i faith, raiding over a dozen households, arresting tens including three of the former leaders of the community, and shutting down businesses.

The intelligence ministry claimed on Monday that the arrested Baha’is were linked to the Baha’i Universal House of Justice in Haifa, Israel, and had collected information in Iran and conveyed it to their headquarters. The Universal House of Justice is the nine-member supreme ruling body of the Bahaʼi Faith.

In 2021 fifty Baha’i homes were demolished in the small farming village of Ivel in the same province and the authorities confiscated the assets of 27 Baha’i families who had lived there for several generations claiming that money earned by Baha’is is “unlawfully earned”.

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. Baha’i Religious Minority Says Iran Intensified Persecution Of Members.

Established by Bahaullah in the 19th century, the Baha’i faith initially spread in Iran and parts of the former Ottoman Empire and remained mostly confined to Iran and the Ottoman Empire until after the death of Bahaullah.

The Baha’i Faith traces its beginnings to the religion of Ali-Mohammad Shirazi, known as the Bab (the Gate), the founder of Babism who claimed to be a messenger of God in southern Iran in 1844. The Bab who said God would soon send a new prophet to mankind was executed for heresy against Islam which considers Muhammad as the last prophet of God.

In 1863 Bahaullah, the founder of Baha’i faith who was banished from Iran and settled in Iraq later, announced that he was the prophet promised by the Bab. The leadership of Baha’is fell to his son Abdul-Baha after his death in 1892 near Acre in present day Israel.

Baha’is believe in Muhammad as a prophet of God, and in the Quran as the Word of God while the Shia clergy consider Babism and the Baha’i faith as heretical sects. Accordingly, Iranian clergy and officials often refer to Baha’is as “followers of the heretical sect”

For nearly three centuries the followers of the Bab and then Bahaullah have been persecuted in Iran to varying degrees and subjected to mob attacks often instigated by the Shia clergy.

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.

Original source

Representatives of the religious minority said that the crackdown was the latest chapter in a long history of persecution. The authorities accused those detained of being spies with links to Israel.

By Farnaz Fassihi

Iran has begun a sweeping crackdown on its Baha’i community, a long-persecuted religious minority, arresting dozens of people and destroying property belonging to members of the group, according to accounts this week from the government, residents and rights groups.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry said in a statement on Monday that an unspecified number of people from the Baha’i community had been arrested, accusing them of being spies with links to Israel and of propagating the Baha’i faith by “infiltrating various educational sectors across the country, including kindergartens.”

Bani Dugal, the United Nations representative of the Baha’i International Community, which advocates on behalf of the group worldwide, said that Iran had arrested 52 Baha’is in July, raiding dozens of homes, closing businesses and demolishing properties. She said that the reasons behind the timing of the actions were still unclear.

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“We don’t know why,” Ms. Dugal said. “They are rolling out crackdowns and we are concerned that this is a new chapter in the persecution of Baha’is because the nature of the current attacks have been very systematic and cruel and violent.”

The community has long faced persecution and discrimination in Iran because the government does not recognize the faith. The Baha’i belief that there was another prophet after Muhammad is anathema to Islam, and the fact that the headquarters of the Baha’i people is in Haifa, Israel, even though its roots are in what is today Iran, adds to the distrust Tehran has for the group.

On Tuesday, about 200 security and intelligence officers descended on the tiny village of Roshankouh, in northern Iran, where Baha’is have lived for more than a century, according to interviews with a resident, relatives of residents and rights groups. They closed off an access road, fired gunshots in the air and sprayed pepper gas at villagers, according to the accounts.

Bulldozers followed. Their target: Six houses and farmland belonging to Baha’i members.

A few days earlier, security agents arrested 13 Baha’is from four cities across Iran, including three prominent community leaders, Mahvash Sabet, Afif Naimi and Fariba Kamalabadi, who had all previously served 10-year prison sentences, according to Ms. Dugal, the Baha’i representative.

The attacks on the Baha’i follow a recent wave of wider repression in Iran that has included the arrests of prominent film directors, politicians from the reformist faction, activists and women challenging the mandatory hijab rule in public.

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