Three recent events highlight the ongoing actions against Baha’is in Iran:
January 14
Raid on “Achilan Doors”: Four Arrests
HRANA (English translation available here) reports that security agents raided Achilan Doors, a manufacturing company based in Mashhad, arresting a company director and three employees. Computers and documents were also taken during a search of the offices. The official reason for the raid was that the company was carrying out spying activities because it has “a Zionist background and is linked to the Baha’is.” This is a strange incident since the company is not known to have any Baha’i employees or links to the Baha’i community and the four people arrested are not thought to be Baha’is. Speculation has arisen that the raid was due to the company’s competition with another manufacturer owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
January 17
Baha’i denied burial in Mashhad
HRANA (English translation available here) reports another story from Mashhad in which the local cemetery authority refused to issue a burial permit to the family of a recently deceased Baha’i woman. All Baha’is have now been denied access to their current burial site and have been directed to a new location far outside of the city which lacks appropriate religious facilities and is surrounded by IRGC-controlled land. The timing of this change comes just months after the current cemetery was severely vandalized, an action which has not been investigated by the local authorities. Khabar Navard (Persian) has pictures of the damage to the cemetery.
January 18
Baha’i Student Expelled from Isfahan University of Technology (IUT)
PCED (English translation available on Persian2English) has a report of the latest case of educational discrimination against Baha’is. Naeim Baghi, a student at IUT, was expelled and barred from higher education in a judgement by the National Education Evaluation Organization, which cited his Baha’i beliefs as the cause.