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The first anniversary of the arrest of six prominent Bahá’ís in Iran has sparked calls for their release from leading human rights organisations around the world.

“These Bahá’í leaders have been languishing in prison for a year now, with no access to their lawyers and no glimmer of a trial date,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, adding that reported new charges of  ’spreading corruption on earth’ only “add to the fears for their lives under a government that systematically discriminates against Bahá’ís.”

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has also joined in the call for the prisoners to be released. “The illegal and unjust detention of these seven Bahá’í leaders, which again shows a policy of oppressing a religious minority, must be brought to an end,” said Aaron Rhodes, spokesman for the Campaign, which has called upon the Iranian government to comply with international human and civil rights standards and account for the detentions of all Bahá’ís in Iran. 

“The continued persecution of the Bahá’í community in Iran degrades all of the people of Iran,” Mr Rhodes said. “The arbitrary detention and targeting of members of any single community should not be tolerated in any country, including Iran.”

The Bahá’í  community makes up Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. In recent years, persecution has intensified to include cemetery desecration, arbitrary detention, home raids, property confiscation, work expulsion and denial of basic civil rights. Iranian Bahá’í  youth continue to be denied the right to higher education, and any university found to have a Bahá’í  student is ordered to expel them. Bahá’í professionals are denied government jobs and face discrimination from private businesses because of their faith. Harassment also occurs from ordinary citizens, for example the cars and homes of Baha’is reportedly being vandalized. Even those who come to their defense are targeted. Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi has come under fire for taking up the case of the seven Bahá’í  leaders.

There are currently at least 40 Bahá’ís  in detention throughout Iran. In the month of April alone, arrests were reported in six cities.

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