The Baha'i International Community (BIC) said today that now 125 Baha'is have, in the past 10 days, been either imprisoned, arrested, experienced raids on their houses or businesses and the confiscation of belongings, the destruction of homes and seizure of lands, or been denied entry to university.
The BIC also published fresh images showing evidence of home raids and searches.
Now at least 125 reported instances of Baha'i persecution in #Iran in just 10 days, up from 52 last week. Numbers increasing by the hour. Arrested, imprisoned, properties raided, belongings confiscated, denied access to university, homes destroyed and lands seized.#BahaiRights pic.twitter.com/6zXOEZw0cj
— Baha'i International Community (@BahaiBIC) August 10, 2022
Last week, on August 2, up to 200 Iranian security agents raided the village of Roshankouh, Mazandaran province, and seized up to 20 hectares of property. Six homes owned by Baha'is were destroyed. The village has been home to a large number of Baha'is for over 100 years.
Iranian officials have in the past tried to claim that the Baha'is did not have rights to the land. But a post by the Archives of Baha'i Persecution's Twitter account show that other residents of Roshankou have confirmed the legitimate land rights of the Baha'is.
Inhabitants of #Roshankouh & surrounding villages testify that the #Bahais have been farming there for generations - over 100 years - their lands were expropriated by the Natural Resources Department of Sari on 24 Oct 2020 without knowledge of the owners.https://t.co/gnMVlgaBn2 pic.twitter.com/3QmIp0mUiT
— Archive Of Baha’i Persecution (اسناد بهائیستیزی) (@PersecutionIran) August 8, 2022
A second post showed that, contrary to the government's claims, those lands owned by Baha'is have not infringed on protected or state-owned properties.
Comparison of aerial images of #Roshankouh from 1966 & 2016 shows that the lands belonging to the #Bahais had never been part of the lands claimed by the Department of Natural Resources, rather lands of Roshankouh villagers have been added to the forests.https://t.co/rbTnf2RIEY pic.twitter.com/UxMukvbRBW
— Archive Of Baha’i Persecution (اسناد بهائیستیزی) (@PersecutionIran) August 10, 2022
Diane Ala'i, a BIC Representative to the United Nations, said that these findings proved that the Iranian government "will fabricate false accusations over and over again in order to find an excuse for a persecution that is solely motivated on religious hatred".
If any proof was ever needed that the #Iran-ian government will fabricate false accusations over and over again in order to find an excuse for a persecution that is solely motivated on religious hatred. https://t.co/j23J88Tr5U
— Diane Alai (@DianeAlai) August 10, 2022
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