Iran International
Iran has subjected its Baha’i community to 45 years of physical violence, imprisonment and denial of education and employment, a new report by a top Iranian human rights organization said.
The report, titled Outsiders: Multifaceted Violence Against Baha’is in the Islamic Republic of Iran, was launched in New York on Monday and was prepared by the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran and Monash University Eleos Justice program.
"The Baha'i Faith's followers were seen as apostate infidels, and they have faced continuous and intense persecution, marked by episodes of extreme violence and systematic denial of life," Dr. Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, said in statement shared on X by the international non-governmental organization Baha’i International Community.
The report categorizes this persecution into three types of violence: direct, structural, and cultural violence.
Direct violence includes extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary detention. The report highlights that structural violence stems from the Islamic Republic's laws and policies that systematically exclude Baha’is from equal rights, while cultural violence is reinforced through state propaganda, with Baha’is portrayed as “impure” and as “agents of foreign powers” to justify ongoing discrimination.
“This is a community stripped of its freedoms simply for exercising their rights to practice their faith,” Germany’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Thomas Peter Zahneisen, added at the report’s launch in New York.
“Despite torture, forced confessions, and other forms of abuse, the story of the Baha'is in Iran is not only one of suppression, but one of humanity, perseverance, and courage,” he added.
Mai Sato, UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, highlighted that Baha’is are excluded from Iran’s constitution, which justifies official marginalization. “The structural violence inflicted by the state is resisted and not embraced by the Iranian community,” she said in a statement coinciding with the report's launch.
“That is a hopeful and uplifting end to the report.”
The report connects the ideological basis of this persecution to Iran's central ruling doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih or clerical rule, which leaves little room for religious pluralism.
Baha’is, it added, are viewed as a theological and political threat and accused of allegiance to Israel and Western powers, deepening their marginalization.
The report’s findings align with recent independent findings from rights organizations. In July 2024, Human Rights Watch classified Iran’s treatment of the Baha’i community as “a crime against humanity of persecution.”
A joint statement by 18 UN Special Rapporteurs condemned “a sharp rise in attacks” on Baha’i women. Former UN Special Rapporteur on Iran Javaid Rehman said, “The Baha’is were targeted with genocidal intent and persecution.”
Researchers in the Boroumand Center report highlighted a shift in public attitudes toward the Baha’is.
“Our findings suggest that, despite repeated attempts to indoctrinate the public with anti-Baha’i sentiment, the Iranian population has increasingly resisted the policy of discrimination,” Christopher Alexander, a researcher on the report, said. “Direct and structural violence are perpetuated by the state, but there appears to be an increasing lack of internalization of this violent culture by the masses.”
The Islamic Republic’s treatment of Baha’is could constitute crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the report said.
Researchers urged the international community to use universal jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute these crimes, while Baha’i representatives continue to call for urgent protections.
Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, said the report’s international attention “gives hope to those suffering persecution within the country and calls on the Iranian government to end its violent policies against all victims of human rights abuses in Iran.”
