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பஹாய் சிறுபான்மையினரை ஈரான் அரசாங்கம் ஒடுக்குகிறது என்று அஸ்மா ஜெஹாங்கீர் கவலை தெரிவித்துள்ளார்

IRAN: AUTHORITIES CRACK DOWN ON BAHAI MINORITY

Tehran, 12 June (AKI) - Government pressure on Iran's Bahai religious minority - slammed by authorities as an 'heretical sect' - is intensifying after a recent official order to security forces to "boost efforts to identify heretics and a take the necessary measures to stop their activities." The document, which has also been viewed by Asma Jahanghir, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, worries Iran's Bahai community, which is estimated at roughly 350,000 believers - making up two percent of the population together with other minorities such as Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians in the majority-Muslim country.

"We are still unclear about the objective of identifying our faithful by security forces but it certainly does not bode well," Diane Alaii, an observer of the religious minority at the UN, told Adnkronos International (AKI). "We presume that the creation of a data bank is a prelude to of a new, more systematic persecution of our community."

Bahais and members of other religious minorities have suffered extensive persecution in the past. Many Bahais were executed in the early years after Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, and members of the religion and other minorities continue to be subject to discrimination and recurrent bouts of repression by authorities.

"For a while now our people have suffered discriminations in the workplace and anyone having professional relations with Bahais is forced to end them," Alaii said, adding that such discriminations also apply to universities and schools. "Many young members of our community don't have access to universities and even if they are allowed to register they are subsequently excluded."

Of the 180 Bahaìs who reportedly gained access to Iranian universities this academic year, 120 were subsequently banned for a variety of official reasons.

"The situation in schools is not much better given that Bahai students are forced to define their religion an 'heretical sect' in front of their classmates, disavowing it," she said.


(Rah/Aki)