Kumar Iyer, the U.K.’s Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, has told the U.N.’s Human Rights Council that the Bahá’í community in Iran are among several minority groups being targeted by the Islamic Republic after military attacks by Israel in June.
“In Iran, the arrest of over 20,000 people since the 12-day war in June is of serious concern,” said Iyer during a Sept. 23 debate held at the UN Human Rights Council’s 60th session in Geneva. “Many of these arrests are a means to scapegoat and target already marginalized groups, including members of the Baluchi and Kurdish ethnic minorities, and Bahá’í, Christian and Jewish religious minorities.”
“The continued use of the death penalty as a political tool is appalling and we reiterate that we oppose the death penalty in all circumstances,” he added.
The 12-day conflict involved Israel and the U.S. carrying out targeted strikes to end Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. led an overnight strike at several Iranian nuclear plants which compromised the sites, while Israeli operatives conducted targeted assassinations of senior military and nuclear officials.
Islamic Republic Ordered Global Eradication of Bahá’ís in 1991, Report Says
The attacks laid bare the Islamic Republic’s defense weaknesses and hurt its reputation among Iran’s population, according to analysts. Ever since, the Islamic Republic has arrested hundreds of people suspected of spying for Israel. It has also sought to curb civil unrest in the country by cracking down on workers and minority groups, many of whom continue to take part in anti-government protests.
“We are not seeing any direct accusations of, or charges of espionage among the Bahá’í community,” said Padideh Sabeti, the spokesperson for the Geneva-based consultative body the Bahá’í International Community (BIC), in an interview with Kayhan Life. “But we have seen an escalation in persecution and arrests of the Bahá’í’s during this period.”
“Every time the Iranian government feels vulnerable, they increase pressure on the population in general,” Sabeti said. “The charges made most recently against Bahá’í’s have been linked to membership of the Bahá’í community and propaganda against the regime.”
Bahá’ís are the largest minority group in Iran and have been routinely persecuted since the 1979 revolution, as the Islamic Republic views the Bahá’í faith to be a heretical offshoot of Islam. The religion has an estimated five to eight million followers in more than 190 countries. A 1991 memorandum drafted by Iran’s government issued on the instruction of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the global eradication of the Bahá’í community.
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At least 70 Bahá’í’s are currently in detention or serving prison sentences, according to a 2024 report by the UN, while 1,200 Bahá’í’s are engaged in court proceedings or have received lengthy prison sentences.
The suppression of Bahá’í’s in Iran has been condemned consistently by the U.N., European lawmakers and human rights bodies. A 2024 report by Human Rights Watch said the treatment of Bahá’í’s in Iran amounted to crimes against humanity. And in April, the U.N. Human Rights Council called on the Islamic Republic to “eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination and violence on the basis of thought, conscience, religion and belief, including against persons belonging to recognized and unrecognized religious or belief minorities.”
Earlier this month, a Sept. 21 report for the U.N. by Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the ongoing oppression of Bahá’í’s in Iran.
The report, titled: “Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief,” described the treatment of minority groups around the world.
“The non-governmental organization Bahá’í International Community (BIC) noted that religious profiling and propaganda charges brought against Bahá’ís in the Islamic Republic of Iran were frequently framed in vague terms, such as ‘spreading propaganda against the regime’ or ‘acting against national security,’” Guterres said in his report. “The Bahá’í International Community stressed that those charges lacked an evidentiary basis and were disproportionately applied in response to peaceful religious activity, such as teaching moral education classes or gathering for worship.”
Sabeti said the report was significant.
“The Secretary-General’s global report carries a special weight because it’s issued on behalf of the entire U.N. system, and it reflects a consensus view at the highest level of the international community,” Sabeti noted. “More importantly, the report confirms Iran’s persecution of the Bahá’ís and puts it firmly on the global agenda, and it really undercuts the Iranian government’s repeated denials of its human rights violations.”
Responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks to the U.N. General Assembly describing the U.N. as an ineffective body, Sabeti said: “There’s no doubt that U.N. is facing some challenges. There are certain events or lack of inactivity which have undermined the U.N.’s ability. However, from the Iranian government’s point of view, they still send representatives and raise their cases at the United Nations and use U.N. instruments to further their own agenda.”
“They are taking on board what the United Nations, its groups of experts and its Secretary General say in their reports, so it does still carry some weight,” Sabeti said. “The only line of defense for the Bahá’í’ community is to approach Bahá’í’s around the world, to approach their governments, and international human rights bodies, so the U.N. and these human rights organizations are lifelines for Bahá’ís in Iran.”
In his U.N. speech, Trump said: “What is the purpose of the United Nations? The U.N. has such tremendous potential… All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter, and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words — and empty words don’t solve war.”
BIC (in a Sept. 21 press release) urged the international community to react to the ongoing persecution of Bahá’í’s and said that the report: “placed the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran among the world’s gravest human rights concerns.”
“The Secretary-General’s recognition of the gravity of the situation underscores that the persecution of Bahá’í’s is a longstanding and systematic policy of religious repression that demands urgent international attention,” the statement went on. “Bahá’ís in the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to face arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, and restrictions on access to education and livelihoods, targeted solely for their religious beliefs.”
Iranian Authorities Demolish Bahai Minority’s Houses, Human Rights Groups Say
Six Bahá’í women in Iran were sentenced to a combined total of 39 years in prison on charges related to their religious beliefs, according to a Sept. 8 report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Eleven women were originally detained by Iranian officials.
The women – Zarrindokht Ahadzadeh, Farideh Ayoubi, Noora Ayoubi, Neda Mohebi, Zhaleh Rezaei and Atefeh Zahedi – had unsuccessfully appealed the convictions on Aug. 12 during a hearing held at Branch 11 of the Hamedan Appeals Court.
Mohebi was convicted of “teaching and propagating against Sharia” and for “membership in the Bahá’í community.” The remaining women were convicted for “membership in the Bahá’í community” and “teaching and propagating against Sharia.”
“Some of these women have young children, and we still would like to appeal to the Iranian government to really look at their own records and to their own conscience and to acknowledge that really persecution of the Bahá’í’s and especially women is unlawful, and this will affect an entire family, given the role of women in society and in the family,” Sabeti said. “We are still hopeful that they will reconsider these heavy sentences for the women in Hamedan who are being sentenced because of their belief in the Bahá’í Faith.”
The women’s plight was also mentioned in the U.N. Secretary General’s report, who added that BIC had shared information: “that security forces had conducted coordinated pre-dawn raids in January 2025 on the homes of 11 Bahá’í women, arresting them without warrants.”
