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Baha'i Leader: Iran Keeping Up to 100 Baha'is in Prisons Under Virus Threat

Michael Lipin

   WASHINGTON - An international organization representing Baha'is says it
   is extremely concerned about Iran's ongoing detention of up to 100
   Baha'is at risk of contracting the coronavirus in Iranian prisons.

   In a VOA Persian interview on Monday, the Baha'i International
   Community's chief representative to the U.N. in New York, Bani Dugal,
   said an estimated 50 to 100 Iranian Baha'is remain in Iran's crowded
   and unhygienic prison compounds. Rights activists began reporting
   coronavirus outbreaks in such prisons in early March, before
   authorities began a policy of temporarily releasing tens of thousands
   of detainees in an apparent bid to prevent the outbreaks from spreading
   further in the prison population.

   Dugal said Baha'is in Iran informed her organization that Iranian
   authorities released"about 20"members of the faith as part of the
   prison furlough policy in recent weeks. She said it was not clear why
   Iran chose to release those individuals and keep the other 50 to 100
   Baha'is in jails.

   "Because of the general prison conditionsin Iran, we are extremely
   concerned about the remaining prisoners,"Dugal said."We
   don'tknowwhether any of them have contracted the virus, because those
   details arehard toascertain. But I'm sure they are vulnerable."

   Dugal also reiterated her organization's long-held view that all
   Baha'is detained in Iran have been wrongfully imprisoned.

   Iran's Shiite Islamist rulersconsiderthe nation'sestimated
   300,000Baha'is to be heretics with no religion. Rights groups
   sayIranianauthorities routinely arrestminorityBaha'isfor expressing or
   practicing their beliefsandchargethemwith national security-related
   offenses without disclosing evidence.

   Dugal said leading Baha'i International Community members have been
   asking U.N. officials including Geneva-based U.N. High Commissioner for
   Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to appeal to Iran to release all
   prisoners of conscience, especially Baha'is.

   "Iranian Baha'istend to be more vulnerable(to disease outbreaks)because
   their human rightsalreadyare violated in so many regards. So, they are
   doubly discriminated against, at times like this,"she said.

   Amember of aU.S. government body that monitors global religious
   freedomtold VOA Persian that his organization also has been in"constant
   communication"with U.N. officials to make them aware of discrimination
   against Baha'is in Iran.

   Johnnie Moore, a commissioner for thebipartisan U.S. Commission on
   International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said ongoing abuses of Baha'i
   rights will make it harder for Iran's leaders to persuade the
   international community to ease economic pressure on the Islamic
   republic.

   "When they continue this absolutely inexcusable behavior and ask the
   world to treat them like a normal country, they are sending a mixed
   message and will find it isnot acceptable,"Moore said.

   "Asthey appeal for anemergency IMFloan and sanctions relief, the
   Iranians could send an incredibly powerfulsignal that
   theyaretrustworthy byreleasingall theBaha'iprisoners intheircountry,"he
   added.

   Moore pointed out that the architect who designed the Iranian capital,
   Tehran's iconic Azadi (Freedom) Tower in 1966 is HosseinAmanat, an
   Iranian Baha'i who fled the country during its 1979 Islamic Revolution
   and settled in Canada.

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