Oppression of Baha’is epitomizes Iran’s lack of respect for human rights

Last week’s arrest of seven leaders from the peaceful Baha’i minority in Iran accurately reflects the Iranian government’s complete intolerance for non-Islamic faiths and lack of respect for human rights, Payam Akhavan writes in Tuesday’s Globe and Mail.

Akhavan, co-founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and a former U.N. war-crimes prosecutor at The Hague, notes that due to Article 13 of the Iranian constitution, the Baha’i faith cannot be recognized as an official religion like Islam, Judaism, Christianity, or Zoroastrianism. This lack of official recognition gives practicing Baha’is the status of “infidels,” placing them beyond the protection of the law. The government uses the Baha’is’ outsider status and associated stigma to incite unofficial repression of the religion through propaganda, and as an excuse for official repression by the state.

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