Security Forces Prevent Bahá'ís from Praying in Cemetery

Security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran prevented a group of Bahá'í citizens from holding a prayer ceremony in the Bahá'í cemetery in Tehran (Golestan Javid). According to reports from HRANA, these Bahá'í citizens intended to pray on Friday, June 2, at the grave of a fellow believer who had been buried without the consent and knowledge of the family. The report states that security forces only allowed the deceased's family to enter the Bahá'í cemetery, while the other attendees prayed from behind closed doors. In recent years, government agents have repeatedly buried Bahá'í deceased without informing their families and without adhering to Bahá'í burial rites in the Khavaran cemetery, a mass grave site for victims of the 1988 massacre. The Bahá'í community has criticized the forced and uninformed burial of Bahá'í deceased in Khavaran, calling it a 'ruthless' act. Families of the victims of the 1988 mass executions have also described the government's burial of fresh corpses in Khavaran as an attempt to 'erase' the evidence of 'crimes in Khavaran' and have called for an end to this practice. Since the 1979 revolution, Bahá'í citizens have systematically faced widespread social and political discrimination, as well as illegal actions including arbitrary arrests and desecration of their cemeteries. The annual 'International Religious Freedom' report for 2022 also mentions numerous instances of religious freedom violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to this report prepared by the U.S. Department of State's Office of International Religious Freedom, the repression, violence, discrimination, and social stigmatization of the Bahá'í community by the Iranian government have intensified. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in May of this year, referred to this report and stated that the United States stands with religious freedom activists and people whose religious rights are violated. Blinken also emphasized the U.S. government's 'enduring commitment' to defending the right to religious freedom.