Semnan Revolutionary Court Sentences Bahai Citizen to Imprisonment and 'Participation in Cult Therapy Classes'

The Semnan Revolutionary Court sentenced a Bahai citizen residing in the city to imprisonment, social restrictions, and 'participation in cult therapy classes.' According to HRANA, the news agency of human rights activists, Shabnam Tabianian was sentenced to six months in prison, a two-year ban from membership in 'political and social parties and groups,' and also six months of attendance in 'cult therapy classes organized by the Islamic Propaganda Organization' on charges of 'educational and promotional activities contrary to or disruptive to the sacred Islamic law.' HRANA reports that the six-month prison sentence has been converted to a fine of 24 million tomans. Shabnam Tabianian, who is the mother of two children aged eight and twelve, was arrested by government forces in Mordad 1402 (July-August 2023) and was released from Semnan prison on bail in mid-Shahrivar (September) of the same year. Bahai citizens are considered one of the largest non-Muslim religious minorities in Iran and have been systematically persecuted since the Islamic Revolution of Bahman 1357 (February 1979). The Islamic Republic has intensified its crackdown on Bahais in recent years. Arrests, imprisonment, property destruction, bans from social services, confiscation of property, and desecration of graves are part of the systematic behavior against this religious minority in Iran. Accordingly, about 150 political and civil activists condemned the wave of arrests against Bahais in Iran and their 'deprivation of basic human and civil rights' by the Islamic Republic in a statement on 12 Dey 1402 (January 1, 2024), calling for an end to 'this historical shame.' The signatories of the statement declared their common demand for 'the end of religious government and the separation of religion and state' and considered the establishment of 'a democratic and secular government' as a prerequisite for efforts towards 'comprehensive development of Iran and the realization of freedom, justice, democracy, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination in society.'