Eight Baha’i women were arrested on Saturday morning after reporting to the Isfahan Office for the Enforcement of Sentences and were transferred to a local prison to begin serving their prison terms, Iran International has learned.
The Baha’i women have been charged with “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” “promoting Baha’i beliefs,” and “cooperating with hostile groups.”
Their case has been designated as “security-related and confidential," sources told Iran International.
They have been identified as Yeganeh Rouhbakhsh, Arezou Sobhaniyan, Shana Shoqifar, Neda Emadi, Neda Badakhsh, Mojgan Shahrezaei, Parastoo Hakim, and Negin Khademi.
Among those detained, Arezou Sobhaniyan and Yeganeh Rouhbakhsh, 19, are mother and daughter.
Earlier, the Isfahan Court of Appeals upheld sentences totaling 90 years in prison and fines of 900 million tomans against ten Baha’i women including the eight arrested on Saturday.
The appellate proceedings were held in absentia, without the defendants present.
Iran does not recognize the Baha’i faith as an official religion, unlike Christianity, Judaism or Zoroastrianism.
Baha'is constitute the largest religious minority in Iran and have faced systematic harassment and persecution since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The recent arrests are part of a renewed crackdown on Baha’is inside Iran and rising anti-Baha’i rhetoric on state media.
In October, a hardline commentator on Iranian state television, Ali Shirazi, alleged that the Baha’i minority holds “an unbreakable bond with Zionism,” claiming that “Baha’i and Israel are one and the same.”
His remarks followed reports by the Baha’i International Community (BIC) that at least 22 members of the faith had their homes and businesses raided in coordinated operations across six provinces.
Iranian authorities have long accused the Baha’i community of links to Israel, partly because the faith’s spiritual center is located in Haifa, where its founder’s shrine stands. Rights groups say such claims have been used to justify arrests, confiscations, and lengthy prison sentences.
Nearly three quarters of documented violations against religious minorities in Iran over the past three years have involved Baha'is, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
