Yazd Baha'is: 34 security and judicial actions in under seven months

The security and judicial bodies of the Islamic Republic have targeted Baha'i citizens of Yazd at least 34 times between 28 March and 15 October 2026, in under seven months. HRANA, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, recorded and published these cases on Friday, 16 October.

According to the report, these actions include 11 house searches, 18 summonses for interrogation, prison sentences for three people, and the transfer of one person to prison to serve a sentence. During these searches, agents seized mobile phones, electronic devices, books, photographs and items related to the Baha'i faith, and also impounded one citizen's vehicle.

From a gathering to house searches

The first case was recorded on 28 March: Ministry of Intelligence agents broke up a gathering of about 50 Baha'i citizens who had come together to eat ash (a traditional Persian soup) and seized their phones without a judicial order; the phones have still not been returned, despite complaints from some of those present. In the Iranian month of Tir (June–July), about 12 people from the same group were summoned for interrogation.

The Iranian month of Shahrivar (August–September) was the peak of these actions: the homes of six Baha'i citizens, among them Shahrokh Nasiri, Majid Ghane and Parnia Basiri, were searched and six people were summoned. On 23 August, Iman Rashidi was also summoned to serve a sentence and was sent to prison after reporting to the prosecutor's office. On 27 September, the tenth anniversary of the murder of Farhang Amiri, a Baha'i citizen who in 2016 was stabbed to death in front of his home in Yazd, about 40 security agents searched the Amiri family's home, and that same night the homes of Payam Amiri, Neda Amiri and Mazyar Motahed were also searched.

Prison sentences

Branch 1 of the Yazd Revolutionary Court sentenced Flora Samadani and her husband Ahmad Jafari Naeimi on a charge of "deviant propaganda activity" to three years and one day and six months and one day in prison respectively. Moein Mohammadi Dehaj, 39, was also sentenced in the Iranian month of Mordad (July–August) to 16 years, seven months and 18 days of discretionary imprisonment, 10 years' deprivation of social rights and permanent dismissal from government service.

The pressure on Baha'is is not limited to Yazd. According to the Baha'i International Community, as of 2 October at least 64 Baha'i citizens in Iran were in detention or prison, and another 19 were serving their sentences with an electronic ankle monitor or on leave; the case of the 26 Baha'is of Shiraz, despite their acquittal in December 2022 and January 2023, has also been reopened. Earlier, the sentence of Iman Rahmatpanah, a Baha'i citizen of Shiraz, had been carried out with an electronic ankle monitor. The constitution of the Islamic Republic does not recognise the Baha'i faith, and more than 300,000 Iranian Baha'is are denied equal rights.

In under seven months, the Baha'is of Yazd faced searches, summonses and prison sentences 34 times.