HRANA, August 12, 2022.
On August 9, security agents raided the home of Gulriz Nouraani (گلریز نورانی) and Mehrzaad Zahraa’i (مهرزاد زهرایی), a Bahai couple living in Qazvin. They seized digital devices, books and works related to the Bahai Faith, a gold ring with religious motifs, and some of their personal pictures. Mr. Zahraa’i was not home, and the agents did not not have a female officer with them.
HRANA, August 11, 2022. –
Behnaam Momtaazi (بهنام ممتازی), a Bahai from Qazvin, was released on bail on August 11. He was arrested on July 31, but his arrest was not previously reported on Sen’s Daily. Bail was set at 250 million tumans ($US 59,000 ; 57,000 euros).
HRANA, June 12, 2018. –
On June 9, Soheil Keshavarz (سهیل کشاورز), a Bahai living in Qazvin, was arrested and taken to Qazvin prison to begin serving his six-month sentence. He was initially arrested on December 20, 2016, when four security agents raided his home. On December 24, agents raided the home of his father, Sohrab Keshavarz (سهراب کشاور), and seized Bahai books and personal effects. Then they took him with them to the home of Soheil Keshavarz (who was still being detained — he was held for interrogation for 25 days), and searched it again. His bail, trial and sentencing was not previously reported on Sen’s Daily. This report does not specify the charges.
Bahai News (Persian), December 20, 2016 and one subsequent report.
On December 20, four security agents raided the home of Soheil Keshavarz (سهیل کشاورز) in Qazvin. They conducted a search and arrested Mr. Keshavarz. On December 24, agents raided the home of his father, Sohrab Keshavarz (سهراب کشاور) and seized Bahai books and personal effects. Then they took him with them to the home of Soheil Keshavarz, and searched it again.
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Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Bahai News (Persian), May 30, 2016.
Faraz Karin-Kani Sisan (فراز کرین کانی سیسان), a Bahai student of civil engineering, has been expelled from university because of his religious beliefs. He was in the first year of studies at the Alborz Institute of Higher Education (recently recognized as a University). He received a letter from Dr. Assadullah Asra’i (دکتر اسدالله آسرایی), who is named in the letter (under the signature) as the “President” (Chancellor) of the Institute, although the Institute’s web site names Dr. Seyyed Morteza Nourbaksh (دکتر سید مرتضی نوربخش) as President. The letter states that he has been expelled in accordance with a decision of the University’s Security Department, on May 18 this year, that Bahai students cannot continue their education. Mr. Sisan is referred to the University’s Bureau of Education to “settle accounts,” suggesting the possibility of refund of his fees.
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Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
HRANA, January 20
The Ministry of Intelligence bureau in Qazvin has summoned and interrogated a Munireh Shah-Muhammadi ( منیره شاه محمدی ). In June, 2009, her home was searched and her religious books and computer and other personal effects were seized, and she was held for one day for interrogation. Behnam Momtazi ( بهنام ممتازی ), another Bahai from Qazvin, was arrested on December 11, and is now free on bail. Six other Bahais are also known to have been summoned and interrogated at the same time [the report does not say clearly whether this means December or January ~ Sen]. Their names are reported as Vahid Faroughi, Wasal Momtazi, Navid Mola’i, Mehrzad Zahra’i, Mas`ud Behrami and Mas`ud Bahaquli ( وحید فروغی، وصال ممتازی، نوید ملایی، مهرزاد زهرایی، مسعود بهرامی و مسعود بهاقلی ). They were interrogated orally and in writing, and some were asked to sign pledges that they would not engage in cultural or publicity work.
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Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
PCED, December 15
Behnam Momtazi ( بهنام ممتازی ), a Bahai from Qazvin, was arrested on December 11. Security officers searched his home and confiscated some personal effects including books, CDs and a laptop, before arresting him. The charges against him are not known.
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Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Personal communication, November 16
A reliable source in Iran reports that another Bahai student has been expelled from one of Qazvin’s universities. This time it is Sepehr Hasim ( سپهر حصیم ), a student of computer science at the Shahid Baba’i University. He was summoned to the security office by telephone, on October 28 (thus, before the other 3 Bahai students whose expulsions were reported recently). When he made enquiries regarding his status with the Vice-Chancellor, on the same day, he was told the decision to expel him had been made by the national office of evaluations of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. This office is responsible for entrance examinations and other qualifications, and for determining degree equivalencies. When he asked for the reason, university officials told him they had no information, and he was referred from office to office until someone at the Department of Education eventually gave him his expulsion order. It stated that the security office had determined that he was a Bahai. Mr. Hasim had achieved a high (entrance examination) score and was accepted to study at the Islamic Azad University, a chain of privately run universities with 400 branches across Iran, but since this university refuses to accept Bahai students, he had enrolled at the government-run institution in Qazvin.
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Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
PCED, November 13
Nova Hamidi and Mona Ashrafi ( نوا حمیدی و مونا اشرفی ), who had been studying computer science at at Imam Khomeini International Technical University in Qazvin, have been barred from further study because of their Bahai beliefs. They began their studies in 2011. When they were summoned by telephone and presented themselves the university’s security office, they were told that questions of religious belief would be dealt with by the central security office since officers from the Ministry of Intelligence would be questioning them about their religious beliefs, and their further study would depend on their signing a promise. They were presented with a text saying:
“I promise that, so long as I am at the university, I will not pay any attention to messages from the Universal House of Justice and will have no links with them, or those linked to them, and that I will put the regulations and principles of the regime and of the university before any instructions from the House of Justice.”
When the students refused to sign this they were asked to sign a second text saying “I testify that I am only obedient to the House of Justice which is free of error.”
Since they refused to sign these statements, they were expelled, without being given any evidence of their expulsion. This [along with the case of Tanin Torabi reported here on November 10] represents a new way of building a case against Bahai students.
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Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
HRANA, November 10
Tanin Torabi ( طنین ترابی ), a Bahai student in the third semester of a course in English translation at Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin, has been barred from further study because of her religious beliefs. She was summoned to the University’s security office on October 28. Security officers asked her to promise that, so long as she was at the University, she would pay no attention to messages from the Universal House of Justice, and have no links to the House of Justice and its associated institutions, and would put principles and regulations of the regime and the university before any instructions from the House of Justice. Since she was not willing to sign this promise, she was expelled on the spot, without being given any documentation of her expulsion.
Editorial comment: This report is very interesting, since the anxiety of these University officials focuses on obedience to a foreign institution rather than on heresy. This suggests the possibility that Bahais might be allowed to study at university, if the authorities can be made aware of the principle that:
“they [the Bahais] will, unhesitatingly, subordinate the operation of [Bahai] laws and … principles to the requirements and legal enactments of their respective governments.
(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 66)
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Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
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