Bahai International Community, December 5, 2021. –
Thirteen irrigated farmland plots belonging to Bahais in the village of Kata in Iran’s southwest have been advertised for sale by tender. The organization “Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order” – a parastatal agency controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that holds and sells assets seized from proscribed groups and individuals advertised the 13 land parcels on an auction website in mid-October, though Bahais have held the deeds to these properties for generations. Complaints by the Bahais – and even attempts to repurchase their own lands – have been rebuffed by the authorities. The Bahais were told that the auction was closed to Bahais, and also to any Muslims that had dealings with Bahais.
“This is yet another example of the Iranian Government’s increasingly callous program of targeted religious persecution against the Baha’i community” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative to the UN for the Baha’i International Community. “This act inflicts an intolerable and brazen injustice upon an innocent, law-abiding community. Arbitrarily taking farmer’s livelihoods away from them and putting their land up for sale is an act which runs counter to every norm of human decency.”
“State confiscation of property and the denial of livelihoods are both violations of Iran’s human rights commitments under United Nations conventions,” said Ms. Dugal. “The incomes earned from these farms have sustained these families for over 100 years. This plunder, which is being called an auction, must be cancelled without delay.”
More than 400 Bahai families were displaced from Kata after the Revolution. Several hundred homes were torched by mobs, and the Kata Bahais had to live in a refugee camp. Court and official orders in 2002, 2008 and 2016 also confirm more recent attempts by the authorities to confiscate farmlands in and around Kata.
The last year has seen repeated seizures of Bahai properties by the Iranian authorities across the country. In August, after raids on Bahai homes during which security agents sought and confiscated property deeds, six plots in Semnan Province were taken; and in November farmlands were seized surrounding the village of Roshankooh, also in Mazandaran Province.
“How many times must we remind the Iranian authorities that lands owned by Baha’is are not theirs to do with as they please?” asked Ms. Dugal. “Iran’s government must acknowledge this fact today and return all these assets to their rightful Bahai owners.”
Sen's daily 