Authorities Destroy Over 30 Baha'i Graves At Mass Site In Tehran
Iranian authorities have demolished more than 30 graves belonging to the Baha'i community at a mass gravesite in Tehran this week as oppression of the minority continues.
Iranian authorities have demolished more than 30 graves belonging to the Baha'i community at a mass gravesite in Tehran this week as oppression of the minority continues.
The act, which involved the removal of grave markers and the flattening of resting places using bulldozers, was slammed by rights activists, the latest in a series of actions taken against the community which has been systematically targeted since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, said, “In the last few months, the deceased loved ones of the Baha’is have been forcibly buried by government agents in the Khavaran mass grave site, further desecrating a burial place sacred to many.
"Now these same new graves have been destroyed. It is clear that this was always their plan. All Iranians are weighed down by unprecedented social and economic challenges, and amid this general suffering, Baha’is have been targeted by intensified and brutal new tactics in the Iranian government’s persecution of its community".
Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Tehran's Baha'i community owned two large cemeteries, both of which were confiscated by the Islamic Republic in the 1980s. Thousands of graves were demolished at the Khavaran cemetery, and the Baha'is were given limited access to a smaller property known as Golestan Javid. However, Ministry of Intelligence agents took over Golestan Javid in 2021, making it increasingly difficult for Baha'is to use their own cemetery.
Unofficial estimates suggest that more than 300,000 Baha'i people live in Iran. However, the Constitution officially acknowledges only Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, thereby rendering Baha'is the most significant non-Muslim religious minority in the country.
Some newspapers such as Ham Mihan and Sazandegi, along with the pro-reform Arman Melli, delved into significant issues with headlines such as "The Decline of Politics in Iranian Society," "Ethnic Groups Supplanting Political Parties," and "A Silent Protest." Meanwhile, hardline dailies like Kayhan offered congratulations to the government, celebrating "the high voter turnout" without acknowledging the sizeable majority of eligible voters who abstained.
However, Kayhan, linked to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, failed to mention that from nearly 62 million eligible voters, some 36 million refused to take part in the elections, even according to the inflated numbers announced by the government.
Ham Mihan pointed out that with this election "political activity in Iran has become banal," as young individuals with little political experience will enter the Iranian parliament next summer. The daily quoted social scientist Kazem Kardavani as saying that "The Iranian society will not be able to solve its problem as long as politics is reduced to a vulgar matter." The daily reiterated that no man in the street can become a political leader overnight.
The paper further observed that the conservative camp, in its pursuit of political purification, has sidelined experienced politicians like Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel. It warned that this trend could extend to other prominent figures, including current Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
In an article for Sazandegi, Hossein Marashi of the centrist Executives of Construction Party pointed out the replacement of political parties by ethnic groups in the election, attributing it to government filtering of political parties and the expectation of a Tehran boycott, which shifted political activity to smaller towns with stronger ethnic identities.
Marashi cited Urmia's election outcome, where ethnic Kurds triumphed over ethnic Azaris, as evidence. He issued a stark warning against the ultraconservative Paydari Party, suggesting it could seize control of both the parliament and the country, urging vigilance against its totalitarian tendencies.
Meanwhile, in a stark warning to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has reportedly engineered the elections, Marashi said that the leading ultraconservative Paydari Party is likely to take over not only the parliament, but probably the whole country. Marashi wrote: "After the election, the Islamic Republic should closely watch Paydari and its totalitarian tendencies. The leaders of the regime will have to note that Paydari can turn into a nuisance that can disrupt everything.
Marashi warned that "if Ghalibaf cannot control the parliament, Paydari will take over the helm and control the legislature. In that case the only solution for the regime is to give an opportunity to reformists to face down Paydari." However, the reformists' ability to do so is doubtful.
Arman Melli quoted reformist activist Saeed Shariati as saying that election turnout was terribly low in all the elections since 2020, and that this situation will not change as long as the people's trust in the election system and in the performance of the Majles is not restored. Shariati said that the people do not trust an election whose candidates are nominated by the Guardian Council rather than by people or political parties. On the other hand, the Majles has done nothing to restore people's trust in the legislative system.
The daily reiterated that by not voting, or by casting blank votes, Iranians have silently voiced their dissatisfaction with the country's current situation.
Majid Dastjani Farahani, sanctioned by the US treasury in December 2023, is believed to be an officer from Iran’s intelligence ministry recruiting individuals “for operations in the U.S.,” as revenge for the killing of Iran’s top extra-territorial operator in the Middle East, General Qasem Soleimani four years ago.
The Iranian regime has never hidden its intentions to avenge Soleimani’s killing. High on their hit list seem to be Trump-era officials who could be imagined having had a role in the decision to strike Soleimani’s convoy at the Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, through all tools and capacities in order to bring to justice the perpetrators and all those who had a hand in this government sanctioned act of terror, will not sit until that is done,” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said in his UN General Assembly address last September. “The blood of the oppressed will not be forgotten.”
Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Trump’s special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, are believed to be targets, both under round-the-clock protection from the US government. The provision is costing the American taxpayer around a million dollars each month, as revealed in a US Senate hearing last week featuring Brian Hook.
Also on the hit list is John Bolton, who was Trump’s national security advisor in the months leading up to the killing of Soleimani.
It’s unclear whether Farahani is believed to have succeeded in recruiting someone, and if he did, how far they managed to advance their plan on American soil. The FBI says that Farahani has also attempted to recruit individuals to spy on some “religious sites, businesses, and other facilities in the United States.”
Farahani acted or purported to act “for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security,” according to the FBI. He is said to travel “frequently” to Venezuela from Iran and speaks Spanish –all of which could explain, partially at least, why the Most Wanted notice was issued by the FBI's field office in Miami.
Iran seems to be focused on enlisting non-Iranians, especially criminals or armed militia, to act on its behalf, mainly, it seems, to avoid culpability. This is perhaps most evident in Iran’s attack on US interests in the Middle East, which is always directed through the regime’s proxies in the region.
But planning operations inside the United States is less evident and far in between.
In 2021, U.S. authorities revealed that there was a plot to kidnap Iranian-American activist, Masih Alinejad, from her home in Brooklyn and take her by speedboat to Venezuela. In January 2024, the US Justice Department indicted three natives of Azerbaijan for allegedly attempting to murder Alinejad in New York.
Around the same time, the Justice Department also indicted an Iranian gang leader plotting to assassinate unnamed Iranian dissidents in Maryland.
Targeting dissidents and opposition figures abroad has been a hallmark of the Iranian regime ever since its inception in 1979. Iranian activists, journalists, even artists, have been assassinated in cold blood and often in gruesome fashion to eliminate political alternatives –and also set examples for those daring to oppose the Islamic Republic.
But targeting US officials on American soil is adventurism of a different order. It is not clear if the new revelation will result in any action by the Biden administration that spent its first two years in office to try reach some sort of a deal with Iran over its sprawling nuclear program.