The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday condemning the systematic persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community and urging EU governments to impose sanctions on officials involved in rights abuses.
The resolution was approved with 549 votes in favor, 7 against and 31 abstentions.
Members of the European Parliament said the Baha’is face escalating repression, including harassment, arbitrary detention and property confiscation, and called for the immediate release of all those jailed for their religious beliefs.
"Member states must raise the issue of severe human rights violations in Iran and impose sanctions on Iranian officials contributing to the persecution of the Baha’is," MEPs said in a statement.
The adopted resolution also said Baha’i women face gender-based persecution and account for around two thirds of those detained.
MEPs called on Iran to compensate victims, return seized assets and allow the Baha’i community access to education, employment and services.
Lawmakers criticized the rise in executions in Iran and urged Tehran to halt the use of capital punishment as a tool of political and religious repression.
Fresh wave of hate speech and arrests
The European Parliament’s resolution comes amid a renewed crackdown on Baha’is inside Iran and rising anti-Baha’i rhetoric on state media.
Last month, 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.
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.
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).
