It has been nearly two months that the body of a Baha’i in Ahwaz has been kept in the morgue and local authorities refuse to issue a burial permit.
According to the Baha’i International Community in Geneva, the burial of “Shamel Bina”, who died on October 28, was prevented despite requests from the family and others to several officials including the governor and the city’s imam.
The report adds that the Baha’i cemetery in the city of Ahwaz has been recently closed by the authorities in a cruel manner; the cemetery’s entrance door is welded shut and a wall has been built in front of it.
The Baha’i International Community asserts that this incident is the latest in a series of events in recent months that the Iranian authorities have done to prevent the burial of Baha’is, or have interfered in it, or issued permits for the destruction of their cemeteries.
It seems that these cases are part of an organized campaign to force Baha’is to deny their religious identity.
In the city of Semnan, the Baha’is have been told that they must sign a disclaimer for the issuance of a burial permit for their relatives.
On these forms it is stated that on the grave nothing except name and date of birth can be written and no green space is created. Similar instructions were issued earlier this year about the Baha’i cemetery in Sangsar.
The report pointed to other cases of rights violations against Baha’is in Iran, including the following:
In Tabriz, local authorities, for at least 8 days, refused to issue a burial permit for a woman in the Baha’is cemetery of Tabriz unless she is buried without a coffin, which is contrary to the funeral rituals of the Baha’is.
Also in November, state officials closed down the Baha’i cemetery in Mahmoudieh, Esfahan, and stated that the Baha’is are not allowed to be buried at the site.
During a period of eight months in Tabriz, the burial of at least 15 Baha’is has been prevented in the public cemetery, and families were forced to send the bodies of their loved ones to other cities.
According to the report dated October 2014 of Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur of Human Rights in Iran, at least 126 Baha’is are in prison as of August 2014.
The Baha’i International Community and leaders of the Anglican Church of Iran added that many lawyers who have accepted the sensitive cases of Baha’is or Christians have either been imprisoned or have fled the country.
The destruction or closing of religious places like cemeteries, worship centres and churches continues. In May 2014, despite the demands of human rights societies and groups, the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Republic destroyed a Baha’i cemetery in Shiraz.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, in his report on September 12 of last year said that the promises of President Hassan Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding more freedom have not led to any noticeable improvement in human rights and freedom of expression.
The United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 2014 for the sixty-first time condemned the Iranian regime for its human rights violations, the high number of executions and the repression of minorities.