(Reuters) – Iran said it had arrested 13 adherents of the banned Baha’i faith accusing them of proselytising to children and adolescents, local media reported, drawing condemnation from an international organisation representing Baha’is.
A statement on Saturday by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence unit, carried by state media, said the arrests were made in the central city of Isfahan.
It said the 13 arrested “were acting illegally and were indirectly promoting their ideological deviation by exploiting children and adolescents.” It did not elaborate.
The Baha’i International Community, which represents the faith worldwide, said in a statement that the arrested women “were facilitating simple children’s classes – arresting them is the equivalent of arresting people for teaching Sunday school.”
Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the U.N. in Geneva, described the arrests as a senseless act against innocent women.
Last month a group of U.N. special rapporteurs expressed serious concern at what they described as a rise in systematic targeting of Baha’i women in Iran, including through arrests, interrogation and enforced disappearances. The Iranian government responded that Baha’i women faced no restrictions.
The Islamic Republic considers the Baha’i faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.
Its faithful see Baha’i as an independent religion and its more than five million followers are spread across more than 190 countries.
Exiled Baha’i leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
([email protected], Editing by William Maclean)
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