The Iranian regime has intensified its persecution of the Baha'i religious minority, with arrests, torture, and mock executions reported amid the ongoing war and internal unrest. Human rights groups say the regime is targeting Baha'is as part of a broader crackdown on dissent.

Atossa Najafi, a 23-year-old Iranian dentistry student in Berlin, told DW that security forces raided her family's home in Isfahan on June 6, taking away her 19-year-old brother Parsa. The family has received no information about his whereabouts or condition since then.

Jascha Noltenius, human rights commissioner for the German Baha'i community, reported that the number of imprisoned Baha'is in Iran has risen from 20 to 65 in recent months. At least two prisoners were subjected to mock executions, where a noose was placed around their necks and they were made to believe they were about to die. Others have been severely tortured.

Noltenius is in contact with Germany's Foreign Ministry and the country's commissioner for freedom of religion, Thomas Rachel, who condemned the violations in the strongest terms. Rachel noted that approximately 300,000 Baha'is in Iran face systematic discrimination, disenfranchisement, and persecution, which has worsened since the Iran-Israel-US war.

The Baha'i faith has been banned in Iran since 1983, and its followers have long been denied education, employment, and property rights. There are fears that the regime may execute Baha'is for the first time since the early 1990s.

For Najafi, the uncertainty is the hardest part: "We simply don't know what is happening to my brother. And this uncertainty is the worst part."

Source: www.dw.com