Soli Sorabjee, Upendra Baxi back Baha’i community’s demand to end persecution in Iran

NEW DELHI: Former attorney general of India Soli Sorabjee and legal eagle Upendra Baxi are among the 25 prominent professors, lawyers and judges from around the world who have signed a petition addressed to the head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Javad Larijani, asking him to take remedial steps to stop the persecution of the Baha’i community in Iran.
The letter follows the recent launch of the Archives of Baha’i Persecution in Iran website, which compiles thousands of official documents, first-hand reports, testimonials and audio-visual materials revealing proof of persecution.The new site was created in response to rising interest internationally and from within Iran to understand the nature of persecution being faced by the community.
The open letter, of which Sorabjee and Baxi are signatories, calls on Larijani to review the contents of the new site and to reconsider statements he and other Iranian officials have made to deny the discrimination against the Baha’is. Information available on the archival website covers a wide range of violations by Iranian authorities, documenting systematic discrimination, arrest and imprisonment, execution, economic oppression, denial of education, acts of destruction and violence, and incitement to hatred.
Citing multiple instances of persecution, the open letter refers to a missive from the General Affairs of Educational Office of the University of Isfahan in which a student is denied permission to pursue her studies because she is “a follower of the Baha’i sect”. Another letter from the Court Administrative Justice to a person with disabilities informs him that he has been “dismissed from his job due to his membership in the Baha’i sect,’ that his pension benefits have been stopped, and that his further complaints to the court are “deemed invalid and rejected”.