May 2014 marked six years since seven adults were taken from their homes and thrown into the notorious Evin prison in Iran, “For the Bahá’ís imprisoned in Iran, freedom and human rights seem remote,” noted Nazil Ghanea in the New Statesman on 6 June.
Mr. Kenneth E. Bowers, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, told a hearing on religious freedom in the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs (HFAC) Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organization that since the inauguration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in August 2013 systematic abuses against Iran’s Bahá’í community had increased.
Since that time, a Bahá’í has been killed in a religiously motivated murder, and a Bahá’í family has been stabbed by a masked intruder in their home; there has been no progress in the investigation of either case. According to the Bahá’í International Community (BIC), two Bahá’í cemeteries have also been attacked, and, in January 2014, the number of Bahá’ís in prison in Iran reached a two-decade high of 136.