Home Search and Arrest of Minijeh Azamian, Bahai Citizen in Babol

Minijeh Azamian, a Bahai citizen residing in Babol, was arrested on Tuesday, April 13, 2021 by officials of the Information Office of the city. After one day, she was released from Babol Prison upon posting bail. Security forces, four days before the arrest, during a search of Ms. Azamian’s home, confiscated some of her personal belongings including mobile phones, computer hard drives, flash drives, as well as images, books and works related to the Bahai faith and took them away.

According to a report by Hrana news agency, the news organ of the collection of human rights activists in Iran, on Tuesday, April 13, 1400 (2021), Minijeh Azamian, a Bahai citizen residing in Babol, was arrested by officials of the Information Office of the city and one day later was released from Babol Prison upon posting a bail of 50 million tomans.

Several days before the arrest, on April 10, security forces, during a search of Ms. Azamian’s (Eqani’s) home, confiscated some of her personal belongings including mobile phones, computer hard drives, flash drives, as well as images, books and works related to the Bahai faith and took them away.

Following the home search, officials asked Ms. Azamian to go to the Babol Information Office for interrogation on the afternoon of the same day. This Bahai citizen, after the home search and until the day of arrest, was subjected to several hours of interrogation by officials of the Information Office in multiple stages.

A source close to Ms. Azamian’s family told Hrana’s reporter in this regard: “After confiscating Ms. Azamian’s mobile phone, Information Office officials contacted a number of numbers on her phone and from among them summoned at least 3 non-Bahai families who were her friends and neighbors for interrogation regarding their connection with this citizen.”

Minijeh Azamian is a 52-year-old Bahai citizen residing in Babol.

Bahai citizens in Iran are deprived of freedoms related to religious beliefs. This systematic deprivation occurs despite Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which state that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change religion and the freedom to manifest that belief individually or collectively, publicly or privately.

According to unofficial sources in Iran, there are more than 300,000 Bahai citizens, but Iran’s Constitution only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism officially and does not recognize the Bahai faith. For this reason, over the past years, the rights of Bahais in Iran have been systematically violated.

Source: Hrana