Five weeks of uncertainty in Shiraz Intelligence Detention Center; Yekta Fahandezh Saadi's charges still unclear

HRANA News Agency reported the continued detention of Yekta Fahandezh Saadi, a Baha'i citizen, by the Shiraz Intelligence Department, and wrote that five weeks after her arrest, she is still in limbo.

According to the report, Ms. Fahandezh Saadi has only had the opportunity to make a brief phone call once during this period. In that phone call, she announced to her family that she was still being held in the Shiraz Intelligence Department detention center, known as No. 100.

Yekta Fahandezh Saadi was arrested by the Islamic Republic's security forces at her home in Shiraz on December 17 and then transferred to the city's Intelligence Department detention center.

There is still no information available about the reasons for the arrest and the charges brought against Yekta Fahandej Saadi.

Baha'is, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran, have been systematically persecuted since the 1979 Bahman Revolution.

According to the Open Database of Iran, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, "at least 225 Baha'is have been killed directly or indirectly by the Islamic Republic."

According to the 2022 International Religious Freedom Report prepared by the US Department of State's Office of Religious Freedom, the Islamic Republic's repression, violence, discrimination, and social stigmatization against members of the Baha'i community in Iran has intensified.

Source: Voice of America