Iranian Authorities Ban Newspaper For Baha’i Temple Picture

Iranian authorities have banned the country’s largest-circulation newspaper for publishing a photo of a Baha’i temple, state media reported Monday. Iran’s Shiite cleric-led regime views the Baha’i religion as heretical and has banned it since the 1979 revolution. The photo also gave Iran’s leaders an opportunity to silence the Hamshahri daily…Hamshahri was ordered closed by the Press Supervisory Board, a government agency run by hard-liners, for printing an advertisement containing a photo of a Baha’i temple that encourages tourists to visit the shrine, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Source: Associated Press

Baha’i Musician Imprisoned In Iran

I am concerned to learn that a Baha’i musician has been wrongfully imprisoned in Iran.

Behnam Rohani-Fard, a Bahai Musician and composer  who had resided in Tehran for some time traveled to the city of Yazd to participate in the mourning ceremony arranged for one of his family members.  In the morning hours of Monday, October 12, Mr. Rohani-Fard was detained by Intelligence agents while driving in his private car; he was taken to an undisclosed location.

In repeated follow-ups made by Mr. Rohani-Fard’s wife, she was told that her husband would be released in one week and his detention was related to his change of residence, as well as chanting religious Bahai songs. 

Readers are reminded that Mr. Rohani-Fard was a target of investigation by agents from the Intelligence Ministry in March 20 of this year.  During the investigation, Mr. Rohani-Fard’s computer and some of his personal effects were confiscated.  The agents carried a search warrant and an issued sentencing for a one-year suspended jail term, effective for the next four years.

Source:http://iranian.com/main/blog/faryarm/music-and-arrest-bahai-musician-behnam-rohani-fard

Baha’i Abducted And Tortured In Shiraz

In a case of shocking brutality a member of Shiraz’s Baha’i community has been abducted and tortured.

According to HRANA [Human Rights Activists News Agency], based on reports from the Baha’i Committee of Human Rights Activists in Iran, Mr. Rouh’u’llah Rezaie, a 45-year-old Baha’i in Shiraz, was stopped, kidnapped, and moved to an unknown place as he was returning home, to his wife and child, from a gas station early in the morning on 8/8/1388 [October 27,2009]. There, he was threatened, insulted, and subjected to a simulated hanging in a show-execution. He was left naked in extreme cold, and different parts of his hands, chest, and forehead were burnt by cigarettes. Finally, he was released on a road in the suburbs of Shiraz.

Source: http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/5272

Show Trial Of Baha’is Rescheduled Yet Again

In what has become a cruel farce the show trial of seven innocent Baha’is has been rescheduled yet again to Sunday 18th October.

“It is unclear whether the trial will take place on Sunday, or whether it will be postponed again,” said Diane Ala’i, the Baha’i International Community representative to the United Nations in Geneva. “If the trial does not go ahead, the seven Baha’is should be released on bail, as Iranian law requires,” she said. “They are completely innocent of the accusations against them and should not have been imprisoned in the first place.”

 Source: http://news.bahai.org/story/733