The recent closing of Baha’i-owned shops in several cities in Iran violates the economic and religious rights of Iranian Baha’i citizens, the Baha’i International Community said today in a statement to the Human Rights Council.

“On 24 May, agents of the Iranian government Public Places Supervision Office sealed eleven shops in the city of Sari,” said Diane Ala’i, the representative of the BIC to the UN in Geneva, reading the statement.

“This followed a similar closure of eighty shops in Kerman, Rafsanjan, and Jiroft, in October 2014 and again a few last April.”

Ms. Ala’i said such small businesses are virtually the only means of economic substance for Iranian Baha’is, since they are banned from government employment and private sector businesses are frequently pressured to fire Baha’i employees.

“So the recent closure of shops is not just a violation of economic rights, it is yet another effort by the Iranian authorities to eradicate the Bahá’í community as a viable entity in the place of its birth.”

The full statement can be read here.