The Baha'is of Semnan Report

Videos

The Baha'is of Semnan Report

  26 November 2012

 

 

The Baha'i International Community has launched a Special Report documenting the intensifying persecution of the Bahá'í community in Semnan, Iran. This video provides an overview of the report, 'The Baha'is of Semnan: A Case Study in Religious Hatred,' and features interviews with Siovash and Monir Khanjani, natives of Semnan Province, living in the United States. Located about 200 kilometers east of Tehran in north central Iran, the city of Semnan has a population of about 125,000 people. Among them are several hundred Baha'is from every walk of life and socio-economic class. Yet despite their small number, the Baha'is of Semnan have been the focus in recent years of an intensifying persecution, facing an array of economic, physical and psychological attacks. While these types of attacks on Baha'is are not confined to Semnan, the situation there is noteworthy for its particular intensity and the mobilization and coordination of official and semi-official elements -- including the police, the courts, local officials, and the clergy.