The wave of arrests of Baha’i Iranians and denying them education has continued in Iran over the past days. Many of the victims have been women. Five Baha’i women were arrested and another 12 female Baha’i Iranians were deprived of pursuing their education despite passing the university entrance exam with good grades.
In the morning of Sunday, September 23, 2018, at least seven Baha’i Iranians including at least three women from the residents of Baharestan city in the Province of Isfahan, were arrested. Their names were Bahareh Zeini (Sobhanian), Sepideh Rouhani, and Foujhan Rashidi.
A week before, on Sunday, September 16, 2018, agents of the Intelligence Ministry also raided Ramin Sadeghi’s residence in Andisheh township of Karaj, where a group of Baha’i Iranians participated in an environmental education class.
The intelligence agents initially confiscated the mobiles of all those present, obtained their personal information, and took separate applications from each of them. Then, they completely inspected the house and seized the computer and all documents of Bahá’í Faith, including books and documents kept by Mr. Ramin Sadeghi in his house.
The intelligence agents arrested three people, including the class instructor, Ms. Maryam Ghaffarmanesh, and Ms. Jamileh Pakrou.
They subsequently went to Ms. Pakrou’s house and searched her residence. The Intelligence agents seized mobile phones, personal computers, hard disks and their home documents, and subsequently transferred the detainees to Evin Prison.
About 20 hours later, during a telephone call with her family from Ward 209 of Evin Prison, Ms. Ghaffarmanesh said they had set a 300-million-touman bail for her release.
In another development, Anahita Hor, associate student of architecture at Rasam non-profit University in Karaj, on the western outskirts of Tehran, was expelled from the university and prohibited from pursuing her studies.
Earlier, the names of 21 female Baha’i Iranians were announced who had participated in and passed the 2018 National University Entrance Exam, known as Concours, but were deprived of education and their applications were flagged as ‘deficiency on file’ on the National Organization for Educational Testing website.
Over the past days, the names of 12 other female Baha’i Iranians have been added to this list: Ava Kargar (ranking 8958 in math and 5753 in art), Nava Kargar (ranking 7007 in math and 3629 in art), Sama Mohebbi Kordsalafi (from Tehran), Alhan Safajoo (from Karaj), Helia Khademi Deljoo (from Tehran), Tara Bahamin, Bita Charkh Zarrin, Nona Ghadiri, Sayeh Aghaii, Pegah Siroosean, Sadaf Misaghi Seysan, and Anita Rastegar.