Six Nobel Peace Prize laureates have issued a statement calling on the Iranian government to immediately free seven prominent Iranian Baha’is imprisoned in Tehran.

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the day 10 Bahá'í women were hanged in Shiraz, Iran, for teaching religious classes to Bahá'í youth -- the equivalent of being Sunday School teachers in the West.

The Bahá’í International Community has rejected the Iranian government’s allegations that six Bahá’ís were arrested last week “for security reasons and not for their faith.”

The Agence France-Presse reported today that Iran confirmed that it has arrested members of the Bahai religious community, whose faith is banned in the Islamic republic, for acting against the national interest.

The U.S. Department of State has issued the following statement about the recent arrests:

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today called for strong international condemnation of the arrest of Baha’i leaders in Iran.

On May 14, Iranian intelligence officials arrested six Baha’i leaders and took them to the notorious Evin prison. The imprisonments are ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Baha’i leaders were summarily rounded up and subsequently executed.

On February 28, 2008, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (IL - 10th district) introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran.

The Agence France-Presse reported today that Iran's judiciary has announced sentences for 54 members of the Baha'i Faith who were arrested in May 2006 in Shiraz while taking part in a project to educate underprivileged children.
 

GENEVA, 29 January 2008 (BWNS)--In the wake of a US State Department call for Iran to release Baha'i prisoners, Amnesty International has issued an "urgent action" appeal on their behalf.