Baha'i International Community

10/24/2026

A delegation of the Baha'i International Community, made up of representatives from its Geneva and Addis Ababa Offices, attended the 48th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, held in Maseru from 13 to 20 October. During the session, the delegation held bilateral meetings with several ACERWC members on the ongoing persecution of the Bahá'ís in Egypt and its consequences for children and families.

A key moment of the session was the ACERWC's review of Egypt's implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the first such review since 2008, which was of particular significance to the BIC, given the ongoing difficulties facing Bahá'í children in .

10/23/2026

UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Nazila Ghanea, highlights how the persecution of Baha’is in Iran extends even beyond death in the context of her interim report A/81/376 on Freedom of religion or belief and funeral rights in exceptional circumstances, presented to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, during the 25th Plenary Meeting.

Bahá’ís are denied the right to bury their loved ones in accordance with their religious beliefs, while their cemeteries are confiscated, desecrated, and bulldozed, denying families the dignity of mourning their loved ones and honoring their memory. These violations are yet another manifestation of the Iranian government’s relentless efforts to persecute the Bahá’í community in every aspect of life. As a former UN Special Rapporteur observed, the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran extends “from cradle to grave.”



United Nations

10/19/2026

Bahá’í Couple Sentenced in Yazd to a Combined Three Years, Six Months and Two Days in Prison

On 12 October 2026, Branch 1 of the Yazd Revolutionary Court sentenced Mrs. Flora Samadani and her husband, Mr. Ahmad Jafari Naimi, both Bahá’ís residing in Yazd, to a combined total of three years, six months and two days in prison.

According to the verdict, Mrs. Samadani was sentenced to three years and one day of imprisonment on the charge of “deviant propaganda activity contrary to the sacred law of Islam through the promotion of the Bahá’í Faith.” Mr. Naimi was sentenced to six months and one day of imprisonment on the charge of aiding and abetting the same activity. The sentences were issued under Article 500 bis and Articles 126 and 127 of the Islamic Penal Code.

The hearing on the couple’s charges had been held before the same branch in mid-to-late September 2026.

On 3 May 2026, security forces arrested Mrs. Samadani, 56, in Yazd. After about a week in a detention facility of the Yazd Intelligence Department, she was transferred to Yazd Prison and subsequently released on bail on 20 June 2026.

Mr. Naimi, 59, had previously been arrested and subjected to legal proceedings because of his religious beliefs. On 13 June 2026, he was arrested after appearing before Investigation Branch 6 of the Yazd Prosecutor’s Office. He was released from Yazd Prison on 4 July 2026 on bail of one billion tomans.

10/16/2026

In her recorded statement for the side event hosted by Baha'i International Community, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights - المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية and Amnesty International, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Professor Nazila Ghanea, underscored the consequences of the freedom of religion or belief violations taking place in : "You name the right, we will be able to trace its violation due to freedom of religion or belief in Egypt. These violations are so entrenched that they've been rendered invisible: the ranks or files don't see them, the authorities deny them or are themselves confounded by them."

10/14/2026

Thank you, Reuters, for this important coverage of the lived reality of ’s Bahá’í community, whose members continue to be systematically denied some of the most basic human rights. “I am not asking anyone to accept my religion. I am asking them to accept me as a person in this country.”
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypts-bahai-minority-is-running-out-space-bury-their-dead-2026-10-13/

In a Cairo cemetery shaded by palms and tangled shrubs, pale graves are packed so tightly that in some places only narrow strips of sand and broken pavement separate one family’s ​plot from the next.