The persecution of Baháʼís has occurred in several countries, particularly in parts of the Middle East, where followers of the Baháʼí Faith have faced state-sponsored discrimination, restrictions on religious practice, arbitrary detention, expulsion, and denial of civil rights. The persecution has been most extensive and sustained in Iran, where Baháʼís constitute the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. Religious and political authorities have frequently portrayed the Baháʼí Faith as heretical or as a form of apostasy from Islam, while governments have also accused Baháʼís, without substantiated evidence, of disloyalty, foreign influence, or espionage. Significant government repression has also been documented in Egypt, Qatar, and Yemen.
The Baháʼí Faith originated in 19th-century Persia with the ministries of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The Báb proclaimed that his mission was to prepare humanity for the appearance of a divinely appointed figure, while Bahá’u’lláh later claimed to be that figure and founded the Baháʼí Faith. Baháʼí teachings emphasize principles including the unity of humanity, the equality of women and men, the harmony of science and religion, the elimination of prejudice, and the independent investigation of truth.
The rapid growth of the Bábí movement was regarded as a political and religious threat by the Qajar authorities and the Shia clergy. Thousands of Bábís were killed during violent campaigns against the movement, and the Báb was publicly executed in 1850. After Bahá’u’lláh announced his religious claims and the Baháʼí Faith began to spread, his followers continued to face pressure to renounce their beliefs and return to Islam. The persecution continued after Bahá’u’lláh was exiled from Iran and has persisted in the country into the present day. Bahá’u’lláh, members of his family, and a number of his followers were also subjected by the Ottoman authorities to successive exiles, imprisonment, confinement, and restrictions on their activities.
In Iran, persecution has continued under three successive political systems. During the Qajar dynasty, the state and the Shia clergy participated in violent campaigns against the Bábí movement; thousands were killed and the Báb was publicly executed in 1850. Under the Pahlavi dynasty, Baháʼís experienced changing levels of toleration, but their schools and institutions were closed and their literature was censored. In 1955, the government supported a clerically led anti-Baháʼí campaign in which national radio and official media disseminated propaganda, military forces occupied and damaged Baháʼí centres, Baháʼís were dismissed from employment, and mob attacks spread across the country.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, persecution has become an official and systematic policy of the Islamic Republic. A central expression of this policy was a secret memorandum concerning the “Baháʼí question”, issued on 25 February 1991 by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution at the request of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The memorandum directed that the government’s dealings with Baháʼís should be conducted so that “their progress and development are blocked”. It also called for Baháʼís to be expelled from universities once their religious identity became known, for those who identified themselves as Baháʼís to be denied employment, for Baháʼís to be excluded from positions of influence, and for a plan to be devised to “confront and destroy their cultural roots” outside Iran. Human Rights Watch described the memorandum as a foundational policy document for the systematic and widespread abuses committed against Baháʼís and noted that it has repeatedly been cited in subsequent government and judicial correspondence.
A 2024 report prepared by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, in partnership with Eleos Justice at Monash University, stated that “the ideology underpinning the persecution of Baháʼís in Iran is multifaceted, drawing on religious, political, and historical narratives. It combines theological objections with conspiracy theories [and] nationalist sentiments … [and has been] encoded in law and institutionalized in various forms of discrimination and persecution.”
Iranian authorities have executed or forcibly disappeared hundreds of Baháʼís and have arrested, detained, prosecuted, or imprisoned thousands. Early post-revolution campaigns concentrated on elected and appointed members of Baháʼí institutions; from the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad onward, repeated nationwide waves of arbitrary arrests have increasingly targeted ordinary community members, including women and people engaged in peaceful educational or social-service activities. Women were disproportionately affected during the intensified campaign following the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Courts have relied on broadly worded accusations such as “propaganda against the state”, “acting against national security”, membership in an “illegal” organization, and educational or religious activity said to be contrary to Islam, while Baháʼí institutions and many forms of peaceful community activity remain prohibited.
Over several decades, Baháʼí detainees have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including beatings, electric shocks, mock executions, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of food or medical care, threats against family members, and coerced confessions. These abuses have continued in recent years and were again reported during the intensified repression of 2026, when some detainees faced accusations carrying the death penalty.
Economic pressure has been a central component of the persecution. Authorities have denied Baháʼís equal access to higher education, public employment, pensions, and professional and business licences, and have pressured private employers to dismiss Baháʼí workers. They have forcibly closed hundreds of Baháʼí-owned businesses, imposed excessive bail requirements—often secured against family homes, farmland, or other property—and confiscated or demolished homes, shops, agricultural land, vehicles, bank accounts, and communal assets. In rural communities across Iran, Baháʼí residents have been displaced and their homes and farmland confiscated or demolished, including in Ivel, Roshankouh, Ahmadabad, and other villages. Similar business closures and seizures of homes, commercial property, vehicles, bank accounts, and other assets have occurred in cities and provinces including Mazandaran, Semnan, and Isfahan.
Authorities have also refused to recognize Baháʼí marriages and other civil-status rights, demolished or desecrated holy places and cemeteries, and interfered with burials. State officials, clerics, educational institutions, and state-affiliated media have conducted systematic campaigns of anti-Baháʼí hate propaganda and incitement, portraying Baháʼís as heretics, foreign agents, spies, or enemies of the state. During periods of political unrest, war, or other national crises, Baháʼís have repeatedly been scapegoated and blamed for Iran’s political and economic problems. In 2024, Human Rights Watch concluded that the cumulative effect of Iran’s decades-long, widespread, and systematic state policy amounted to the crime against humanity of persecution.
In Egypt, the Baháʼí Faith was legally recognized as an independent religion in 1925, but President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s government dissolved Baháʼí institutions and prohibited organized Baháʼí activities in 1960. The religion remains officially unrecognized, limiting the community’s ability to administer marriages, personal-status matters, religious institutions, and burial grounds. For years, Baháʼís were also unable to obtain identity documents unless they falsely registered as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, preventing access to education, employment, medical care, travel, and other basic services. A 2009 reform allowed identity documents to contain a dash instead of a recognized religion, but it did not grant legal recognition to the Baháʼí Faith, and discrimination concerning marriage, education, and burial rights has continued.
In Qatar, authorities have been accused of pursuing a long-standing policy of religious discrimination through arbitrary detention, blacklisting, deportation, refusal to renew residency permits, employment restrictions, and non-recognition of Baháʼí marriage documents. These measures have caused loss of employment, permanent exclusion from the country, and the separation of families, while restrictions on cemeteries and community institutions have impeded collective religious life.
In Yemen, persecution became systematic after the Houthi movement took control of Sanaa in 2014. Houthi authorities have carried out mass arrests, prolonged and arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, raids on Baháʼí gatherings, confiscation of property, forced exile, and prosecutions on espionage and apostasy-related charges. Baháʼís have received death sentences, Baháʼí institutions have been ordered dissolved, and public speeches by Houthi leaders have incited hostility against the community. Iran
Qajar dynasty The Báb declared his mission in Persia in 1844 during the Qajar Dynasty (1789–1925). From 1844 - 1853, opposition to the Bábis was led by the Shi’a clergy who were driven by a belief that the religion was a challenge to and an infringement of Islam, and who feared for their livelihoods and standing. When in 1848 the clergy procured support from the state, the Bábis responded by defending themselves in situations where they were assured of sufficiently large numbers, and enduring the suffering when they didn’t.
To begin with the mullas tried to stop the spread of the Bábi religion by condemning the believers as enemies of God and apostates, resulting in torture, public executions and mass attacks. Efforts by the Bábis to defend themselves resulted in the engagement of troops by the government, with heavy casualties on both sides. The Báb’s imprisonment from 1846 until 1850 resulted in a public execution, and when in 1852 there was a failed attempt from two Bábís to kill the Shah in revenge, the result was a large scale massacre of over 20,000 Bábís, including 400 Shí'i mullas who had become followers of the Báb.
The writings of Baháʼu’lláh challenged various deep-rooted doctrines of Shí'i Islam, including the equality of women and men, the formation of a world federal government, the inclusion of Western sciences in the school curriculum, and the independent investigation of truth. He also stated that there is no longer a need for a priesthood, thus calling into question the existence of the Shí'i ecclesiastical structure with its extensive financial network sustained by fees, ecclesiastic offices and endowments. In cities and villages where the clergy were strongly influencial, the mullas used their power in order to provoke attacks on the Baháʼís, a situation which lasted until the Qájár dynasty was overthrown in 1925.
Between 1853 - 1921 persecutions tended to be local, initiated by governors or clerics more for personal gain in regard to prestige or wealth than for religious purposes, since with no protection from any European powers the Baháʼís were in a vulnerable position. By following Baháʼu'lláh’s instructions to desist from defending themselves, the Baháʼís demonstrated their peaceful intentions and their obedience to the government. From circa 1882 not only did the central government cease the persecution of Baháʼís, but looked upon any harassment initiated by local clerics with disapproval. During the 1920s attacks on the Baháʼí community were being instigated by the state.