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Iranwire – Officials in Iran have buried another deceased Baha’i citizen without notifying the family or allowing for a Baha’i religious ceremony.
The body of Maryam Moinipour, a 92-year-old Baha’i citizen who passed away in Tehran on April 11, was buried in the Khavaran cemetery, southwest of the capital Tehran, by officials on Wednesday, May 3, after being kept in the morgue for three weeks. Officials had also prevented the deceased’s family from claiming the remains.
Moinipour’s family was also prevented from then burying the remains at the the Baha’i-owned Behesht Zahra cemetery. Officials there demanded a payment of 30 million tomans ($600) to release the body.
In addition, Masoud Momeni, a Ministry of Intelligence official who has claimed to be the head of the Baha’i cemetery in Tehran, threatened to bury Moinipour’s body in a mass grave without the family’s knowledge if they did not comply with his demands.
The Baha’i International Community has said in recent weeks that Momeni took control of the cemetery in 2021 without the consent of Baha’is in Iran.
Despite refusing Momeni’s demands for payment, Moinipour’s family was unable to prevent the improper burial of their loved one in Khavaran.
This is the fifth time a Baha’i citizen has been buried without their family present by agents in Khavaran, a burial place for hundreds of political prisoners who were executed in the 1980s.
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Baha’is in Iran have faced systematic discrimination and harassment, including deportation, restrictions on education, property confiscations, imprisonment, torture, and executions.
Baha’i cemeteries in Iranian cities and villages have also been confiscated and destroyed, and new buildings have been constructed on the burial grounds to leave no traces of the remains of Baha’is.
Baha’is number some 300,000 in Iran and an estimated 5 million followers worldwide. Shia Islam is the state religion in Iran, and the constitution recognizes a number of minority faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism but not the Baha’i faith.
