Whoever Wins Iran’s Election, Its Religious Minorities Lose

What will Iran’s May 19 presidential election mean for the Baha’i, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious group? Given that every candidate was handpicked by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s Guardian Council, the answer is simple: Nothing good.

The Islamic Republic considers the Baha’i faith heretical because it was founded after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, who is perceived in Islam as the final prophet. Since its founding 1979, the Iranian regime has taken this theological assertion to a violent extreme and used it to intensify persecution of Baha’i believers.

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Iran’s election next week holds little hope for the Baha’is or for other religious minorities. It holds scant hope for the hundreds of Sunni and Sufi Muslims and Christians incarcerated for religious reasons, including Maryam Naghash Zargaran, on whose behalf USCIRF Commissioner Cliff May is advocating. And it holds no hope for Jews and Zoroastrians, who also suffer discrimination.

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