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Iran arrests 13 Bahais for promoting their 'misguided sect'
Iranian authorities arrested 13 followers of the Bahai faith in the central province of Isfahan, accusing them of proselytising for their "misguided sect", the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday.
The Bahais, Iran's largest non-Muslim minority, are branded "heretics" by the Islamic Republic and are often targeted over their alleged ties to Israel, home to their most important shrines and world headquarters.
"These individuals, who were illegally and indirectly promoting their religious deviation, were arrested by intelligence agents," the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement carried by Iranian state news agency IRNA.
"These active missionaries were systematically creating ideological deviations and attracting Muslims to the misguided Bahai sect on the internet or through classes for children and adolescents, using artistic methods such as music, painting, etc," it added.
The Bahai International Community, which represents the faith worldwide, said in a statement that the arrested women "were facilitating simple children’s classes – arresting them is the equivalent of arresting people for teaching Sunday school."
Simin Fahandej, Representative of the Bahai International Community to the UN in Geneva, described the arrests as a senseless act against innocent women.
Last month a group of UN special rapporteurs expressed serious concern at what they described as a rise in systematic targeting of Bahai women in Iran, including through arrests, interrogation and enforced disappearances. The Iranian government responded that Bahai women faced no restrictions.
The Islamic Republic considers the Bahai faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.
Its faithful see Bahai as an independent religion and its more than five million followers are spread across more than 190 countries.
Exiled Bahai leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.