At Least 54 Baha’i Shops Sealed in Last Few Weeks

During three weeks in May 2016, the Office of Public Places in several Iranian cities has sealed at least 54 Baha’i shops in Sari, Urmia, Fereydunkenar, Qaemshahr and Kashan.

According to the Human Rights in Iran blog, in mid-May agents of the Office of Public Places have gone to Baha’i-owned businesses in Sari, Urmia, Fereydunkenar, Qaemshahr and Kashan, and sealed 54 shops in three weeks. The reason for these actions has been the closure of these Baha’i shops during Baha’i religious holidays.

Last year, the Office of Public Places sealed Baha’i shops many times in different cities around the country.

It should be mentioned that many of the recently closed shops had previously been sealed in April of this year, but unsealed shortly after.

The Human Rights in Iran blog has previously reported that at least 46 shops were sealed in cities in northern Iran during a Baha’i religious holiday in the third week of April.

The list of the names of the Baha’is whose businesses were shut down in past three weeks is as follows:

Qaemshahr

1-     Changiz Derakhshanian ‒ toy shop

2-     Bijan Noekhah ‒ toy shop

3-     Nima Meeri ‒ cosmetics

4-     Soheil Hagh Doost ‒ optometry

5-     Behnam Mirzaie ‒ security systems

6-     Bahauddin Samimi ‒ stationery store

7-     Adel Ataeyan ‒ electrician

8-     Fariborz Sanaie ‒ plasticware

9-     Rezvan Mirza Golpour ‒ women’s clothing

10-  Shahin Akbari ‒ ironwork shop

11-  Farzad Sabeti ‒ theater operations

12-  Jalal Ataeyan ‒ cosmetics

13-  Zahra Golabiyan ‒optometry

14-  Koroush Ahmad Zadegam

15-  Sohrab Laghaie

Sari

1-     Mehyar Ghanbari ‒ home security and alarm installation

2-     Arash Mousavi ‒ building and exterior decoration

3-     Peyman Jazabani ‒ carpentry and wood industry

4-     Ehsan Izadi ‒ cosmetics distribution

5-     Kamal Akbari ‒ carpentry

6-     Ghavamudin Sabeti ‒ carpentry

Kashan

1-     Bahman Elahian ‒ optometry

2-     Arash Zabihian ‒ optometry

Fereydunkenar

1-     Sasan Vedaii

2-     Babak Vedaii

3-     Afshin Azadi

Urmia

1-     Dariush Javaherdoust

2-     Siamak Ahmadiyan

3-     Mohammad Ali Derakhti

4-     Farhad Dargahi

5-     Ghorban Najafzadeh

6-     Salim Naghavi

7-     Pardis Payrovi

8-     Erfan Samandary

9-     Rita Latifi

10-  Siamak Abdi

11-  Elham Abdi

12-  Ali Aghdasi

13-  Siavash Abdi

14-  Eynollah Aghdasi

15-  Bonian Maghsoudi

16-  Wahab Moghaddam

17-  Shahab Najafzadeh

18-  Fardin Aghsani

19-  Changiz Shah Mohammadi

20-  Farzad Maboudi

21-  Behzad Dargahi

22-  Navid Morghi

23-  Omid Latifi

24-  Sasan Karimi

25-  Fereydun Aghsani

The names of three other shop owners in Urmia were unknown by the time this report was prepared. These names were obtained from Baha’i News Agency.

 Source: humanrightsiniran.org