Iranian authorities on Wednesday arrested 10 women members of the Bahai community, a representative group said, warning of escalating repression against one of the country's biggest non-Muslim religious minorities.
"Security forces arrested ten Bahai women, without arrest warrants or prior notification, in a series of shocking home raids," the Bahai International Community (BIC), which represents at the United Nations the interests of faith members worldwide, said in a statement.
It said security agents scaled walls, coerced neighbours and even posed as utility workers to force entry into the women's homes, "subjecting them to distressing and invasive searches".
The women face charges including participation in conducting "deviant" educational and propaganda activities contrary to Islamic law.
"The Iranian government has once again shown its true face," said Simin Fahandej, BIC representative at the UN in Geneva, calling the raids "yet another senseless act against women who are completely innocent".
"Their so-called 'crime' was to serve their local communities, and now the Iranian government has detained them in violent home raids," she said.
The BIC called the arrests "part of a systematic and escalating campaign of persecution against the Bahai".
In December, UN experts in a statement voiced concern over "what appears to be an increase in systematic targeting of women" belonging to the Bahai minority throughout Iran.
US-based rights group Human Rights Watch said in April that the Iranian authorities' persecution of the Bahais since the Islamic revolution of 1979 constitutes a "crime against humanity of persecution".
Unlike other minorities, Bahais do not have their faith recognised by Iran's constitution and have no reserved seats in parliament.
How many members of the community remain in Iran is not known, but activists believe there could still be several hundred thousand.
The Bahai faith is a relatively young monotheistic religion with spiritual roots dating back to the early 19th century in Iran.
Senior community figures Mahvash Sabet, a 71-year-old poet, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 62, were both arrested in July 2022 and are serving 10-year jail sentences. Both women had previously been jailed by the authorities over the past two decades.
Sabet risks being sent back to prison after being given leave for open heart surgery, supporters have warned, while Kamalabadi remains in jail.
With AFP
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