Fate of Baha'is Within Iranian Politics

As protests concerning the legitimacy of recent presidential elections in Iran continue, the complicated divide between conservatives and progressives is making itself more clear, and one of the subjects in which this is the case is the fate of the Baha'is.

Current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a religious hardliner, and his popularity base is focused in the more rural districts where Iranians tend to be more religiously and politically conservative. While Baha'is have regularly faced persecution in a country that does not acknowledge them as an official religion - even though they comprise the largest religious minority - crackdowns have gotten more intensive since Ahmadinejad took office.

Criticism of this persecution is coming from some pretty interesting sources. Besides coming from political progressives, there are also religious leaders, including ayatollahs, that have expressed a need for the end of oppression against a religion with which they nevertheless deeply disagree. They're also facing some pretty steep consequences for voicing such opinions.