“I knew he was a Bahá’í.”

Killer’s confession exemplifies continuing persecution of Iranian Bahá’ís — and growing public resistance to it.

The events preceding the brutal stabbing of Farhang Amiri outside his home in Yazd, Iran, last September seemed to begin innocently enough.

Two young men came to the door to say they wanted to buy Mr. Amiri’s pickup truck. Mr. Amiri’s son, Payam, answered via intercom, and explained that the truck was not for sale.

But the two men insisted and began asking questions about things like the number of people living in the house.

Payam later said he suspected the two men were perhaps planning a raid on their home.

The next day, 26 September 2016, the two men returned. This time Mr. Amiri himself went out to talk to them.

The family soon heard screaming and looked out to see Mr. Amiri severely injured on the pavement. Neighbors and shopkeepers saw the two run away. Thinking a theft was in progress, they followed and captured one of the men, and brought the police.

In the meantime, Mr. Amiri — who had several stab wounds in his chest — was taken to the hospital. He died a few minutes after arriving.

The police questioned the suspect in front of the crowd, now gathered in the street. And witnesses recorded the following confession:

“I quickly stabbed him in the back and thought he would die, but he turned toward me,” said the main suspect. “My friend put his hand on Mr. Amiri’s mouth and held his hands, and I stabbed him three or four times in the heart, chest and face.”

The inspector asked: “What motivated you to kill him?”

The suspect responded: “I knew he was a Bahá’í.”

The situation facing Bahá’ís in 2016

The Amiri case, which is still working its way through Iranian courts, offered a stark reminder of the situation that faced Iranian Bahá’ís in 2016.

On the one hand, Bahá’ís continue to face intense persecution by the government. At least 81 Bahá’ís were arrested in 2016, and nearly 300 Bahá’í-owned shops or businesses were closed in an ongoing campaign of economic persecution. More than 29 Bahá’ís were expelled from university for their religious beliefs, and hundreds more were denied enrollment. As of January 2017, there were 90 Bahá’ís in prison in Iran.

Moreover, a government-sponsored campaign of anti-Bahá’í propaganda in the media spewed out more than 11,000 articles, web pages and programs in 2016 that denigrated Bahá’ís — which undoubtedly helped create an environment that may have incited Mr. Amiri’s murderers.

On the other hand, the reaction of neighbors, who rallied to help catch Mr. Amiri’s killers, and the repentant attitude of the killer’s parents, who told the Amiri family how ashamed they felt about their sons’ behavior, show how the citizenry is increasingly willing to give public support to Bahá’ís, despite the government’s open animosity.

“Iranians from all walks of life — clerics, journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, and ordinary Iranians — have stood with the Bahá’ís in the quest for religious freedom,” stated a 2016 report of the Bahá’í International Community on the situation in Iran. “Some Iranians have even chosen to work alongside Bahá’ís in their community-building activities.”

The two trends — increased government persecution of Bahá’ís and increased public support for them — were also reflected in another well-publicized incident last year.

Fariba Kamalabadi, one of the seven imprisoned Bahá’í leaders, was given a short furlough to visit her new granddaughter. While she was home, a number of activists visited to show their solidarity. Among them was Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who had met Ms. Kamalabadi while herself imprisoned.

The mere idea that Ms. Hashemi would meet with a Bahá’í stirred an intense outcry among Iran’s governmental and clerical establishment.

One top Iranian government official, Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje, called the meeting “a very ugly and obscene act.” Scores of religious leaders joined in, saying “consorting with Bahá’ís and friendship with them is against the teachings of Islam” and that Bahá’ís are “deviants” who must be “isolated.”

These and other statements were circulated in thousands of pieces of anti-Bahá’í propaganda in Iran — a volume of invective that itself became the object of numerous news stories in the international media.

“An Ayatollah’s Daughter Prompts a Debate on Religious Persecution in Iran,” said the headline of a New York Times article on 18 May 2016. That same day, a BBC article likewise highlighted the “political storm” over the meeting, adding that despite the criticism from the government, Ms. Hashemi was “unrepentant” about her meeting with Ms. Kamalabadi.

“She said her time in prison with Ms. Kamalabadi had opened her eyes to the Bahá’ís, who she believed should be accorded full civil and human rights,” reported the BBC — adding that Ms. Hashemi also said “the clerics’ treatment of Bahá’ís was contrary to the teachings of Islam.”

International concern

At the international level, there were continued expressions of concern in 2016 over Iran’s human rights record — and its treatment of Bahá’ís.

On 19 December 2016, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution expressing “serious concern” about Iran’s high rate of executions, ongoing use of torture, widespread arbitrary detentions, sharp limits on freedom of assembly, expression, and religious belief, and continuing discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities, including Bahá’ís.

The resolution, which was the 29^th such resolution by the General Assembly since 1985, called on Iran to eliminate “all forms of discrimination, including economic restrictions” against religious minorities in Iran.

It also called for the release of “all religious practitioners imprisoned for their membership in or activities on behalf of a recognized or unrecognized minority religious group, including the seven Bahá’í leaders.”

That vote followed separate reports by Ahmed Shaheed, then the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his final term.

Both described wide-ranging human rights violations in Iran, also expressing concern for Bahá’ís.

“Adherents of recognized religions, such as Christians (especially those of Muslim background), and of unrecognized ones, such Bahá’ís, continue to suffer discrimination and are reportedly prosecuted for peacefully manifesting their religious beliefs,” said Dr. Shaheed in his report, released in October.

Mr. Ban’s report devoted ten paragraphs to the situation of Bahá’ís, calling them the “most severely persecuted” religious minority in Iran, “subjected to multiple forms of discrimination that affect their enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.”

Mr. Ban said Bahá’ís are regularly prohibited from engaging in peaceful assemblies, are restricted in access to higher education, and continue to “suffer from severe economic pressure.”

“Bahá’í-owned businesses have been shut down by the authorities and vandalized in a number of cities, in particular after proprietors temporarily closed their businesses to observe Bahá’í holidays,” said Mr. Ban.

Mr. Ban said he is also concerned about “the increase in inflammatory comments by religious, judicial and political officials” against Bahá’ís — then referring specifically to the outpouring of vitriol that followed the meeting between Fariba Kamalabadi and Faezeh Hashemi.

“The systemic spreading of explicitly hateful rhetoric will only incite more prejudice and violence towards the already marginalized Bahá’í community,” said Mr. Ban.