Iran hangs Yarsan Man arrested on religious ground
The state media on October 9, reported that execution of a man convicted of rape. The state-run Fars news agency affiliations with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) identified the victim as Ramin Majidifar Hosseini.
The state-run media accused the victim to “raping 40 girls and women” while according to reliable sources, Majidifar was arrested in Tuyserkan in February for “spreading syncretic religion of Yarsan.” He was initially taken to intelligence department of Hamedan, then he was transferred to Hamedan Central prison.
During this time, his family was waiting for the release of their son, but they were informed of his execution on September 25.
The family was not allowed to bury the body of Majidifar in his hometown of Tuyserkan.
The Yarsan or Ahle Haqq, is a syncretic religion in the late 14th century in western Iran. The total number of Yarsanis estimated at around 2,000,000 or 3,000,000. Primarily found in western Iran and eastern Iraq, mostly ethnic Goran Kurds, though there are also smaller groups of Turk, Persian, Lori, Azeri and Arab adherents. Some Yarsanis in Iraq are called Kaka’i. Yarsanis are also found in some rural communities in southeastern Turkey. Yarsanis say that some people call them disparagingly as “Ali-o-allahi” or “worshipers of Ali” which labels Yarsanis deny. Many Yarsanis hide their religion due to pressure of Iran’s Islamic system, and there are no exact statistics of their population.
