Since Baha'is have no clergy, the ban on organizations threatens the survival of the community. All cemeteries, holy places and community properties were seized soon after the 1979 revolution. Many individual properties have been confiscated. Documents show dismissals were due to Baha'i beliefs. Baha'i students have been barred from universities since the early 1980s, and recently from the fourth year of high school.
Denial of education limits economic opportunities and impoverishes the community.
Baha'i marriages and divorces are not recognized, and the right to inherit is denied. His Excellency President Mohammad Khatami Islamic Republic of Iran Tehran, Iran Your Excellency, We, the American Baha'is, residing in more than seven thousand cities and towns across the United States and representing all races, cultures and ethnic origins in our nation, have listened with great interest to your words addressed to the American people, of which we are an organic part. Your explicitly stated determination to fulfill the provisions of the Iranian Constitution and to establish the rule of law gives us hope that the freedom of the Baha'i community in Iran openly to practice its religion will be guaranteed.