(Beirut) – Qatari authorities have discriminated against members of the Baha’i faith, including with unlawful detentions, based solely on their religious identity, Human Rights Watch said today.
Qatari authorities arrested and detained Remy Rowhani on April 28, 2025. Rowhani is the chair of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Qatar, an elected body that governs the affairs of Baha’is in Qatar. Rowhani was previously released from a prior detention in January 2025 following the completion of a one-month prison sentence.
“The Baha’i community of Qatar has endured decades of government discrimination and intimidation, and authorities have consistently ignored community leaders repeated efforts to engage the government in dialogue and seek redress,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This state-sponsored discrimination poses a threat to the very existence of the Baha’i community of Qatar.”
Qatar’s government has discriminated against Baha’is in Qatar for decades, with hundreds of people harmed by a pattern of punishment and discriminatory policies. The government has deported as many as 14 members of the group for no apparent reason other than individuals belonging to the Baha’i faith in cases Human Rights Watch documented from 2003 to 2025. Qatari authorities have also previously terminated the employment of a Baha’i member and refused to grant a certificate of good conduct, which is required for employment in Qatar, to four members of the group.
Qatar’s Interior Ministry did not respond to a request from Human Rights Watch for more information about the cases.
Many Baha’is in Qatar fear raising public alarm over their cases because of the danger of reprisals and further discriminatory actions, and informed source told Human Rights Watch.
Islam is Qatar’s official religion. And while the Qatari constitution guarantees freedom to practice religious rites, Qatari authorities have discriminated against the Baha’i minority in the country in administrative and legal matters. A high-ranking Qatari religious figure told one of the now-deported Baha’is that if he announced his conversion to Sunni Islam, he could “make the deportation go away.”
The Baha’i religion, established in Iran in the 19th century by Baha’u’llah, believes that the prophets of all major faiths come from the same one God, and is centered around the unity of the human race.
In addition to the deportations, officials have delayed the community’s attempts to reestablish an existing Baha’i cemetery and refused to accept marriage certificates issued by elected Baha’i institutions in Qatar. Baha’is have also faced discrimination elsewhere in the region, including the crime against humanity of persecution in Iran and other forms of repression in Egypt and Yemen.
In 2021, Qatari authorities charged Rowhani under articles 4 and 42(5) of Law No. (15) of 2014 on the Regulation of Charitable Activities for collecting funds in 2013 and 2014 “without permission from the Board [of Directors of the Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities],” according to court documents reviewed by Human Rights Watch. This law took effect after being published in the country’s official gazette on October 2, 2014. The retrospective application of the penalties under this law contradicts article 40 of Qatar’s constitution and article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The charges were based on Rowhani’s collection of donations from Baha’is in Qatar as part of his role on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Qatar, the Baha’i International Community (BIC) said. Financial donations are considered a religious obligation (but without pressure or coercion from other Baha’is or Baha’i institutions) and are central to the Baha’i faith.
Article 18 of the ICCPR protects the freedom to practice religion, as does the Universal Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
Rowhani was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 100,000 Qatari Riyals (US$27,470), later reduced to one month in prison and a fine of QR 50,000 ($13,700), according to court documents. Rowhani learned of the decision issued in absentia in April 2021 through a letter posted to his home address in Doha.
Despite verbal assurances from immigration authorities that he was free to travel, Rowhani was arrested on December 23, 2024, at Hamad International Airport in Doha, an informed source told Human Rights Watch. He was summoned to the State Security Criminal Investigations Department for questioning and detained again on April 28 under Law No. (14) of the 2014 Cybercrime Prevention Law, the BIC said, and court documents reviewed by Human Rights Watch showed.
He was charged with “disseminating news, photos or video or audio recording related to the sanctity of people’s private or family life, even if the same is true,” the documents say. This charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and/or a fine of QR 100,000 ($27,465).
Those charges relate to an account on X created five years ago that represents the Qatari Baha’i community, the BIC said. Human Rights Watch reviewed the posts on the X account and found them to be limited to celebrating Qatari holidays and Baha’i values.
“The charges against Remy Rowhani are not just an attack on one individual, they are an assault on the entire Baha’i community of Qatar,” said Dr. Saba Haddad, a Baha’i International Community Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. “This unjust targeting seeks to intimidate a peaceful religious group solely because of their faith, and to undermine principles of religious tolerance and social cohesion.”
Qatari authorities also issued a deportation order in January 2025 for a Baha’i individual, without justification, an informed source told Human Rights Watch. He was born and raised in Qatar to Iranian parents and had lived there for 52 years during which he founded a company, got married, and had his daughter. He was also a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Qatar, the source said.
He was summoned to the Immigration Department on January 8, where a police officer informed him that he was to be deported for “disrupting public order” and that he had one week to leave Qatar, the source said. The officer in charge cited “immense pressure from above” to deport this person in particular, the source told Human Rights Watch. The Interior Ministry’s communication with the individual about the deportation was entirely verbal, the source said.
The individual continued to request weekly extensions until late February, when an influential Qatari friend intervened on his behalf, and he was given until March 26 to leave the country. His written request to the Ministry of Interior to reconsider the deportation order received no response. He left Qatar on March 22 and was told by officials that he is blacklisted, barring him from reentry.
This follows a series of deportations and blacklisting of Baha’is by Qatari authorities for over 20 years, as documented by the United Nations special rapporteurs on minority issues and freedom of religion or belief. According to their 2019 report, Qatari authorities’ discriminatory treatment against Baha’is has resulted in the separation of families and the loss of employment and income.
“The Qatari government’s discriminatory policies have created an environment of fear of family separation and loss of employment among Baha’is in the country,” Page said. “Qatar should immediately stop deporting and blacklisting Baha’is and provide effective remedy for those affected.”