while in 1955, when Reza Shah's son, Muhammad Reza, needed clerical support for the Baghdad Pact and with the 1953 Iranian coup d'état only two years past, Bahá'ís were attacked.[12]

History

Starting in the twentieth century, in addition to repression that impacted individual Bahá'ís, centrally-directed campaigns that targeted the entire Bahá'í community and institutions were initiated.[10] Some of these persecutions were recorded by missionaries who were in the areas at the time of the massacres.[2] In one case in Yazd in 1903 more than 100 Bahá'ís were killed.[13] Later on Bahá'í schools, such as the Tarbiyat boys' and girl's schools in Tehran, were closed in the 1930s and '40s, Bahá'í marriages were not recognized and Bahá'í literature was censored.[9][10]

During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, due to the growing nationalismand the economic difficulties in the country, the Shah gave up control over certain religious affairs to the clergy of the country.[14] Among other things, the power sharing resulted in a campaign of persecution against the Bahá'ís.[14] Akhavi has suggested it is likely the government had hoped that by orchestrating a movement against the Bahá'ís it could serve to obscure the fact that revenues obtained by the distribution of oil from western oil companies was going to be too low for the growing nationalistic sentiment; it would also serve to gain the support of the clergy for their foreign policy.[14] They approved and coordinated the anti-Bahá'í campaign to incite public passion against the Bahá'ís started in 1955 and included the spreading of anti-Bahá'í propaganda in national radio stations