Plants decorating different corners of the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) is quite an ordinary sight. But one tree, located in a COP28 special pavilion, is no ordinary tree. Twenty-eight high-ranking religious leaders from over 19 faiths and denominations came together in November in Abu Dhabi, and collectively planted the ‘Tree of Conscience’.
Iran often accuses - and subsequently arrests - the Baha'i minority of being spies for Israel, due to the fact that the faith's headquarters is located in the Israeli city of Haifa.
Although the Baha’i faith was founded and long centered in Iran, it has experienced varying degrees of persecution under each successive Iranian government.
In-depth: The Baha'i community in Iran is no stranger to institutionalised discrimination, but under new hardliner President Raisi, land confiscations, imprisonment, and hate crime incitement against the community have escalated.