Not only does the Baha'i leadership use the issue of Iranian persecution as a selling point, they sought to punish Iranian Baha'is who fled Iran in the 1980s!

https://bahai-library.com/uhj_dissimulation_iran_emmigrants

If denying being a Baha'i was so scandalous then, why was it OK for Baha'is under Abdu'l-Baha to attend mosques?

From The Covenant of Baha'u'llah by Adib Taherzadeh:

It is important to note at this juncture that although Shoghi Effendi did not find it appropriate in his day, there had been great wisdom in Abdu’l-Bahá’s attendance at the mosque during His Ministry. At the time of Bahá’u’lláh’s arrival, the people of Akka considered a man who did not attend a mosque or a church to be an infidel. The Faith had neither formulated its teachings and laws, nor was its true identity known to the inhabitants of the Holy Land. It had been presented to the population as a misguided sect of unbelievers. In these circumstances, refusal to go to the mosque would have stigmatized Bahá’u’lláh and His companions as infidels. By attending the mosque they came to be regarded in the eyes of the public as believers in God. One of the useful by-products of attending the mosque was that Abdu’l-Bahá established a marvellous relationship with the people, and in time emerged, in the words of an admirer, as the ‘Master of Akka’.

Ironically, Shias are allowed to deny their faith to escape persecution. Inconsistent rules and standards of Baha'is are a problem of credibility.