The children of Riaz Sobhani (top, third from the left) and Kamran Mortezaie (bottom, middle) spoke with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about their fears for their fathers’ health and safety after the two men were sentenced by the Iranian Revolutionary Court in October 2011 to harsh prison terms for their involvement in the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education.

[bahai.us, 3 Nov. 2011]  iranhumanrights.org, Nov. 2 – Following the sentencing of seven Baha’isassociated with the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, their families’ only hope is that the Appeals Court will change the ruling. They were each sentenced to four or five years in prison and were all transferred from Evin Prison to other prisons several days after the lower court ruling. Read Full Story

Keivan Mohammad Hassan, a former BIHE student and teacher, believes he would have faced arrest had he remained in Iran

[CNN, 10 Nov 2011] By Tim Hume, for CNN, November 10, 2011 — Updated 1339 GMT (2139 HKT)

London (CNN) — Today, Keivan Mohammad Hassan lives a peaceful life with his family as a civil engineer in Sacramento, California. But things could easily be very different.
Hassan believes that had he not fled his homeland as a refugee, he would likely number among the Iranian Baha’is facing years behind bars simply for working to provide younger members of their community a tertiary education. Read Full Story

[RAHANA, 6 Nov. 2011] She was arrested following a summons order to the Intelligence Ministry.

According to the Human Rights House of Iran, the security forces appeared at her house and informed her that she has been summoned to Ghaemshahr Intelligence Ministry. She was detained and transferred to the Sari Intelligence Ministry. Read Full Story

The seven imprisoned Baha'i educators are (top row, left to right): Mahmoud Badavam, Ramin Zibaie, Riaz Sobhani, Farhad Sedghi; (bottom row, left to right) Noushin Khadem, Kamran Mortezaie, and Vahid Mahmoudi.

[BWNS, 7 Nov. 2011] GENEVA — As more information has emerged regarding the trial of seven Baha’i educators, the worldwide outcry at the persecution of Iranian Baha’i students and teachers continues to spread.

In recent days, politicians in Brazil, academics in Germany and Ireland, and an international group of distinguished filmmakers, have condemned the systematic barring of Baha’is from higher education in Iran, and the Iranian government’s attack on the Baha’i community’s informal efforts to educate its own young members. Read Full Story

The United Nations Human Rights Committee, meeting at the Geneva headquarters of the UN, pictured, has urged Iran to “take immediate steps to ensure that members of the Baha’i community are protected against discrimination in every field…” The Committee’s recommendations coincided with the Baha’i International Community learning of a new wave of attacks against Baha’is and their property in Iran.

[BWNS, 4 Nov 2011] GENEVA — As a United Nations body concluded that Iran’s persecution of Baha’is is clearly violating one of the world’s major human rights treaties, the Baha’i International Community has learned of a recent wave of attacks on Baha’is and their property.

In Rasht, three women were arrested on charges of activity against national security following terrifying raids on 16 Baha’i homes. In Semnan, around ten Baha’i-owned shops were sealed up by the authorities and two business licences were cancelled. In the city of Sanandaj, it has been reported that authorities have attempted to persuade groups of Baha’is to give an undertaking not to participate in gatherings – known as the Nineteen Day Feast – held in the homes of their co-religionists. Read Full Story

[HRA 28-Oct-2011] HRANA News Agency – Baha’i student Farnod Jahangiri was expelled from Babolsar University in Mazandaran Province on October 12, 2011. Read Full Story

[RAHANA 24 Oct. 2011] After presenting his first report for the UN regarding human rights issues in Iran, the Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed requested that he be allowed to visit the country.

Read Full Story

[RAHANA 23 Oct. 2011] The authorities searched the residences of many Baha’i citizens, interrogated and detained several of them. Read Full Story

By Joe Sterling, CNN, 22-Oct-2011 (CNN) — Iranian media outlets have “systematically stirred up” widespread contempt toward the country’s 300,000-strong Baha’i religious minority, the group says.

The Baha’i International Community issued a report Friday entitled “Inciting Hatred: Iran’s media campaign to demonize Baha’is.”
The report “documents and analyzes more than 400 media items over a 16-month period.” The result, the Baha’is say, is an “insidious state-sponsored effort” to discredit the Baha’is with “false accusations, inflammatory terminology, and repugnant imagery.”
Read Full Story

By FIRUZ KAZEMZADEH

In some 40 years as a university professor, I have been privileged to teach students who went on to serve their people as senators, ambassadors, prominent scholars and even U.S. president. None of this would have been possible had I lived in my family’s homeland of Iran. As a member of the Bahai faith, I would have been barred from teaching freely—and I might even have been imprisoned, as seven Bahai educators now are. Read Full Story

Ahmed Shaheed, the new United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. He took up his position on 1 August 2011. The creation of the post – which monitors Iran's compliance with international human rights standards – was approved by a vote at the UN Human Rights Council in March this year. UN Photo/Steven Koh.

[BWNS 16 Oct. 2011] UNITED NATIONS — In his first report, the newly appointed UN investigator into human rights in Iran has appealed to the Iranian government to create a culture in which the fundamental rights and freedoms of minorities and women are protected.

Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed also urged Iran to refrain from repressing dissent, expressed concern about the deteriorating health of some prisoners, and repeated an earlier request to be allowed to visit the country.

The interim report – submitted to the UN General Assembly at its 66th session now under way in New York – follows concerns about Iran expressed last week by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Read the Special Rapporteur’s report [the report form IPW's repository is here: PDF] Read Full Story

Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre has included the recent UN Special Rapporteur dated 15 October 2011 in its documentation repository. The full report is available here: PDF.

Excerpt from the report related to the Baha’is in Iran:

D. Religious and ethnic minorities

59. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned by reports of targeted violence and discrimination against minority groups. Members of recognized and unrecognized religious and ethnic minorities such Arabs, Azeris, Balochs, Kurds, Nematullahi Sufi Muslims, Sunnis, Baha’is and Christians are reportedly facing a wide range of human and civil rights violations. These include encroachment on their rights to freedom of assembly, association, expression, movement and liberty. Read Full Story

[cfr.org, 18 Oct. 2011] Posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2011

by Elliott Abrams

The viciousness of the Iranian regime toward Iranians of the Baha’i faith was displayed again today in the sentencing of seven Baha’i educators to years in prison.

They are professors and officials involved in Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). BIHE is an online university created for Baha’i citizens who have been denied the opportunity to study at Iran’s universities. In today’s Iran, creating those educational opportunities is a crime—indeed, the crime of “membership in illegal groups with the intention to commit crimes against Iran’s national security.” Read Full Story

Heiner Bielefeldt – the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief – briefs correspondents on the issue at UN Headquarters on Thursday 20 October. The Iranian government has a "clearly articulated policy of extreme hostility" towards its 300,000-strong Baha'i minority, said Dr. Bielefeldt. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

[BWNS 23 Oct. 2011] UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s persecution of Baha’is is among the most “extreme manifestations of religious intolerance and persecution” in the world today, according to a UN expert.

The remarks of Heiner Bielefeldt – Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief – came during a press conference here in response to a question about a new report [click here to see the report form IPW's repository] that documents the Iranian government’s media campaign to demonize Baha’is. Read Full Story

The Aussies rally covered by SBS

Read Full Story

[Dubbo Weekender, 22 Oct. 2011] Since his brother Farhad was arrested in his native Iran in May this year, Nasser Sedghi and his family have been anxiously awaiting news of the dedicated educator’s fate ar the hands of the exrtremist Iranian Revolutionary Court.

This week, Nasser received that news — but it was not as the family had hopped.

Farhad jas been sentenced to four years imprisonment after being held, without charge, at Tehran’s Evein prison in Iran for more than four months — the victim of a 30 year campaign of religious persecution waged by that country’s extremist Islamic regime against people of the Baha’i faith. Read Full Story

[World News Australia, 20 Oct. 2011] Students in Wollongong have joined a campaign protesting against educational discrimination in Iran. [Click here or on the image to see the video]

Read Full Story

[Huffington Post, 9 Sep. 2011, Dr. Kishan Manocha]

“A fresh measure of tribulation has befallen the Bahá’ís” in Iran. The warning, issued last week by the Bahá’í International Community, is given in an open letter to the Honourable Kamran Daneshjoo, Minister for Science, Research and Technology in the Islamic Republic. His ministry is responsible for implementing a longstanding state policy - denying Bahá’ís access to higher education. Read Full Story

The report – titled "Inciting Hatred: Iran's Media Campaign to Demonize Baha'is" – documents and analyzes more than 400 press and media items between late 2009 and early 2011, which clearly expose Iran's state-sponsored effort to vilify its largest non-Muslim religious minority.

[BWNS, 21 Oct. 2011] NEW YORK — In a wide-ranging media campaign that has gone largely unnoticed outside of Iran, hatred and discrimination are being systematically stirred up against the country’s 300,000-member Baha’i minority.

In a report released today, the Baha’i International Community documents and analyzes more than 400 press and media items over a 16-month period, that typify an insidious state-sponsored effort to demonize and vilify Baha’is, using false accusations, inflammatory terminology, and repugnant imagery.

Read the full report here (PDF) [click here for the PDF from Iran Press Watch repository]

“This anti-Baha’i propaganda is shocking in its volume and vehemence, its scope and sophistication,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations. Read Full Story

[The Australian, 10 Oct. 2011, JILL ROWBOTHAM] ACADEMICS in Australia are to protest to the Iranian ambassador about educational discrimination against Baha’is in their homeland.

Fazel Naghdy has gathered signatures from 73 academics, including University of Ballarat vice-chancellor David Battersby, objecting to the longstanding ban on Baha’is attending university, and the arrest earlier this year of 16 Baha’i academics. Read Full Story

[Green Heritage News, 10 Oct. 2011] NEW YORK, Carol Forsloff – Iran’s persecution of Baha’is continues in a country where those of minority religious views not only have their spiritual life restricted but their education as well.

Recently more than 40 distinguished philosophers and theologians from 16 countries condemned Iran for restricting young Baha’is and others from seeking higher education. Read Full Story

A Special Section at the Baha’i World News site brings all the relevant content regarding Iran’s systematic campaign to deny higher education to the Baha’is in Iran –its largest religious minority. I invite you to view these compelling evidences at http://news.bahai.org/human-rights/iran/education.

Editor

—

“Everyone has the right to education.”
Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Since 1979, the government of Iran has systematically sought to deprive young members of the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority – the 300,000-strong Baha’i community – from higher education. Thousands of other students have also been barred from universities for being active in student unions, campus publications, or social and political issues including women’s rights, academic freedom, human rights and the rights of prisoners.

The 16 Baha'is detained after Iranian authorities raided homes associated with staff and faculty of the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education. One of them, Mr. Amir-Houshang Amirtabar – pictured bottom left – has now been released.

Authorities have also sought to close down Baha’i efforts to establish their own educational initiatives, including the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education. Such acts on the part of the Iranian government are, without doubt, part of a coordinated effort to eradicate the Baha’i community as a viable group within Iranian society.

This special section includes articles and background information concerning Iran’s campaign to deny higher education to Baha’is and in particular, its recent efforts to shut down the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education. Baha’I World News Service articles are listed below. A digest of recent developments is available under Current Summary. Read Full Story

A member of the Baha'i religion in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach asking Iranian authorities to release seven Baha'i prisoners accused of spying for Israel

[The Telegraph, 10 Oct. 2011] By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent.

The move comes after authorities in Tehran stepped up measures to prevent members of the faith receiving a university education.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 43 prominent professors and lecturers in the fields of theology and religious studies demanded the reversal of a ban imposed on Iran’s Baha’i institute for Higher Education and the release of 11 of its members of staff from prison. Read Full Story

The seven Baha'i educators sentenced to prison are (top row, left to right): Mahmoud Badavam, Ramin Zibaie, Riaz Sobhani, Farhad Sedghi; (bottom row, left to right) Noushin Khadem, Kamran Mortezaie, and Vahid Mahmoudi.

[BWNS, 18 Oct. 2011] NEW YORK — Seven Baha’i educators in Iran have each received four- or five-year prison sentences, according to reports received by the Baha’i International Community.

Verdicts against the seven were reportedly handed down by a judge at Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

The educators have been detained for almost five months in connection with their involvement in an informal community initiative – known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) – in which Baha’i professors, debarred by the Iranian government from practicing their professions, offer their services to teach young community members who are banned from university. Read Full Story

The seven Baha'i educators sentenced to prison are (top row, left to right): Mahmoud Badavam, Ramin Zibaie, Riaz Sobhani, Farhad Sedghi; (bottom row, left to right) Noushin Khadem, Kamran Mortezaie, and Vahid Mahmoudi.

[HRA, 17 Oct. 2011] HRANA News Agency – Seven professors and officials involved in Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) have been sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison. BIHE is a provisional online university established for Baha’i citizens who have been denied the opportunity to study at Iran’s higher education institutes.
According to the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, during the last couple of days, Judge Moqayaseh presiding over the 28^th branch of the Revolutionary Court has sentenced seven Baha’i citizens to a total of 30 years in prison. The defendants were present in the courtroom when the verdicts were read. Defense attorneys objected to the rulings and filed appeals on behalf of their clients. The verdicts are as follows:

• Kamran Mortezahi – 5 years imprisonment
• Vahid Mahmodi – 5 years imprisonment
• Riaz Sobhani – 4 years imprisonment
• Mahmoud Badavam – 4 years imprisonment
• Ramin Zibaie – 4 years imprisonment
• Farhad Sedghi – 4 years imprisonment
• Noshin Khadam – 4 years imprisonment

Read Full Story