Not welcome: Baha'i students say that their preparation for university entrance exams is done in the knowledge that their applications to Iranian state universities will likely be turned down because of their faith

Once, during Ramadan in the mid-1990s, Erfan Sabeti was on his way to an all-day genetics class at the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education in Tehran.

He had taken to wearing a tie to show he was not a hard-liner, though the Ayatollah Khomeini had just issued a fatwa saying that ties were a symbol of westernisation. As he was about to get into a taxi, he was stopped by revolutionary guards.

Young and fearless at the time, Sabeti immediately told them he was a Baha’i going to a meeting, where the accepted costume was suit and tie. So they took him to their headquarters and one of them said: “You Baha’is are very cheeky, because we’ve got you ‘on our tongue’. We could swallow you up whenever we wanted, if it wasn’t for pressure from the international community.”

“They interrogated me for three or four hours,” Sabeti recalls now, “cut my tie and fined me about £5. By lunchtime they let me go. My professor was very worried and almost fainted when I told the story, because of the risk that I’d been followed.”

“Mona” (not her real name) also remembers that she and fellow students of the BIHE had to keep the location of classes and labs secret in order to avoid raids by the government.

“We were particularly cautious about the labs, because we didn’t want our textbooks, equipment, photocopiers, computers and teaching materials to be confiscated.”

So what exactly is the BIHE? Why has it long been a target of official hostility in Iran, subject to a notable crackdown in 1998 and now under even more severe threat?

Though Baha’is tend to be well-educated and are the largest religious minority in Iran, where the faith was founded in the 19th century, it became obvious soon after the revolution of 1979 that they would not be able to study at universities.

This de facto ban was achieved in a variety of ways, though generally by requiring entrants to fill in an application form asking for their religious identity, and then excluding everybody who wrote down anything other than Muslim, Christian, Zoroastrian or Jew.

The BIHE was set up with charitable donations in 1987 as an informal and essentially volunteer home-schooling initiative to provide the kind of higher education that Iran’s Baha’is were being systematically denied in state universities.

“Tahirih”, who also asked to remain anonymous, explains what this meant: “My Baha’i friends and I knew that there was every likelihood that we couldn’t go to university. It was never easy, especially in the final years of secondary school, when all your classmates were getting ready for the university entrance exam. And finally the time came when we were rejected. There were only two options: leave the country to study, which was not at all easy, or enter the BIHE.”

For the love of knowledge

During the period from 1994 to 2000, when Sabeti was taking degrees in pharmacology and Baha’i studies, most of the teaching was by distance learning, though classes were held in private houses.

“We had weekly face-to-face interactions,” he notes, “not with lecturers but with a district representative we submitted assignments to and who passed on messages from the administration. Thirty or 40 of us met up on Thursdays for two or three hours to prepare assignments, to get timetables and marked papers back.”

Although a range of disciplines was on offer, the qualifications were not recognised in Iran, where it was and still is virtually impossible for Baha’is to gain work in the public sector. In such circumstances, explains Sabeti, people studied at the BIHE either “from love of knowledge or as an act of resilience, showing the regime that we were not going to remain idle”. There were around 900 students enrolled by the late 1990s.

“Everything was done to meet the need,” says Tahirih. At the heart of the network were “the (volunteer) Baha’i lecturers who were fired from (public) universities after the revolution and started the BIHE in the first place”.

Additional support came, where necessary, from “non-Baha’i lecturers who were paid to teach some of the courses”, “a big group of Baha’i lecturers from outside Iran, who teach online” and, if no one else was available, recent graduates of the institute. There has been a notable shift to online provision over the years.

Equally important has been the gradually increasing number of foreign universities, now around 60 in all, willing to accept the BIHE qualifications of those wanting to continue their studies, often with a view to an eventual return to Iran, although sometimes as a way of making new lives elsewhere.

Sabeti, for example, is now completing a PhD at Lancaster University about the comparative effects of globalisation on Mormonism and the Baha’i faith. He originally came there for a year to do a master’s in religion, culture and society, but was advised by the Baha’i community not to go back to Iran when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005.

A particularly ominous sign was that some of his friends had been imprisoned for several months and one of them was told by an interrogator that “Erfan is now drinking from the River Thames” (a stock phrase meaning spying for England).

“All Baha’i students are keen to go on to higher education,” argues Mona, “since education is emphasised in Baha’i principles and was highly encouraged by [the founder] Baha’u'llah. But the BIHE was the only hope for me and other Baha’i students to build our future. It has helped me and many others to have a future different from what the Iranian government expected and planned for us.”

Nobel laureates voice protest

Yet today a dark cloud hangs over the future of the institute. A number of people with links to it were arrested in May and put on trial in September, prompting Nobel peace laureates Desmond Tutu and Jose Ramos-Horta, president of East Timor, to write an open letter of protest under the title “Iran’s war against knowledge”, which called for their immediate release.

Yet on 20 October, explains Kishan Manocha, director of the Office of Public Affairs of the Baha’i Community of the UK, “it was reported that seven educators with the BIHE were sentenced to jail terms of four or five years apiece.

“The absurd charges levelled against them, including undermining national security, exemplify the government’s long-standing and systematic campaign of religious persecution against the Baha’i community.

“Education”, said Manocha, “is a fundamental human right, as essential as breathing, and to deny Iranian Baha’is the chance to study, so that they may serve their homeland, is unjust and a dereliction of duty by the authorities.”

“Saba”, another graduate of the institute who is now based in England but hopes to return to Iran, pays tribute to the “really good” education the BIHE was able to offer in very difficult circumstances. Yet she also looks forward to the day when it is no longer needed.

“There, everything was based on computers and online,” she says, which led to a pretty lonely student experience.

“Now I sometimes go to the library of my [British] university when I don’t have anything to do, and I just sit there and look at the campus, the students, the computers and books, and I feel so sorry for my friends back in Iran.

“That is one of the things we want from the Iranian government: let us enter the public universities. We need to be with others, to have a social life.”

matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com.

—

Source: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=418523&c=1

Allan Rock

Lloyd Axworthy

[huffingtonpost.ca, 5-Jan-2012] With the eyes of the world on the Arab Spring, the populist struggles in Iran have faded from view. Yet some in Iran continue to face appalling levels of abuse, oppression, and injustice. The hopes for reform in Iran that were raised in June 2009 have proven empty, while the prisons remain full. Political prisoners are routinely tortured and some executed. Prominent among Iranian victims of hidden but unrelenting persecution are members of the Baha’i faith, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority.

Canada has an important and enduring connection to this vulnerable group. Some 30 years ago, several thousand Baha’i refugees fled Iran to make Canada their home, settling in every province and territory and becoming proud and contributing Canadians.

There are now more than 30,000 Canadians of the Baha’i faith from many different backgrounds who have enriched our country by their citizenship. Following the Iranian Revolution, the Canadian government took steps at the United Nations and elsewhere to defend the rights of the Baha’i in Iran. Successive Canadian Governments have continued that leadership by sponsoring annual resolutions at the United Nations condemning Iran for its oppressive and inhumane policies.

The brutal regime in Tehran has turned a deaf ear. The Baha’i of Iran continue to be systematically persecuted. Over the past few years, many of their leaders have been detained and then sentenced to imprisonment following fraudulent trials. Hundreds more have been thrown into prison solely because of their beliefs. Baha’i businesses have been routinely shut down. Their cemeteries have been desecrated.

Among the many human rights violations that the Baha’i of Iran must endure is the systematic denial of access to higher education.

As Presidents of Canadian universities, we attach enormous value to access by young people to the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in tomorrow’s world. We regard education as the key to a better future for all peoples, and believe passionately that each person has the right to an education.

We are therefore deeply troubled that Iran’s Baha’i, among the most educated members of Iranian society before the revolution in 1979, are denied entry to universities and colleges in their own land. Admirably, rather than responding with violence, the Baha’i of Iran have decided to create their own informal education program in an act of cultural self-preservation.

Baha’i professors and professionals, sacked from their university and government positions, have teamed up to form the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) to give their young people good quality and advanced, if informal, education.

One of the ways the Iran regime has targeted the Baha’i is by the arrest last May of 19 of those associated with the BIHE. Many of them remain in prison today, not knowing their fate. Their sole offence was to try to educate their young. Two of those arrested are graduates of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education. They were charged with teaching without valid accreditation. The Iranian authorities confiscated their U of O degrees and then alleged that they had never earned them.

The regime’s offensive conduct, in direct contravention of international treaties signed by the government of Iran, undermines the basic rights of the Baha’i along with the future of their youth.

Happily, the plight of the Baha’i is not being entirely ignored. Those who support human rights, who believe in access to education and who deplore repressive governments are increasingly speaking out on their behalf. A growing group of academics, university administrators and notable advocates for peace including Desmond Tutu, Romeo Dallaire and José Ramos-Horta are condemning the Iranian regime’s denial of the right to education.

We are proud to join them, and we encourage all Canadians to add their voice in calling on the Iranian government unconditionally to drop all charges against educators, to halt all further aggression towards the BIHE and to allow the Baha’i access to education. The Baha’i of Iran must know that in resisting the cruel oppression of those who persecute them, they do not stand alone.

—

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/allan-rock/bahai-iran-politics_b_1186039.html?view=screen

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8676/feed 0 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8656 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8656#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:16:36 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=8656

Some of the 48 Deans and Senior Vice-Presidents of American medical schools who have signed an open letter condemning the Iranian government's persecution of Baha'i students and educators. Pictured are, top row from left to right: D. Craig Brater, Betty M. Drees, Philip Pizzo, Valerie Montgomery Rice; Bottom row, from left to right: Pamela B. Davis, James Woolliscroft, Mark S. Johnson, and Marsha D. Rappley.

[BWNS, 8 Dec. 2011] WASHINGTON, D.C., United States — Almost 50 leaders of medical education in the United States have joined the worldwide protest against the Iranian government’s persecution of Baha’i students and educators.

Forty-eight Deans and Senior Vice-Presidents – who between them head more than a third of American medical schools – have signed an open letter addressed to Iran’s representative to the United Nations. The letter was published on the Persian-language “Association Against Education Discrimination” website on 7 December – the day that Iranian student movements annually commemorate Student Day.

“We are writing as individuals who are leaders of globally recognized educational institutions to voice our concern about the treatment of Baha’i students and educators in Iran,” the letter says.

“As leaders of medical education, we believe that education is an inherent human right. At our respective institutions, we have hosted and continue to host students, residents, fellows, and faculty irrespective of their religious beliefs from all over the world. We have welcomed this diverse population into our educational communities to contribute to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of humanity.”

The letter’s chief signatory – Dr. Philip Pizzo, Dean of Stanford University’s School of Medicine – helped collect the signatures last month at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Council of Medical School Deans.

The statement details the systematic attack launched by Iranian authorities against an informal community initiative – known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) – which was set up to provide education for young Baha’is barred from university. Seven Baha’is associated with BIHE are now serving four- and five-year jail terms.

“The arresting of BIHE faculty and administrators as well as the banning of generations of Baha’is from education solely on the basis of their religious background are violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights to which Iran is a State Party,” the letter continues.

“We therefore urge your government to release the instructors and administrators of BIHE from prison. We also request that your government extend Baha’i students and faculty in Iran the same rights to education that we offer every student and professor at our institutions regardless of their heritage, religion or country of origin.”

The open letter was published on the same day that the situation of Baha’i educators and students was raised in a joint statement by an international group of lawmakers – US Senators Mark Kirk and Joseph Lieberman, Canadian MP Irwin Cotler, British MP Denis MacShane, Australian MP Michael Danby, Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein, and Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris.

Continuing outcry

These latest actions come just days after Senator Mobina Jaffer, Canada’s first Muslim senator, told a Canadian Senate enquiry that it was “unprecedented” that Iran has now criminalized the education of young people.

The condemnation of the imprisonment of the seven Baha’i educators has spanned the world. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has led the criticism of their sentences, along with such prominent figures as Nobel Peace Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Jose Ramos-Horta, andLieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the former UN peacekeeping force commander who tried to stop the 1990s genocide in Rwanda.

In October, some 43 distinguished philosophers and theologians in 16 countries signed an open letter protesting against the attack on BIHE.

In Germany, some 45 prominent professors have demanded the immediate release of the seven, while in Australia, letters of protest have been sent by 73 university academics, and Universities Australia, representing the vice-chancellors of all Australian universities.

Last month, more than 50 academics in Ireland called upon the Iranian authorities to allow access to higher education for all, while 26 professionals from the cinema industry urged the government of Brazil to defend the rights of filmmakers, journalists and Baha’i educators and called upon Iran to immediately release those imprisoned.

Signatories

Philip Pizzo MD – Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine
Stephen K. Klasko MD MBA – CEO USF Health; Dean University of South Florida College of Medicine
D. Craig Brater MD – Dean, Indiana University School of Medicine
Lois Margaret Nora MD MBA – Interim President/Dean, Commonwealth Medical College
Jerry R. Youkey MD – Founding Dean, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville
Robert Folberg MD – Founding Dean, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
James Woolliscroft MD – Dean, University of Michigan Medical School
Paul Katz MD – Founding Dean, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
J. Kevin Dorsey MD PhD – Dean & Provost, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Harold L. Paz MD MS – Senior VP for Health Affairs, Dean Penn State College of Medicine
Terence R. Flotte MD – Dean, Provost & Exec. Dep. Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Marsha D. Rappley MD – Dean, Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine
M. Dewayne Andrews MD – Sr. VP & Provost & Executive Dean, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine
Paul B. Roth MD – Chancellor & Dean, University of New Mexico-Health Sciences Center
Larry W. Laughlin MD, PhD – Dean, Uniformed Services University School of Medicine
Thomas L. Schwenk MD – Dean, VP Health Sciences, University of Nevada Reno
Steven Berk MD – Dean, Executive VP, Texas Tech University, Health Sciences Center
Mark B. Taubman MD – Dean, VP Health Sciences, University of Rochester
Peter S. Amenta MD PhD – Dean, UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Lawrence G. Smith MD – Dean, Hofstra University, School of Medicine, North Shore LIJ
Robert L. Johnson MD – Dean, UMDNJ, New Jersey Medical School
Steven J. Scheinman MD – Dean Emeritus, Upstate Medical University
S. Ray Mitchell MD – Dean, Georgetown University, School of Medicine
Frederick Morin MD – Dean, University of Vermont, College of Medicine
Michael E. Cain MD – Dean, VP for Health Sciences, University at Buffalo
John P. Fogarty MD – Dean, Florida State University, College of Medicine
Ralph A. O’Connell MD – Dean & Provost, New York Medical College
John A. Rock MD – Dean & Senior VP for Medical Affairs, Florida International University
William L. Roper MD – Dean & CEO, University of North Carolina, School of Medicine
Charles J. Lockwood MD – Dean & VP, Ohio State University, Medical Center
Paul R. Cunningham MD – Dean, East Carolina University, The Brody School of Medicine
B. P. Sachs MD – SVP & Dean, Tulane University, School of Medicine
Charles P. Mouton MD – Dean & Senior VP, Meharry Medical College, School of Medicine
Jeff Susman MD – Dean, Northeastern Ohio
Betty M. Drees MD – Dean, University of Missouri – Kansas City, School of Medicine
Pamela B. Davis MD PhD – Dean & VP for Medical Affairs, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine
Paul Rothman MD – Dean, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Wiley Souba MD – VP for Health Affairs & Dean, Dartmouth Medical School
Roger Hadley MD – Dean, Loma Linda University
Thomas A. Deutsch MD – Dean, Rush University, Chicago, Medical College
Debra H. Fiser MD – Dean, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Larry Shapiro MD – Dean, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Daniel V. Schidlow MD – Interim Dean, Drexel University College of Medicine
Valerie Montgomery Rice MD – Executive VP & Dean, Morehouse School of Medicine
Peter F. Buckley MD – Dean, Georgia Health Sciences University, Medical College of Georgia
Mark S. Johnson MD – Dean, Howard University
Andrew L. Chesson MD – Dean, LSU Health Shreveport
Karen Antman MD – Dean, Provost Boston University School of Medicine

Baha’i World News Service coverage of the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran

The Baha’i World News Service has published a Special Section which includes further articles and background information about Iran’s campaign to deny higher education to Baha’is. It contains news of latest developments, a summary of the situation, profiles of imprisoned Baha’i educators, feature articles, case studies and testimonials from students, resources and links.

Another Special Report offers articles and background information about the seven Iranian Baha’i leaders – their lives, their imprisonment, trial and sentencing – and the allegations made against them. It also offers further resources about the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community.

The International Reaction page of the Baha’i World News service is regularly updated with responses from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and prominent individuals, to actions taken against the Baha’is of Iran.

The Media Reports page presents a digest of media coverage from around the world.

—

Source: http://news.bahai.org/story/874

Senator Mobina Jaffer. "We must continue to stand up and directly face the threat presented by Iran to its own people," Senator Jaffer told the Canadian Senate on 1 December.

[BWNS 5 Dec. 2011] OTTAWA — At the Canadian Senate enquiry into the persecution of Iranian Baha’is, Canada’s first Muslim senator has strongly criticized Iran for its prosecution and imprisonment of Baha’i educators.

Senator Mobina Jaffer said that it was “unprecedented” that Iran has now criminalized the education of young people.

“What cruelty is this, that a government would imprison its citizens for educating others and make the process of learning a crime?” she asked the Senate.

Read Senator Jaffer’s speech in full

Senator Jaffer herself initiated the enquiry in June this year, one month after Iranian authorities raided some 39 homes of Baha’is associated with an informal community initiative – known as the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education – established to teach young Baha’is barred from university.

Addressing the enquiry, Senator Jaffer said that her concern was now for seven Baha’i educators who have received four- and five-year jail terms.

“Among those sentenced to four years in prison was Nooshin Khadem, a permanent resident of Canada and an MBA graduate of Carleton University,” she said.

“Nooshin came to Canada because Carleton University recognized her Baha’i Institute studies as the equivalent of an undergraduate education. She then transported her education back to Iran to teach others.”

“Now she is in jail for committing the ‘crime’ of transporting her education.”

Among other Baha’is who have recently been arrested and imprisoned, two also received degrees in Canada – qualifications which Iran now calls “illegal,” Senator Jaffer noted.

Married couple Kamran Rahimian and Faran Hessami completed graduate studies in psychology counseling at the University of Ottawa.

The Baha’i International Community has recently learned that Ms. Hessami was released on bail on 28 November. Both she and her husband are still awaiting trial. Their two-year-old son has had to live with relatives while both of his parents were in prison.

“As a nation that upholds human rights and values religious pluralism, we must continue to stand up and directly face the threat presented by Iran to its own people,” Senator Jaffer said last Thursday.

“Iran may not listen today, but the Iranian people are listening. They must know that Canada stands with them and will continue to speak up for their fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Also last week, Senator Romeo Dallaire – the former UN peacekeeping force commander who tried to stop the 1990s genocide in Rwanda – told the Senate enquiry that Iran’s current actions against Baha’is remind him of what he witnessed in Africa.

Baha’i World News Service coverage of the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran

The Baha’i World News Service has published a Special Section which includes further articles and background information about Iran’s campaign to deny higher education to Baha’is. It contains news of latest developments, a summary of the situation, profiles of imprisoned Baha’i educators, feature articles, case studies and testimonials from students, resources and links.

Another Special Report offers articles and background information about the seven Iranian Baha’i leaders – their lives, their imprisonment, trial and sentencing – and the allegations made against them. It also offers further resources about the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community.

The International Reaction page of the Baha’i World News service is regularly updated with responses from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and prominent individuals, to actions taken against the Baha’is of Iran.

The Media Reports page presents a digest of media coverage from around the world.

—

source: http://news.bahai.org/story/873

Experience shows that Tehran is shrewd, vindictive, and dishonest enough, to ramp-up persecution while the world’s attention is diverted. Syria and the nuclear question must not push Iran’s human rights tragedy off the agenda.

Oppression in Iran is widespread; women’s activists, political activists, Kurds, Sunnis, others whose views are not shared by the state, and even the lawyers who defend them, suffer at the hands of the government’s security and legal apparatus. The recent sentencing to death for apostasy of Youcef Nardakhani, a Christian pastor, on the basis of his Muslim ancestry, is a stark example of the contempt with which the government holds the rights of its people. The rank hypocrisy of President Ahmadinejad’s recent assertion of Iran’s “ethics, humanity, solidarity and justice” on the world stage is plain to see.

For the Bahá’ís – a community comprising adherents from all areas and strata of Iranian society – new and mounting afflictions are being endured. Seven Bahá’í educators, who were teaching young Bahá’ís denied access to universities as a matter of policy, were sentenced in September to jail terms of four or five years apiece. The charge – in effect, that they threatened state security by offering education in the sciences and arts – is patently absurd. It cannot be seen as anything other than a blatant act of religious discrimination and a calculated manoeuvre to make the community’s existence unviable. Iran’s prohibition on the attendance of foreign diplomats at the trial, and its refusal to provide written documentation of the verdict, betrays only its own guilt.

Little wonder, then, that on 3 November, the UN Human Rights Committee criticized Iran’s non-compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the country is a state party. An Iranian delegation protested its innocence, claiming that, “no Iranian citizen enjoys priority over others due to his/her race, religion or particular language.” 

No one should be fooled by Iran’s protestations. Since Iran’s military and security agencies were instructed to monitor the Bahá’í community in 2005, there has been a marked rise in arrests and persecution. In 2004 four Bahá’ís were imprisoned. Since then, 500 have been arrested. More than a hundred Bahá’ís are currently behind bars. This includes the community’s national leadership, found guilty of crimes their lawyer, Nobel laureate Dr Shirin Ebadi, said were without evidence. Raids, arrests, confiscation of property, the imposition of arbitrary and exorbitant bail costs, denial of access to education, and desecration of graves: these violations have escalated to desperate levels.

And the government has gone further. Recently in Sanandaj, the authorities attempted to persuade Bahá’ís to undertake not to participate in regular gatherings that are a fundamental part of Bahá’í community life. This is analogous to pressuring Christians to stop going to Church on Sunday. It is an egregious step-change in the government’s efforts to dismantle every aspect of Bahá’í life, from the leadership down to the grassroots of Bahá’í communal identity.

What is more, the government incites hatred against the Bahá’ís from the wider population. The Bahá’í International Community last month released a report on a media campaign that demonizes and vilifies the Bahá’ís. Sanctioned by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself, who identified the Bahá’ís as “enemies of Islam” in a speech on 19 October 2010, Bahá’ís are branded variously as “others”, as spies, as the promoters of obscene immorality and armed rebellion, and as the controllers of foreign media such as the BBC. They are the scapegoats for every social ill. Invoking a gross distortion of history, the Bahá’ís are portrayed as a “misguided sect” or as agents of Western and Zionist imperialism. Often they are depicted as ghouls. They are linked to Satanists, the Shah’s secret police, and other organisations inimical to the state. And yet Bahá’í teachings promote peace and unity. Bahá’ís are spiritually obliged to abide by the law. Eschewing opposition to the government, and refusing the mantle of victimhood, they strive as they have always done to contribute to the betterment of their society.

Iran’s intention to extinguish the Bahá’í community is clear. More than 200 Bahá’ís have been executed for their beliefs since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. International scrutiny and pressure has, for now, forced Iran to change tactics; but the government’s campaign to squeeze the life out of the Bahá’í community is otherwise escalating and taking on new forms. It is attempting nothing less than a bloodless elimination of a significant section of Iran’s citizens.

Moreover, the parallels between recent events and state-sponsored, anti-religious campaigns of the past are undeniable. History shows that such campaigns are among the foremost precursors of actual violence against religious minorities. The Bahá’ís in Iran have good reason to be concerned that the recent assaults on their community could presage a wider attack. The world has a duty to protect them. To look away now would allow the rising tide of persecution drown out the hope of justice in Iran.

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Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-kishan-manocha/bahais-in-iran-seven-educ_b_1103752.html

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8623/feed 4 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8606 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8606#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:14:27 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=8606 [iranhumanrights.org, 2 Nov. 2011] Following the sentencing of seven Baha’is associated 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.

Naim Sobhani, son of Riaz Sobhani, who was sentenced to four years in prison by the lower court on the charge of providing financial assistance to the Baha’i University, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that, “We have no recourse other than trying to change the judicial ruling [at the appeals stage]. Even though we know the Judiciary does whatever it wants on an arbitrary basis. We can’t even believe my father was sentenced to four years in prison for no crime or wrongdoing. Only for the reason of having helped the Baha’i University. Our father is very ill and may not last even one year in prison. He has heart problems and is under medical treatment, he also has digestive problems, and his eyesight is weak. He’s an old man after all.”

Judge Moghisseh, presiding over Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, sentenced Kamran Mortezaie and Vahid Mahmoudi each to five years. The same court sentenced Ramin Zibaie, Mahmoud Badavam, Farhad Sedghi, Riaz Sobhani and Noushin Khadem to four years in prison. A few days after the trial, without any explanation, Khadem was transferred to Rajee Shahr Prison in Karaj and the other six were transferred to Gohar Dasht Prison in Karaj.

Mahtab Morteziee, daughter of Kamran Mortezaie who was sentenced on charges of teaching and administrative tasks for the Baha’i University, told the Campaign, “My father is in Evin Prison and has developed back and knee pain. Apparently when he was in Evin he was held with three to four people in a very small cell. His leg pain is due to the fact that he only had enough space to stretch one leg out. He also developed back pain because in Evin he was forced to sleep on the floor. Now apparently his cell in Gohar Dasht Prison is a little bigger and also has a bed. Either way he’s had the need to be seen by a doctor a few times.”

According to a report by the Baha’i International Community (BIC) published on 19 October 2011, several members of the Baha’i community connected to BIHE from Tehran, Esfahan, and Karaj, have been arrested in the past five months. These individuals were either instructors of the online university or are related to the organization, which was created in order to provide higher education to Baha’i students prohibited from studying in Iranian universities.

BIHE was founded in the mid-1980s. This institute is not recognized legally by the Iranian government but since the 1979 revolution, after which Bahai’s were prohibited from attending universities, the Baha’i Community for the Promotion of Youth Learning established the institute to provide higher education for Baha’is.

Naim Sobhani, currently living in Washington DC, expressed surprise about his father’s transfer to Gohar Dasht Prison after the trial. “Without any reason or information my father was transferred to Gohar Dasht Prison. My brother and sister after following up realized that they transferred him to another prison. In a recent meeting with my father my family said they have no update as to his physical condition but his spirits are better because seven Bahai’ leaders are also being held in that prison. However, the distance to this prison is very far, and we really don’t know why they took him there from Evin.”

Naim Sobhani also objected to the blocking of his parents’ shared bank accounts, saying, “We don’t know why they blocked their bank accounts, in the ruling there wasn’t anything either. There is nothing we can do but accept it.”

Mahtab Mortezaee, currently residing in Maryland, spoke with the Campaign about her father’s activities in the institute. “My father taught courses on subjects such as development and computer science, and he also did administrative work for the office center. My aunt tells me that at the beginning my father’s spirits were better but now he’s a little frustrated and is not like he was in the first days.”

Baha’is are currently the largest religious minority in Iran that lacks the basic right of attending university. According to the BIC, currently at least 112 Baha’is in Iran are in prison because of their beliefs. Amongst those imprisoned are the seven leaders of the Baha’i community that were sentenced to twenty years in prison. The report also states that there are currently 300 cases of Baha’is being processed in the Iranian Judiciary.

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Source: http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2011/11/bihe-imprisoned/

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8606/feed 3 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8601 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8601#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:08:35 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=8601

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.

Naim Sobhani, son of Riaz Sobhani, who was sentenced to four years in prison by the lower court on the charge of providing financial assistance to the Baha’i University, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that, “We have no recourse other than trying to change the judicial ruling [at the appeals stage]. Even though we know the Judiciary does whatever it wants on an arbitrary basis. We can’t even believe my father was sentenced to four years in prison for no crime or wrongdoing. Only for the reason of having helped the Baha’i University. Our father is very ill and may not last even one year in prison. He has heart problems and is under medical treatment, he also has digestive problems, and his eyesight is weak. He’s an old man after all.”

Judge Moghisseh, presiding over Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, sentenced Kamran Mortezaie and Vahid Mahmoudi each to five years. The same court sentenced Ramin Zibaie, Mahmoud Badavam, Farhad Sedghi, Riaz Sobhani and Noushin Khadem to four years in prison. A few days after the trial, without any explanation, Khadem was transferred to Rajee Shahr Prison in Karaj and the other six were transferred to Gohar Dasht Prison in Karaj.

Mahtab Mortezaie, daughter of Kamran Mortezaie who was sentenced on charges of teaching and administrative tasks for the Baha’i University, told the Campaign, “My father is in Evin Prison and has developed back and knee pain. Apparently when he was in Evin he was held with three to four people in a very small cell. His leg pain is due to the fact that he only had enough space to stretch one leg out. He also developed back pain because in Evin he was forced to sleep on the floor. Now apparently his cell in Gohar Dasht Prison is a little bigger and also has a bed. Either way he’s had the need to be seen by a doctor a few times.”

Read full article.

Media briefing on BIHE

Freedom House and the Baha’i External Affairs Office in Washington hosted a media briefing titled: “Education discrimination in Iran leads to creative use of technology by Bahai online university.” Mahtab Mortezaie was one of the panelists and spoke about her father’s condition and the difficulty in retaining legal services.

Watch highlights video of panel

Freedom House President David Kramer delivered opening remarks, and panelists included:
-Anthony Vance, Director of External Affairs for the Baha’is of the United States
-Niknaz Aftahi, San Diego resident and recent graduate of the institute’s new architectural program
-Mahtab Mortezaei Farid, George Mason University graduate whose father was arrested in the May 22nd raids in Iran the same day as her graduation ceremony in Virginia
-Behrooz Sabet, BIHE administrator who coordinated American and Canadian online instructors from his base in Louisville, KY

Watch additional interviews

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Source: http://iran.bahai.us/2011/11/03/international-campaign-for-human-rights-in-iran-children-of-arrested-baha’is-we-have-no-recourse/

]]> http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8601/feed 0 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8576 http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/8576#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:29:20 +0000 editor http://www.iranpresswatch.org/?p=8576 [HRA 28-Oct-2011] HRANA News Agency – Baha’i student Farnod Jahangiri was expelled from Babolsar University in Mazandaran Province on October 12, 2011.

According to a report by Population of Combat against Education Discrimination (PCED), Farnod Jahangiri is a resident of Hamadan and was studying English Language and Literature at Babolsar University.

During the last few months, a number of Baha’i students have been expelled from universities in Iran. Ruhollah Tashakor, Alborz Norani, Ava Tavakol, Mona Momeni, Arkideh Aghaie, Hananeh Kanaanie, Homan Rahmanian and Malika Vazirzadeh are amongst those students.

Furthermore, Iranian authorities have blocked the entrance of many Baha’i students into universities during the process when students choose their majors and receive the admission papers. Similar to past years, Baha’i students are told that their application files lack all the necessary documents. This excuse is particularly used in order to deny admission to Baha’i graduate students and political and social activists seeking to enter graduate schools.

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Source: http://www.en-hrana.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=562:bahai-student-farnod-jahangiri-expelled-from-babolsar-university&catid=11:students&Itemid=14

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.

While many Iranian citizens are targets of repression by the current regime, the treatment of Bahais, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious community, is a special case. Unlike Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, who have certain limited rights under the Islamic Constitution, Bahais were declared unprotected infidels immediately following the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Bahais have faced persecution in Iran since their religion was founded more than a century and a half ago, but it was never as systematic as in the last 30 years. Since the Islamic Revolution, more than 200 Bahai leaders have been put to death. The regime has outlawed Bahai institutions, confiscated their properties, desecrated their cemeteries, demolished their holy places. Bahais are subject to constant state-sanctioned pressure to recant their faith.

To stamp out that faith, Iranian Supreme leader Ali Khamenei approved the so-called Golpaygani memorandum in 1991. Photo copies describing plans to slowly strangle Iran’s Bahai community were made public by the United Nations in 1992. One measure was to deny Bahais entry to universities, thereby impoverishing them intellectually and economically.

AFP/Getty Images Members of the Bahai religion demonstrate in Rio de Janeiro in June for the release of seven Bahai prisoners.

Bahais had already begun educating their youth, founding what became known as the Bahai Institute for Higher Education in 1987. In Tehran and beyond, Bahai professors—unemployable elsewhere because of their membership in what the mullahs called “the deviant sect”—taught languages, biological sciences, civil engineering, literature and even music. Classes were held in private homes, labs were set up in garages, and the Internet eventually provided access to resources abroad.

The institute avoided teaching about the Bahai faith or other religions, thus avoiding the possible accusation of proselytizing. It operated quietly but not secretly: No enterprise of such size—with thousands of students and hundreds of faculty—could be secret. No law prohibited instruction in languages, sciences, accounting and the like, so the institute didn’t violate the letter or spirit of any law.

The institute’s success frustrated the government. In spite of constant harassment, it achieved academic standards equal to or higher than those of state universities and was frequently recognized by foreign universities that admitted its students into masters and doctoral programs.

In 1996 and 1998, the regime raided homes where classes were held and confiscated equipment. In the second attack, agents of the Ministry of Information arrested 36 faculty and declared the institute closed. The regime demanded that the 36 sign a pledge not to cooperate with the institute. Not one complied.

The regime’s latest assault began on May 22 with raids on 39 homes. Months later, widespread arrests and interrogations of faculty, staff and students continue.

This month, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced seven Bahai faculty members to a combined 30 years behind bars. Meanwhile, a senior lawyer of theirs, Abdolfattah Soltani, remains incarcerated under suspicious circumstances.

Such repression is extreme but not isolated—Iran’s regime targets other minorities as well as women, intellectuals and others. This makes many Iranians feel solidarity with their Bahai fellow citizens.

In an eloquent open letter to the Bahai community in 2009, 243 academics, writers, artists and human rights activists proclaimed, “As Iranian human beings we are ashamed for what has been perpetrated upon the Bahais in the last century and a half in Iran.” That year, demonstrators on the streets of Tehran shouted slogans supporting religious minorities, including Bahais. Even Grand Ayatollah Montazeri—once an enemy of the Bahais—issued a fatwa to the effect that Bahais have every right accorded to Iranian citizens.

The rights of Iran’s Bahais cannot be separated from the human rights of the general population. That journalists, artists and activists languish in jails; that students are excluded from universities based on their religion; that seven Bahai leaders have been condemned to prison for 20 years and seven Bahai educators now face a similar fate; that all Bahais are virtual outlaws in their native land—it’s all part of a single assault on human dignity. One hopes the rest of the world won’t close its eyes.

Mr. Kazemzadeh is professor emeritus of history at Yale and a former commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

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Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424053111904875404576528761693875134-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwNzEyNDcyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email