{"id":249,"date":"2011-05-26T21:49:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T01:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/?p=249"},"modified":"2011-05-26T21:49:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T01:49:54","slug":"defending-education-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/2011\/05\/26\/defending-education-in-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending education in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iranian government has tried various ways to keep Baha’is from getting educated since the 1979 Revolution.\u00c2\u00a0 Denied access to universities, the Iranian Baha’is started an “open university” in people’s homes, the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education, or BIHE.\u00c2\u00a0 Last weekend, on May 21, authorities raided about 30 homes in four cities<\/a> and made 14 arrests to prevent further teaching<\/a>, which includes fields such as biology, physics, and the social sciences.<\/p>\n

To help bring attention to the situation I’m copying below an op-ed I wrote for Georgetown University’s student newspaper, The Hoya, in 2009.<\/p>\n

A Baha’i Bind in Iran<\/strong><\/p>\n

On March 9, 66 scholars and academic specialists in the fields of Middle Eastern and Iranian studies signed a statement calling on the Islamic Republic of Iran to put an end to human rights abuses against Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads in Iran.\u00c2\u00a0 The statement highlighted attacks on Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ad homes, denial of access to education, campaigns of intimidation, financial and economic strangulation, and desecration of Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ad cemeteries.\u00c2\u00a0 It noted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evidence of an ongoing campaign to deprive the Baha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122is of Iran of their fundamental human rights\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153been greatly escalating in recent months.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Among the signatories were two Georgetown professors, John L. Esposito and Mehran Kamrava.<\/p>\n

Why was the statement made now, and why is it significant that it was made by academics?\u00c2\u00a0 The Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ad community has been persecuted in Iran since the religion was founded in that country (then called Persia) in the mid-nineteenth century, and the government has made the elimination of the community official policy since 1979.\u00c2\u00a0 In 1991, the government adopted a memorandum, uncovered by the U.N. Human Rights Commission and published in 1993, that provides guidelines for dealing with the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads so that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153their progress and development are blocked.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 In recent years, however, the campaign has intensified to a level not seen since the 1980s.<\/p>\n

In 2006, Amnesty International published a letter from Iranian military headquarters, dated October 29, 2005, that called on Iranian intelligence and police units, as well as the Revolutionary Guard, to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153identify\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153monitor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads nationwide.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More recently, although Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads do not engage in partisan activities, the seven Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads who serve as the de facto national religious leaders of the community have been charged with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 On February 13, the State Department called these charges \u00e2\u20ac\u0153baseless\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and affirmed that they are being held solely because of their religious beliefs.\u00c2\u00a0 Their legal counsel, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, has been denied access to them and their files.\u00c2\u00a0 A trial could take place at any time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last year the Department of State highlighted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a crackdown against women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights reformers, ethnic minority rights activists, student activists, and religious minorities\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[v]iolence and legal and societal discrimination against women, ethnic and religious minorities, and homosexuals.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 The treatment of the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads serves as an important bellwether for the human rights situation in Iran overall, because members of the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ad community, which is Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest non-Muslim religious minority, have no protection under the Iranian constitution, and hence no legal rights.\u00c2\u00a0 This year Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Attorney General emphasized the unprotected status of the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads in a letter to the Minister of Intelligence that was published on February 14.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks numerous governments and human rights organizations have condemned the worsening treatment of the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads in Iran.\u00c2\u00a0 In Congress, concurrent resolutions H. Res. 175 and S. Res. 71 have been introduced to call on the Iranian government to release all prisoners who are being held because of their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

It is particularly appropriate that a statement has been made by scholars.\u00c2\u00a0 Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treatment of the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads represents an effort to control the thoughts of its citizens and stamp out ideas that conflict with government orthodoxy, an attack on the principles of intellectual freedom that universities exist to uphold.<\/p>\n

Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads have always been offered the restoration of their rights if they recant their beliefs.\u00c2\u00a0 The State Department noted in its 2008 International Religious Freedom Report that Iran \u00e2\u20ac\u0153continued to imprison and detain Baha’is based on their religious beliefs. The Government arbitrarily arrested Baha’is and charged them with violating Islamic Penal Code Articles 500 and 698, relating to activities against the state and spreading falsehoods, respectively.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 On March 8 this year, an Iranian news agency reported that Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parliament, the Majlis, had passed a budget which included 30 billion rials [US$3.1 million] for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153promotion of teaching and dispatch of teachers to combat Satan-worshipers, Sufis and Baha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122is.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The primary reason for the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s policy toward the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads is theological: the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads are considered heretics because they adhere to a religion which came after Islam.\u00c2\u00a0 The social beliefs of the Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads, which emphasize equality, democratic principles and the independent investigation of truth, are just as anathema.\u00c2\u00a0 The imprisoned national leadership includes both women and men, and before 1983 the leadership was freely elected.<\/p>\n

It is significant that academics have raised these issues and that this story is being told in a student paper.\u00c2\u00a0 In Iran, Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ads have been denied access to higher education since 1980.\u00c2\u00a0 In 2006, a letter from the Central Security Office of Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology instructed 81 Iranian universities to expel any student who is discovered to be a Bah\u00c3\u00a1\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00ad.\u00c2\u00a0 We know about these documents because brave Iranians, most of them Muslim, have stood up for justice.<\/p>\n

In the United States, taking that stand is less dangerous but just as important.\u00c2\u00a0 If you care about these issues, please let your U.S. Representative or Senator know of your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Iranian government has tried various ways to keep Baha’is from getting educated since the 1979 Revolution.\u00c2\u00a0 Denied access to universities, the Iranian Baha’is started an “open university” in people’s homes, the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education, or BIHE.\u00c2\u00a0 Last weekend, on May 21, authorities raided about 30 homes in four cities and made 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaronemmel.com\/cw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}