Denied Education?

Religious persecution...not a big problem? Maybe not soo much in North America, but in many countries, it is. Baha'is make the largest religious minority in Iran (having over 400 000 Baha'is), and are all denied a high level education in the country. Iran is fully capable and does give out higher education to all of its other major religions, but simply refuses to give the same privledges to a Baha'i. Why? Whats wrong with Baha'is? Well...lets investigate what the Baha'is believe in, maybe they believe something very contraversial and wrong...Baha'is believe in equality of man and woman, equality of all races, Independent investigation of the Truth, One God, and they believe that all religions are equal, all coming from One God teaching what we need to know for that day and age, like the teachers of a school. (For more info: www.bahaiworld.org). Unless I have missed something, there is clearly nothing wrong with the Religion. What is it then? As any other religion of the past, when they have first started, they had to face a great deal of prejudice, suffering and sacrifice. The Baha'i Faith, sitting at 162 years old, is still relatively new, and is still experiencing these prejudices. The Iranian government has executed many thousands of Bahais (they imprisoned my grandfather for 7 years), and still cause them suffering. They do not allow the Baha'is to have their meetings, get significant jobs, or get higher education. Fine...they don't want the Baha'is in their institutions of higher learning?...Baha'is have even made efforts to create their own institutions of higher learning, but such efforts were blocked by the Iranian government. Because of this, a group of us at Western and a number of other universities have been asked to send letters to the institutions of Iran, to tell them to stop, and hopefuly this international pressure can bring this prejudice to an end. For more info: http://denial.bahai.org/ , www.deniededucation.com. Please add your comments.



After the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian government sought to destroy the Bahá’í leadership. In August 1980, the entire membership of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran, shown here, “disappeared.” All are presumed to have been killed.