HRANA, August 17, 2022. –
The “roll call” of Bahai students who have been barred from entering tertiary education after sitting this year’s university entrance examination has now reached 60. See the HRANA site for their names and the cities and regions they come from.
HRANA, August 13, 2022. –
Thus far, 53 Bahai students in Iran are known to have been barred from tertiary education after sitting this year’s University Entrance examination. Last year, 18 excluded Bahai students were identified, and the year before that it was 21.
HRANA, August 6, 2022. –
Once again, Bahai students in Iran who have completed the national University Entrance examination are finding that, instead of receiving grades, they are informed that their “file is incomplete.” HRANA has thus far identified 17 Bahai students excluded because of their religion. They are Musta’aan Aqdasi (مستعان اقدسی), in Tehran; `Ahadiyeh Namjouyaan (عهدیه نامجویان) and Taara Rouzbahaan (تارا روزبهان), mother and daughter living in Isfahan; Shiva Amin (شیوا امین) in Shahin Shahr; Mahsa Forouhari (مهسا فروهری), Haana Movafaqi (هانا موفقی) and Hiva Badi`i (هیوا بدیعی) in Karaj; Behzaad Baraati (بهزاد براتی) in Mashhad; Faares Hamdi Hessaari (فارس حمدی حصاری) and Melika Mallaaki (ملیکا ملّاکی) in Birjand; Baabak Yekaani (بابک یکانی), `Ataaiyeh Hemmati (عطاییه همتی) and Dzinous Hemmati ( ژینوس همتی) in Kerman; Parsa Rouhaani (پارسا روحانی) and Saagher Shahidi (ساغر شهیدی) in Kashan; and Shamim Idelkhaani (شمیم ایدلخانی) and Nasim Idelkhaani (نسیم ایدلخانی), residents of Ardabil.
The pretext of “incomplete file” has been used to exclude Bahais from entering tertiary education in Iran since 2006. Before that, other excuses were used.
IranWire, September 30, 2021. –
IranWire has a short history of the various disguises used to exclude Bahai students from tertiary education in Iran. Since the results of the 2021 national entrance exams were announced in late September, Baha’i students who obtained passing grades and went to the education assessment site found they were under “General Disqualification.” Because of his or her faith, a Baha’i student does not meet one of the general conditions set out for the 2021 entrance exam. The first paragraph of these general conditions states that the student is required to follow Islam or one of the religions recognized in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic. The report lists 16 Bahais known to have been barred from entering university in this way: Nora Motlagh, Leva Motlagh, Sepehr Nikki, Ava Shahriari, Nora Nabipour, Mesbah Misaghi, Foroutan Rahmani, Rosa Mokhlesi, Nasim Shahriari, Farhan Shizadi, Elena Qolizadeh Roshankoohi, Mahsa Forouhari, Forouzan Nikokar, Parsa Charkhand, Lena Kamjoo and Emilia Hakimian.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
HRANA, September 26, 2021. –
HRANA reports the case of Nasim Shahyaari-Zavaareh (نسیم شهریاری زواره), an 18-year-old Bahai from Tehran who was successful in the University Entrance examinations, but has been barred from university because of her Bahai beliefs. On the web site of the National Assessments organisation, her profile has the word “rejected,” a shift from previous years when the words “file incomplete” were used. A number of other Bahai students have also received the message “rejected.” When Miss Shahyaari followed up on her rejection, she was told that the Ministry of Intelligence had tagged her. She was then asked about her beliefs and her family’s beliefs, and told, “I cannot do anything: if you insist you are a Bahai your problem probably cannot be solved.”
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Radio Farda, July 2, 2021. –
Dorsa Dehqaani (درسا دهقانی), who was arrested at Shiraz railway station on June 14, was released on bail on July 1. In 2014, when she was 19 years and had just been barred from tertiary education because of her Bahai beliefs, Miss Dehqaani wrote a letter to Saadeq Laarijaani (صادق لاریجانی), who was at that time the head of the Judiciary in Iran, protesting against the discrimination and oppression suffered by the Bahais in Iran.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Mahsa Foruhari
Sima Fattaahi-Mirshekaarlu
In two separate items, HRANA has reported that Mahsa Foruhari (مهسا فروهری), a Bahai student from Karaj, and Sima Fattaahi-Mirshekaarlu (شیما فتاحی میرشکارلو), a Bahai studying in Urmia (Urumiyyeh), have been barred from tertiary education because of their Bahai beliefs. Ms. Foruhari registered for the tenth consecutive year for entrance to tertiary education with exemption from the University Entrance examination. This exemption is available to those with good academic records, and her average was just over 19 [out of 20, presumably]. Nevertheless she was rejected for “incomplete file” – the usual term used when students are excluded because of Bahai beliefs. After the most recent University Entrance examination, HRANA reported 21 other cases of Bahais excluded from university for “incomplete file.”
Ms. Fattaahi, who began a Master’s degree in International Law at Urmia Azad University about two years ago, received a message on the university website on January 17, saying that she was barred from defending her dissertation and continuing postgraduate studies because of her adherence to the Bahai Faith. This message refers to a letter dated December 29, 2099 regarding the the exclusion of Bahai students and the expulsion of Ms. Fattaaahi. The report does not explain who wrote the letter, but the image caption says it is from the “Security Office,” the on-campus branch of the the Ministry of Intelligence. Presumably it was addressed to the University, who had no choice but to obey.
https://iranwire.com/fa/news/kerman/44103
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Iranwire, November 19, 2020. –
On Wednesday, November 11, a number of Bahais who passed Iran’s national university entrance exams were summoned by telephone to the Karaj branch of ‘Sanjesh,’ the body responsible for organizing and overseeing the annual tests in Iran. Several said that on arrival, they were taken into a private room and their mobile phones were confiscated. They were then questioned about their belief in the Bahai Faith, and made to fill out questionnaires on their family members, personal relations and social media activities.
In the end, candidates were told that they would be allowed to enroll and study at Iranian universities on the condition that they sign a letter of commitment in which they would undertake to obey the laws of the Islamic Republic and refrain from “propagating” the Bahai Faith. They were also asked to agree not to associate with Bahai organizations and to disregard the rulings of the Universal House of Justice, the elected governing body for the global Bahai community.
Not one of the candidates reportedly signed. This means, in effect, that they are barred from entering higher education in Iran.
It comes after a welter of complaints from Bahai students following the 2020 entrance exam in late summer. After the results were announced, Bahai candidates said, they logged in only to see an error message that read “incomplete file.”
[Bahai teachings require obedience to the government and laws of the land in which one lives, there are no Bahai organizations in Iran with which the students could associate, and Bahai students in Iran, at all levels of education, already follow a policy of not propagating their Faith in institutions that make this a requirement. The point of the pledge lies in the fourth point, requiring the students to disregard the edicts of the Universal House of Justice. This refers to claims in the state-sponsored Iranian media that Bahais obey the instructions of the House of Justice rather than those of the government in Iran, and calling the Bahai community “a state within the State.” This is analogous to the claim, in anti-Catholic rhetoric in the United States, that a Roman Catholic President would be bound to obey the Pope. It is ridiculous in both cases: the Pope and the Universal House of Justice make rulings only on religious matters, affecting only their own communities. The Bahai teachings specify that the Bahais “in whatever country they reside, … will, unhesitatingly, subordinate the operation of [Bahai] laws and the application of [Bahai] principles to the requirements and legal enactments of their respective governments. Theirs is not the purpose, … to violate, under any circumstances, the provisions of their country’s constitution, much less to allow the machinery of their administration to supersede the government of their respective countries.” (Source). Far from aiming to be a state within the State, the Bahais are fully committed to the separation of the institutions of religion from politics. The Iranian authorities know this: it is one reason for their persecution of the Bahais. ~ Sen]
Iran Wire, November 2, 2020. –
On Friday, October 30, Ebrahim Khodaei, head of the Iran’s National Organization of Educational Testing, announced that this year’s results of 2020 had been posted on the organization’s website. Participants, he said, could visit the site, enter their registration number and other personal information, and then view their personal results.
As in previous years, when Bahai students logged on this year, they found that their records were flagged with the words “incomplete dossier”: a catch-all term the testing organization has been using for more than a decade now to stop students known to belong to the Baha’i community from progressing to the next stage in their education.
At the time of writing, IranWire had received the names of 14 Bahai participants who have been locked out of the grading system because of an “incomplete dossier”. They were Parsa Seyed Ahmad, Shahrad Mohammad-Zadeh (who ranked 653rd in the nationwide entrance exams), Kimia Manouchehri, Setareh Izadi, Kian Laghaee, Aria Sheikh Zavareh, Marjan Abbas-Pouli, Faran Ghodratyan, Vahid Sadeghi, Mobina Hooshmandi, Arshia Eshraghi, Shamim Idelkhani (who ranked 686th), Aryan Dehghani (2000th) and Sayena Shafizadeh. The “Iran” news site reports 17 Bahai students have been excluded, without naming them.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Voice of America, October 9, 2019. –
Azita Rafizaadeh (آزیتا رفیع‌زاده) has been released from Evin Prison after serving a four-year sentence for teaching online classes in computer engineering to members of the Bahai Faith. Under Iran’s apartheid system, Bahais are banned from gaining advanced qualifications in tertiary institutions in Iran, although there is no formal law against teaching one’s skills to others. Nevertheless, she was charged with “undermining national security” for teaching at the Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). In January, 2018, she was offered prison furlough if she would sign a statement to repent for her work and promise that she will not work with the BIHE again. But she said she had done nothing to repent for.” Her husband Peyman Koushk-Baghi was also imprisoned in October 2015, for teaching at the BIHE.
Rafizadeh, 36, is a former BIHE student who returned to Iran after receiving a master’s degree in computer engineering from a university in India. She began teaching the subject at BIHE in 2002.
In 2014, Judge Moqisseh (قاضی مقیسه) of Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Rafizadeh to four years in prison and her husband to five years in prison on the charge of “membership in the illegal and misguided Bahai group with the aim of acting against national security through illegal activities at the BIHE educational institute.”
The imprisoned couple’s son, Bashir Koushk-Baghi, has been raised by another Bahai family.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Hesar news, September 19, 2019. –
As the new academic year begins in Iran, reports are coming in from across the country of Bahai students who have passed the university entrance examination (the ‘Concours’) but are refused enrollment in tertiary institutions because of their Bahai beliefs. One current collation of these reports has 22 names :
-1 سهند شیرازی، تهران؛
۲- مهتاب خادم، تهران؛
۳- نگین فروغی، شهرکرد؛
۴- وفا نوبخت، ساری؛
۵- بهزاد یزدانی، شیراز؛
۶- ترنم کمالی، شیراز؛
۷- تارا احسان، تهران؛
۸- آیلار روشن نهاد، ساری؛
۹- ارمغان عنایتی، سمنان؛
۱۰- سیاوش بلوچ قرائی، مشهد؛
۱۱- درسا مصطفوی، تهران؛
۱۲- آریا احسانی، کرج؛
۱۳- نوریه فردوسیان، اصفهان؛
۱۴- شایلین عقیلی، کرج؛
۱۵- نگار ایقانی، شیراز؛
۱۶- غزل الله وردی گرجی، ساری؛
۱۷- سراج صفریان، ساری؛
۱۸- شعله موفقی ایولی، ساری؛
۱۹- روژان احسانی، کاشان؛
۲۰- روژین کثیری، کرج؛
۲۱- مهسا فروهری، کرج؛
۲۲- شمیم ایدلخانی، اردبیل
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Radio Farda, September 11, 2019. –
Iran Press Watch, following HRANA and other Persian sources, has reported that Borna Piraasteh (برنا پیراسته), an outstanding Bahai student at the Sa’adat School in Semnan, has been barred from re-enrolling in the third grade of high school after the summer break because of his Bahai beliefs. 
According to a Radio Farda report, after this news became public, the newly appointed Minister of Education, Dr. Mohsen Haaji Mirzaa’i (محسن حاجی‌میرزایی) declared that all students belonging to “non-official” religions are barred from secondary schools, because this would constitute “propaganda.” He was speaking at a news conference connected to a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, but the report does not indicate whether Cabinet has approved his policy, which would involve barring all Bahai children from schools.
The Piraasteh family were informed that their son would not be allowed to enroll by the Principal, speaking by telephone. Initially they were told this was because some parents at the school had objected.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
HRANA, February 2, 2018. –
Sepehr Shahidi-Qamsari (سپهر شهیدی قمصری), who was in the fifth semester of a degree in civil engineering at the Sina Institute in Kashan, has been expelled because of his Bahai beliefs. On December 18, 2018, he found that his page on the Institute’s site had been closed, and on following up on that, University officials told him that two weeks early inspectors from the Universities of Isfahan and Kashan had come to the Institute wanting to check the “religion” box in his student file, and had determined that he should be expelled because of his Bahai beliefs, without being given any certificate or statement of the grades he had achieved.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
HRANA, January 10, 2019. –
On January 9, Badi Safaajou (بدیع صفاجو), a Bahai from Karaj who was in his seventh semester of a degree in chemical engineering at the Azad University, was expelled because of his Bahai beliefs. He was called out while sitting one of the term examinations and told of his expulsion. The head of his department told him this was because he was a Bahai. He had achieved an average grade of 19.7.
In a separate report, HRANA notes the expulsion of Shirin Beninezhaad (شیرین بنی نژاد), who was in the fifth semester of a course in applied computer science at the Sama College branch of the Azad University, in Andisheh New Town (between Karaj and Tehran). On January 9, she was summoned to the University and told that she had been expelled one month earlier. At that point she had completed the classes for the course and one of the examinations. She had another three examinations to sit in order to complete her degree. The head of the College told her and her family that they (the University authorities) had no role in her expulsion, and she should take any questions to the Ministry of Intelligence.
Shaayaan Ma`navi (شایان معنوی), a Bahai student in the third semester of a degree in civil engineering at the Qods City campus of the Azad University was also expelled recently. On December 17, 2018, he found his access to the University web site was blocked, and on January 10, after numerous enquiries, he was told he had been expelled because of his Bahai beliefs.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Shahrvandyar (Facebook), September 26, 2018. –
Shaqayeq Shouqi (شقایق شوقی), a student of applied chemistry in her sixth semester of study at the Isfahan University of Technology, has been expelled because of her Bahai beliefs. She discovered she had been expelled on the last day of the term exams, when she found that her access to her student profile on the University’s web site was blocked, and there was no way to re-enroll for the coming semester. When she enquired with university officials she was told that she would have to pursue the matter with the national office of educational assessment. When she did so, officials said that they were sorry, and that she had done nothing wrong, but the system is based on regulations that bar Bahais from entering universities. She was not given any documentary evidence that she had been expelled, and officials have refused to return the high school certificates she submitted when she first enrolled unless she provides a form saying she has withdrawn from university voluntarily.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Hamid Rezataghpour (citing HRANA), Semptember 19, 2018. –
Mithaq Aghsani (میثاق اغصانی), an undergraduate student at the Payam-e Nour University in Urmia (Urumiyyeh), has been denied his Bachelor’s diploma and barred from further education because of his Bahai beliefs. His father is a veteran and war prisoner from the Iran-Iraq war, which, if he were not a Bahai, would give his son privileged access to university in Iran. The business of his father and grandfather have both been closed by the authorities for the past 14 months, because they are Bahais. They are continuing to work, on the footpath in front of their workplaces, in the heat of summer and cold of winter.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Adian Bashariyat (relaying HRANA), September 20, 2018. –
Anahita Horr (آناهیتا حر), a Bachelor’s student of architectural drawing at the non-profit Rasam University in Karaj has been expelled because of her Bahai beliefs. She was able to enroll in 2016 (around August), and has completed two years of study.
HRANA continues to monitor the number of Bahai students who have completed the University Entrance examination successfully, but are barred from enrollment because their Bahai beliefs are known to the Ministry of Intelligence. Thus far, this year’s total is 58. At about this time last year, 115 Bahai students were known to have been excluded at the gate, and in October 2016 the figure for that year was 129.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Hamid Rezataghipour, September 19, 2018. –
Nikan Sheydan-Shaydi, a Bahai student in the third semester of an Intermediate study in moulding technology at the Technical College of Tehran, has been expelled because of his Bahai beliefs. He began his studies in February 2017. He was summoned to the Institute’s security office [a branch of the Ministry of Intelligence] and asked why he had enrolled, since he was a Bahai? “There is no place for Bahais here, just like the universities.” However he was told that he could change the religion field in his student records, and continue with his studies.
In recent days the number of Bahai students who have just passed the University Entrance examination, and find they are excluded from tertiary education on the excuse of “incomplete file,” has risen beyond 50. In previous years the total has been above 100 each year.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Mahvash Zaeri, September 15, 2018. –
More Bahai students who passed the University Entrance examination with good marks have learned that they are excluded from tertiary education because the authorities — who according to the Constitution are not permitted to inquire into religious beliefs — know they are Bahais. The new names (in addition to those I listed yesterday) are Sahand Qa’emi (سهند قائمی), Faran Abbas-Pouli (فاران عباس پولی), Basiz Zayn-`Ali (?) Baghini (بصیز زینلی باغینی), Sadaf Mithaqi-Sisan (صدف میثاقی سیسان), Yahya Mousavi Tang-rizi (یحیی موسوی تنگ ریزی) from Karaj, Anita Rastegar (آنیتا رستگار), Nabil Bashi-Ardestani (نبیل باشی ارد ستانی), Tara Bahamin (تارا بهامین), Bita Chorkhzarin (بیتا چرخ زرین), Arman Golzar (آرمان گلزار), Pegar Sirusian (پگاه سیروسیان), Nariman Movafeq-Evali (نریمان موفقی ایولی), Nuna Qadiri-Nafarest (نونا قدیری نُفرست), Sayeh Aqa’i (سایه آقائی), Farhud Bashi (فرهود باشی) from Tehran, Parsa Shaykhzadeh (پارسا شیخ زاده), Foruzan Nuredel (فروزان نوردل) from Tabriz, Hadi Hedayat (هدي هدايتي) from Semnan, Sina Tala`i (سینا طالعی), Aryan Baqa’i (آرین بقایی) from Sari, Wafa Nobakht (وفا نوبخت) from Sari and Adib Rahmani (ادیب رحمانی) from Sari. This brings the total of the new cohort of Bahai students who have been excluded this year to 33.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Tavaana (twitter), September 15, 2018. –
Sheqayeq Dhabihi (شقایق ذبیحی), a Bahai from Karaj who has completed her Intermediate year in Architecture at the non-profit Rasam University in Karaj, applied to receive the Diploma. However she was summoned to the offices of the national Educational Assessments Bureau, and told that, because of her Bahai beliefs, she could not be awarded the Diploma and would not be allowed to continue her studies.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Hamid Rezataghpour, August 19, 2018. –
Roumina `Asgari (رومینا عسگری ), an undergraduate student at the Tehran Central campus of Iran’s Free University, has been expelled because of her Bahai beliefs. She has completed four semesters of her degree. Unusually, she was informed of her expulsion in writing, the reason given was “abnormal social behaviour, efforts to undermine the order, peace and security of the nation.” Yet she has not actually been attending classes in the last 6 months, having taken a one-semester suspension of her studies.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Iran Press Watch, August 16, 2018.
Source: iranwire.comBy Kian Sabeti (shortened)
In recent days, according to reports received by IranWire, the Intelligence Bureau of Karaj has been pressuring a number of Bahai university applicants to promise that if their applications for the university are accepted, they will stop following the tenets of their faith.
Over the last several recent years, many Bahais who have successfully passed the entrance exams are turned away from universities under the pretext of having an “incomplete portfolio.” Pegah (پگاه), who lives in Karaj near Tehran, was previously given the same excuse when he was told he would not be able to attend college, but the story did not end there.
“On Sunday morning, someone — who did not identify himself —phoned and said he wanted to have a short interview with me about the 2018 entrance exams,” Pegah told IranWire. “He gave me the address of the Intelligence Bureau of Gohardasht, where I was to go. At 10am on the following day I went to that address and spent about 20 minutes in a room answering their questions. They told me that the results of the entrance exams were likely to be published soon and since I might have passed the tests they had to get some information about me. They asked me questions about Bahai religious organizations and religious classes, but I did not answer these questions because they had nothing to do with the entrance exams. I only wrote down my own bio.”
“Essentially, they wanted two things,” Pegah said. “The first was that if I were accepted to the university, I would not proselytize for the Baha’i Faith. I asked them to show me a law that makes proselytizing illegal. Then I told them that I would not proselytize but that if somebody asks me about my faith I cannot lie. [Baha’i tenets do not allow a Baha’i to lie about his faith.] The second was that if I was enrolled I would follow the laws of the Islamic Republic instead of the instructions issued by the House of Justice [the international governing council of the Baha’i faith]. I replied that I would obey the laws of the Islamic Republic but that I cannot ignore the instructions of the House of Justice because as a Bahai I must obey them.”
For 18-year-old Nina (نینا), this year’s entrance exam was her first. Three days ago, the Intelligence Bureau of Karaj called her and asked her to go to their office to answer questions related to the exams and, like Pegah, she followed their instructions. “They gave me two forms,” she told IranWire. “The first form was about detailed personal information, even strange questions like “known as” and “nickname.” I filled it out and signed it. Then they verbally asked me questions about Baha’i gatherings and my religious activities but since the questions had nothing to do with the exams I refused to answer them.”
The second form, besides asking for a full name, was a series of statements to be ticked off. “For instance,” she said, “whether I had passed the exam or I had selected my field of study. But at the bottom of the form it said: ‘I obey the laws of my country, not those of the House of Justice in Occupied Palestine and I do not recognize the House of Justice.’”
Nina did not fill out the second form and told officials it did not apply to her because the first question was about selecting a field of study and she had not done so. But they insisted she fill it out, saying: “If you pass the exam next year, you must sign this form before you go to the university, so it would be better if you would fill it out today.” Nina answered that if that happened, she would return. “We will talk about the form,” she told them.
Bahais in Iran were barred from participating in university entrance exams until 2005, when the Education Evaluation Organization, which oversees all aspects of nationwide university entrance exams and admissions, announced a change in the meaning of the “religion” question on application forms, saying that it did not meant to ask the actual religion of the applicants but instead about applicants’ knowledge about a specific religion. So, after 25 years, Bahai applicants could participate in the entrance exams. The Bahais chose “Islam” and were granted permission to compete in the exams. But if they did pass the exam, they were turned away with the excuse of “incomplete portfolio.” The very few who somehow slip through are expelled the moment the security office of the university finds out they are Bahais [in practice — when the Ministry of Intelligence order the University to expel them ~ Sen].
This religious discrimination extends even to private and non-profit institutes of higher education. In the last 40 years no Bahai has graduated from any university in Iran although Bahais are the biggest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran.
Since the 1979 Revolution, Bahais have been denied the most basic of citizen civil rights. They are even banned from working for the government. At international forums, officials of the Islamic Republic consistently deny this discrimination against the Bahais but, story after story, as with the two above, belie their claims.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Shahrvanyar (Facebook), July 27, 2018. –
Sarir Mauqen (سریر موقن) has been expelled from the Azad University in Isfahan because of her Bahai beliefs. She learned of her expulsion on May 23, 2018, just before the final exams, when she was told by telephone that her file was incomplete and she should go to the Office of Education. She later found that she was barred from the University’s web site. When she went to the Office, she was told “you are a Bahai and should not have entered the University.” She was also denied a certificate showing the grades she had achieved.
Ms. Mauqen began her studies in 2014, and listed her religion as “Bahai” in the registration form. When she was expelled she in the last semester of a Master’s degree in Architecture, having already gained 135 of the 145 study point required for the degree. She had not promoted her Bahai beliefs during her time as a student (a policy issued by the secretariat at the Bahai World Centre in 2015 states that there is no objection to Bahai students signing a pledge not to teach their Faith at university).
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Centre for Human Rights in Iran, June 12 (?), 2018. –
Soha Izadi (سها ایزدی), a student of Information Technology Engineering at the University of Zanjan, was expelled from the University on March 14, 2018 due to “being Bahai.” She had completed almost one year of studies, and was in the midst of the end-of-semester examinations when university officials contacted her to say they had received a letter from the “moral standards” section of the national “Educational Appraisals Agency” which meant that she could not continue education. She was removed from the student register and her access to the university web site was blocked. When she pursued the matter, the university officials told her the only way she could be re-admitted was to renounce her Bahai religion. An indication of how long this educational apartheid policy has endured in Iran is that both her mother and her father were also excluded from enrolling in tertiary education, using the “incomplete file” excuse (that is, the religion section did not say “Muslim” so the file was “incomplete”).
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
Hamid Rezataghipour, May 29, 2018. –
Shakib Teymouri (شکیب تیموری), a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Gorgan University, was expelled on May 27. University officials excluded him from the university web site and from registration. The university refused also to document the Bachelor’s degree he had already achieved. He began his studies late in the autumn of 2014, and entered the Master’s course in 2016.
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HRANA, May 29, 2018. –
Iran’s Court of Administrative Justice has formally confirmed that Bahais in Iran have no right to public service employment or tertiary education. This policy was set out in the 1991 “Golpaygani Memorandum,” drawn up by the Iranian Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council (ISRCC). The memorandum calls for Iran’s Bahais to be treated in such a way “that their progress and development shall be blocked.” It specifies that all Bahais should be expelled from universities; that they shall be denied positions of influence, and that “employment shall be refused to persons identifying themselves as Bahais.” The exclusion of Bahais from universities was reiterated by Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in 2006. The latest court decision confirms that the 1991 policy remains in place: it cites the 1991 memorandum in confirming that Hanan Har (حنان حر), a Bahai student who scored well in the university entrance examination in 2016, and was accepted at a university in Babol, but was excluded because of his Bahai beliefs. In 2017 he appealed to the Court of Administrative Justice, which investigated and ruled that the appeal could not be processed because “Bahais are not only excluded from government employment, they are also deprived of the right to study.” The decision was communicated to Hanan Har in the past few days.
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Bahai Campaign, April 29, 2018.
Kiana Sana’i (کیانا ثنایی), who has completed two semesters of undergraduate study in architecture at the private non-profit Mir-Damand Institute of Higher Education in Gorgan, has been expelled because of her Bahai beliefs. The expulsion was initiated by the national “Educational Appraisals Agency.”
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Didgaheno, April 27, 2018.
Seyyed Arash-Razavian-e Rudbardeh (سید آرش‌رضویان رودبرده), who was in his fourth semester of studies in Physics, has been expelled from Gilan University in Rasht because of his Bahai beliefs. On March 18, before the New Year break, he was told to go to the University, where he was informed that he had been expelled, and if he wanted more information he should go to the National Examinations organisation. After the holidays he did so, and was told that he had been expelled because he was not a follower of one of the four recognized religions. He asked that the reason should be put in writing, which he received, but it said only that his general qualifications were not accepted and he did not qualify for university education. This is remarkable, since Bahai students are usually given no document at all to indicate that they have been students, or have been expelled. When he asked for clarification, he received a prompt reply saying that, in accordance with a decree from the Cultural Council, he has no right to tertiary education. This is a reference to a confidential memorandum from the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council, dated February 1991, which states that Bahais must be expelled from Universities, and the progress and development of Bahais should in general be blocked. This reply also said that the “Police 10+” organization had been informed of his expulsion, in relation to his compulsory military service. This letter was signed by the Director of Educational Services at the University of Gilan.
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HRANA, March 15, 2018.
Wasal Heravi (وصال هروی) has been barred from beginning the fourth semester of his studies in psychology at the Sima-ye Danesh University in Rasht because of his Bahai beliefs. The University President told him verbally that the Qualifications Agency has not accepted his qualifications. His enquiries to the Qualifications Agency and other educational authorities were fruitless, except that he was told verbally that his expulsion was ordered by the Ministry of Intelligence. He began his studies in 2016/17, and became aware of his expulsion when the code for a unit he had enrolled in was disabled [on his university web page].
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shortlink: https://wp.me/pNMoJ-33I
HRANA, January 11, 2018.
Sadaf Vajdani (صدف وجدانی), a student of architectural engineering, was expelled from Razi University of Kermanshah because of her Bahai beliefs. She was notified of her expulsion just before the beginning of the first term examinations.
Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here.
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