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Once again, Congress has added its voice to the many protesting Iranian authorities’ treatment of Baha’is and other religious minorities. The House of Representatives on Jan. 1 passed H.Res.134, “condemning the government of Iran for its state-sponsored persecution of its Bahá’í minority and its continued violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights.” That vote [...]
Young Baha’is in Colorado Springs, Colorado, are getting a chance to get out front — with a little accompaniment — on two major fronts. The energy and capacity of those ages 15 to 24 have long been recognized in the Faith as vital to Baha’i community life and, in particular, as critical to the spiritual [...]
The Education Under Fire initiative started in 2011 thanks to individual efforts. With the support of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and its Office of Public Affairs, and several international human rights organizations including Amnesty International and United4Iran, it has grown to bring many in the academic and civic [...]
A brief chronology of the Education Under Fire campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education in Iran (click here for an overview and an invitation to action): Photo Gallery Rainn Wilson at Wheelock College screening. Photo courtesy of Education Under Fire project Click to enlarge and browse a [...]
Randolph Dobbs writes about the denial of access to higher education in Iran in this editorial on Examiner.com. Also included with the editorial is a video produced by Baha’is in Canada titled, “Our Education is Under Fire”. “Access to higher education has become a weapon of the state turned against the people; a means of [...]
Lilly Mohtadi keenly felt a need to do something about the plight of young Baha’is in Iran who have been denied their right to education. One is a second cousin her age who is unsure what he is going to do after graduating from high school. “I couldn’t just let him and hundreds, if not [...]
With the July 30 release of the International Religious Freedom Report for 2011, the U.S. State Department continued to criticize Iran for human rights violations. The document details religious persecution and discrimination in countries around the world. At a press briefing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about the importance of religious freedom: “Religious freedom [...]
May 22 was the first anniversary of the most recent raids on the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), the distance-learning university created for Baha’i students who are banned from attending college in Iran because of their religious beliefs. Seven BIHE educators and administrators were arrested and are serving four- and five-year prison sentences. They [...]
Gary Fouse writes, in the blog Monkey in the Middle, about his experience attending an Education Under Fire screening at UC Irvine. Read the full entry
A committee concerned with human rights for scientists across the globe has joined the call to free the Bahá’í educators incarcerated in Iran — one of several developments related to ongoing efforts to open up educational access for Bahá’ís in the country of the Faith’s birth. Meanwhile, a leading project in those efforts, Education Under [...]
In this interview with The Huntville Times, Geoffrey Tyson, general manager of the Education Under Fire campaign, notes how Baha’is in Iran continue to be “officially barred from many professional jobs – and from studying at the colleges and universities that would prepare them for those jobs.” “This is not even about religious freedom so much [...]
This year marks the 61st anniversary of the establishment of Human Rights Day by the United Nations in 1950. The annual date chosen for this commemoration was December 10 which honors the adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 – the first ever global enunciation of human rights. The promotion [...]
Iran’s dismal human rights record against women, labor and minority religions including the Baha’i Faith will be spotlighted at a Human Rights Day conference at Wilmette’s Baha’i Temple, 1 to 4 p. m., Saturday, Dec. 10th. Sponsored by Amnesty International USA and Chicagoland Baha’i assemblies, national experts will outline the denial of basic freedoms in [...]
Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, the former UN peacekeeping force commander who tried to stop the 1990s genocide in Rwanda, has said that Iran’s current actions against Baha’is remind him of what he witnessed in Africa. Read the full story from Baha’i World News Service
*UPDATE, 1/11/2012* Education Under Fire DVD kits are now for sale through the Baha’i Distribution Service. As a part of this package, you will receive the documentary and five copies of the open letter regarding the Iranian government’s attack on the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education co-authored by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Desmond Tutu and President of [...]
The Climate Ethics Campaign is aiming for 1,000 endorsements of its new climate change statement by November 30th, the day the campaign plans to officially release and circulate the statement on Capitol Hill. A representative of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha‘is of the United States recently endorsed the statement, titled “Statement of Our Nation’s Moral Obligation to Address Climate Change”
In this podcast from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran the persecution of the Baha’i community is examined through interviews with David Hoffman and Jeff Kaufman, the executive producer and director of the film “Education Under Fire,” a new documentary that profiles an unofficial school that called the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education [...]
The latest entry on Baha’i Thought highlights the recent screening of the 30-minute documentary, Education Under Fire, at Wheelock College on November 12th, 2011.
In her latest blog entry, Jackee Batanda highlights the recent screening of the 30-minute documentary, Education Under Fire, at MIT’s Stata Center on November 11th, 2011. Read the full story
Amin Ghadimi recalls “lots of literal sweat and tears” being shed by Baha’is at Columbia University in New York City as they toiled to mount the premiere Oct. 28 of “Education Under Fire.” Hearteningly, friends old and new pitched in to give the documentary, which trains a spotlight on Iran for the denial of higher [...]
Education Under Fire, a new 30-minute documentary, produced by Single Arrow Productions and co-sponsored by Amnesty International, had its double premiere in New York City on Friday, October 28th at Columbia University and Saturday, October 29th at New York University. Part of a campaign to address the Islamic Republic of Iran’s overall denial of the [...]
Iran’s Repression Of The Baha’i Institute For Higher Education Continues As Draconian Sentences Enforced
In his blog Daysprings of Glory Glenn Franco Simmons shares his thoughts about the Baha’i persecutions happening in Iran.
Nineteen Months interviews C. Aaron Kreader, one of the authors of Zanjan, a fictional graphic novel based on the true events that happened in Zanjan, a town in northwestern Iran, in the mid-1800s. Read the Full Interview Zanjan was released by Baha’i Publishing and is available for purchase through the Baha’i Distribution [...]
“In Iran, authorities continue to repress Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Sunnis, Ahmadis, and others who do not share the government’s religious views,” said Secretary Clinton.
In this latest podcast Warren Odess-Gillett interviews Roya Movafegh, multi-media artist and author of the book The People With No Camel. Born in Austria to Iranian parents, Roya and her family moved to Iran in 1976 only to escape it five years later due to the persecutions they faced as Baha’is. She is currently working [...]
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