New tactic obstructs Baha'i enrollment in universities

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Tahirih
by Tahirih
28-Apr-2008
 

More than a million students take Iran's national university entrance examination each year. So Halaku Rahmaniyan was extremely pleased when he learned he had placed 76th from the top.

"I was happy, because I knew that it was a good result and that I could enter any subject in any university with that ranking," the 18-year-old student from Tehran wrote in a blog recently.

He did not understand why, then, he still had not been accepted anywhere by December. So Mr. Rahmaniyan called the national Education Measurement and Evaluation Organization (EMEO), which administers the exam, and spoke with a top official.

The official, too, was puzzled -- until Mr. Rahmaniyan said he was a Baha'i.

"Suddenly, after the word 'Baha'i,' he discontinued the call," wrote Mr. Rahmaniyan.

Then he received a letter from the EMEO.

"Respectfully, in response to your request for the issuance of a certificate of ranking for the year 2007, we would like to inform you that owing to you having an incomplete file, issuance of a certificate of ranking is not possible," stated the letter.

The story is one of many from Iran in recent months that highlight the latest tactic by the Iranian government in its long-running campaign to block Baha'is from access to higher education: to claim that their examination files are somehow "incomplete."

Almost 800 of the more than 1,000 Baha'is who sat for and properly completed the entrance exam in June 2007 have received word that their files are "incomplete" -- thus preventing their enrollment.

"These latest figures show that, despite its denials, the Iranian government is continuing its campaign to prevent Baha'is from going to university," said Diane Ala'i, the Baha'i International Community's representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

"The tactic of claiming that the examination files of Baha'i students are somehow 'incomplete' is yet another ruse by the government to act as if it respects human rights while covertly moving ahead with its persecution of Baha'is," said Ms. Ala'i, noting that none of the some 900 Baha'is who sat for the examination in 2006 received a notice of "incomplete files."

For more than 25 years, Baha'is have been banned from public and private universities in Iran. After pressure from the United Nations, governments, and academic, educational and human rights organizations, the government indicated in 2004 that it would stop asking university applicants about their religious affiliation, which seemed to open the door to Baha'i enrollments.

Each year since then, however, the government, which has been actively pursuing a campaign to identify all of the Baha'is in Iran and therefore is able to target Baha'i university students, has come up with some type of obstruction.

 

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Tahirih

Killjoy

by Tahirih on Tue Apr 29, 2008 04:33 PM PDT

I understand your pain, I felt that way for the first 15 years of my separation from my family, but I needed to get out of all that sadness ,and it took me awhile but I can say that I am fine now.

I have even forgiven most of them that caused me and my family to suffer, but not forgoten. That's why I have decided to break the silence and talk about what has happened to us.

I encourage you to do the same, because that hatred ,is destructive to our soul. Instead try to inform people as what has happened to you and your family.Educating eachother about our past is the best thing ,it  helps to  heal and to prevent  it to happen again to the next generation.

with lots of respect,

Tahirih


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default

Dear Tahiri,

by Killjoy (not verified) on Tue Apr 29, 2008 07:16 AM PDT

Thanks for sharing the above information with us. I do read your posts when I see them and this one reminded me of yet another dark chapter in the Iranian history after the revolution. I'm sure you're well aware of the so-called "Cultural Revolution" and the barbarous attacks on college students and professors.

When the revolution broke out I was a young college teacher and my two younger sisters were in college.

I had to leave my job under constant pressure and my sisters were banned from continuing their studies. One of my brothers also lost his job.

Of all my colleagues only two kept their jobs, one got help from an Ayatollah and the other joined the Khomeinists.

The pressure I mentioned above came from the colleague who had joined the revolution.

I haven't forgiven those who caused me the pain of having to leave my country and all my friends and relatives.

The funny thing is that Abdolkarim Soroush, the mastermind of the "Cultural Revolution" is invited to lecture at Harvard.

Perhaps as a reward for ruining the lives of so many Iranians.


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jimzbund

Dirty Tricks not tactics

by jimzbund on Tue Apr 29, 2008 06:20 AM PDT

As long as Shiites are in power, everyone else will be second hand citizen until Imam Zaman  ( pbuh) comes and kills them all !!! Also there is no pride in an education system that gives idiots like Ahmadinejad a Phd.  

 

Bund, Jimz Bund


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nema

Why ? don’t you ask yourself !

by nema on Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:41 AM PDT

Iranian are proud of our Persian heritage and often brag about first Human Rights carved in stone thousands of years ago by Persians, we get offended by movie such as 300, yet remain indifferent and witness the barbaric atrocities committed by the same fanatic people who deprived us from freedom and orchestrated a vicious campaign against some Iranian who worship God and pray in a different manner than those fundamentalist in charge today.

Aren’t we all Iranians?, didn’t Cyrus the Great liberated Jews from slavery and allowed them to practice their faith, even married Queen Esther, a Jewish princesses to bring peace, love and harmony. What have we learned from our history and what are we proud of, if we don’t stand up and speak up for those who suffer in silence. Don’t you ask yourself why we have not understood democracy if we remain just a witness to crime against humanity. I don’t only defend Baha’is, but also Zoroastrians, Jews, Christian, and all other non-Muslim who are Iranian to begin with. Why don’t you ask yourself?


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