Persecution

Minister Baird meets with (L to R) Corinne Box, Susanne Tamás and Gerald Filson of the Canadian Baha'i Community. © Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada Ottawa, Ontario, 15 May 2012 (CBNS) — As seven Baha’i leaders begin their fifth year of incarceration, arrested and sentenced solely because of their religious faith, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, and the Canadian House of Commons marked the anniversary with strong condemnation of the Iranian regime. The seven leaders face another 16 years of imprisonment.

Minister John Baird issued his statement on 14 May, saying that “Canada remains deeply concerned by Iran’s ongoing, persistent and pervasive persecution of religious minorities.”
“Today, on the fourth anniversary of the arbitrary arrest and detention of seven Iranian Baha’i community leaders, we are again reminded of the troubling state of human rights in Iran.”

The seven Baha'i prisoners – photographed several months before their arrest – are (front) Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie; and (standing) Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, and Mahvash Sabet. © Bahá'í World News Service New York, United States, 31 March 2012 (BWNS) — Sunday 1 April marks 10,000 days that Iran's seven former Baha'i leaders have spent in prison between them – a period throughout which they have been deprived of the rights accorded to prisoners under Iran's own laws and regulations.

Academic community and general public at the premiere of the “Education Under Fire” film at the University of British Columbia. Toronto, Ontario, 28 March 2012 (CBNS) — Since its premiere in Canada on 20 January 2012, the Education Under Fire campaign has been launched in seventeen universities and communities from Burnaby, British Columbia to Fredericton, New Brunswick. Planning for the campaign is underway in more than twenty other universities and communities.

The Senate of Canada. © Library of ParliamentOttawa, Ontario, 27 February 2012 (CBNS)— Continuous human rights abuses in Iran have urged another series of debates in the Senate of Canada. The latest inquiry was initiated by Senator Frum on 7 February 2012, followed by two sessions on 15 and 16 February 2012. Reference to Baha'i prisoners of conscience was made by Senators Ataullahjan, Finley, Mockler, MacDonald, Dallaire and Chaput.

This article first appeared in the February 2012 edition of the CAUT Bulletin, which is widely circulated and read by professors across Canada. The lead to the article was mentioned on the front page of the publication and the article had excellent placement on page two. The bulletin is published by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). CAUT has more than 66,000 members from the academic community.

By Deborah K. van den Hoonaard, Pierre-Yves Mocquais, Niky Kamran, Redwan Moqbel, Claire Lapointe, David R. Smith, Will C. van den Hoonaard, Lisa Dufraimont, Lyse Langlois, Albert M. Berghuis, W. Andy Knight and Michael Power

The seven imprisoned Baha'i educators are (top row, left to right): Mahmoud Badavam, Ramin Zibaie, Riaz Sobhani, Farhad Sedghi; (bottom row, left to right) Noushin Khadem, Kamran Mortezaie, and Vahid Mahmoudi. © BWNSOttawa, Ontario, 24 February 2012 (CBNS)— For more than a decade Canadian universities and professors have played a quiet but essential role in providing graduate education to Baha'i students banned from university in Iran because of their religion. Now, the Iranian government is declaring their Canadian degrees “illegal.” They are also imprisoning Baha'i faculty and staff involved with a community initiative known as the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), set up in 1987 after the Iranian government fired all Baha'i professors and expelled Baha'i students from post-secondary institutions.