Iran Press Watch: The Baha'i Community |
- Christian Solidarity Worldwide calls for release of seven Iranian Baha’i leaders
- Report calls for end to Iranian government policy depriving Baha’i and other students of higher education
- Semnan Baha’i Resident Adel Fanaian Detained
- Baha’i Citizen Threatened on Phone
| Christian Solidarity Worldwide calls for release of seven Iranian Baha’i leaders Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:33 AM PST
The seven Bahai leaders have been held since early 2008. Mrs Mahvash Sabet, the first leader to be arrested, was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence on 5 March 2008. The other six leaders were detained in early morning sweeps in Tehran on 14 May 2008. It is believed that the defendants have received less than one hour's access to legal counsel during the whole of their imprisonment. The International Bahai Community has itself only just learnt of a ruling reportedly received orally by the leaders' lawyers, which communicated that their sentences had been reduced from 20 to 10 years, and that a verdict issued by the lower court relating to charges of espionage, collaboration with the State of Israel and provision of classified documents to foreign nationals with the intention of undermining state security had been overturned by the court of appeal. The case raises serious questions over due legal process in Iran. Lawyers for the seven Bahai leaders, report a complete absence of written communications relating to the prisoners' cases. The defendants' requests for an open trial have been denied and, despite prosecutors being unable to present any credible evidence in support of charges against the leaders, they remain illegally detained. In another development, reports have been circulating in Iranian news outlets that an Iranian pastor, who has been detained since 12 October 2009, has been sentenced to death. These reports have been supported by individuals close to the pastor's case. The pastor's wife was also detained from 8 June to 11 October 2010. CSW's Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said, "Clearly the seven Bahai leaders are being held solely on account of their faith, and this contravenes Iran's international legal obligations. CSW joins with international Bahai community in calling for the release of the seven leaders, and for Iran to address the grave human rights abuses suffered by its religious minorities. CSW also continues to monitor the potential publication of a penal code bill that would include the provision of capital punishment for apostasy." For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 / +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk. CSW is the UK's leading human rights advocacy organisation specialising in religious freedom, working on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promoting religious liberty for all. — |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:22 AM PST
(4 December 2010) The Iranian government should immediately end its policy of depriving university students of higher education based on their political or religious beliefs, and respect their freedom of expression and conscience, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today with the publication of a new report, "Punishing Stars: Systematic Discrimination and Exclusion in Iranian Higher Education." The 77-page report, based on interviews with 27 students barred from higher education, is being released on the occasion of National Student Day in Iran, 7 December. "Excluding students from universities based on their political and religious views is a totalitarian practice that ruins careers and removes reform-oriented young people from future professional cohorts," said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign's spokesperson. During the past six years, the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, through close coordination between its Ministries of Intelligence and Science, has systematically targeted university campuses to suppress social and political activism as well as to exclude Baha'i students due to their religious beliefs. Hundreds of students have been barred from higher education through this process. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran interviewed 27 students barred from higher education. Additionally, the Campaign compiled a list of 217 students who were denied their right to education. The true numbers are believed to be much higher, as many targeted students have preferred to remain silent and not make their case public, fearing further persecution and prosecution, or hoping that they can reverse their education bans by giving written guarantees to cease future activism. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as the head of the cabinet, including the Ministries of Science and Intelligence, as well as the head of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution (three bodies engaged in systematically depriving students from right to education), is ultimately responsible and should be held accountable. These policies have included wholesale shuttering of independent student organizations, massive imprisonment of student activists, purging ideologically suspect faculty, depriving targeted students from continuing their higher education, and even assaulting social sciences and humanities curricula in an effort to cleanse them of "un-Islamic" concepts. Soon after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became President of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2005, the term "starred students" entered Iranian discourse on higher education, indicating a mechanism for discrimination against, and exclusion of, students from higher education based solely on their political beliefs, the exercise of their freedom of expression, and in the case of Baha'i students, their religious beliefs. Punishing Stars is a thorough and systematic study of Iran's discriminatory higher education practices, based on close examinations of official policies and on direct testimonies by students about being barred from study, and their efforts to seek accountability by Iranian authorities. "'Barring students from higher education is a violation of Iran's international legal obligations to promote equality and nondiscrimination, and the Iranian people's right to education," Ghaemi said. The Right to Education, which is proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and guaranteed by the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, which has been signed and ratified by Iran, stresses equitable access to higher education, with meeting academic entrance standards the only legitimate admissions criterion. Students interviewed by the Campaign who had been shut out of universities included some who had among the highest scores on competitive national entrance examinations. National Student Day, 7 December, is an occasion on which Iranian students have protested to demand their rights. It marks the date on which three demonstrating students were killed by security forces of the campus of Tehran University in 1953. The Campaign called for an immediate end to such discriminatory practices, which punish university students for exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of assembly, expression, opinion, and religious belief. —
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| Semnan Baha’i Resident Adel Fanaian Detained Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:10 AM PST
According to the RAHANA reporter, security officials raided his workplace and transferred him to the Semnan Intelligence Ministry after searching the place. His arrest comes after the temporary release if Rofia Bidaghi, another Baha'i citizen. Fanaian served a 6 month prison sentence last year but he was detained once again for unknown reasons.
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| Baha’i Citizen Threatened on Phone Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:05 AM PST
According to the RAHANA reporter, on October 30th, the authorities requested for Ranjabr to appear at the Sari Revolutionary Court. She had stated that she would not go to court without a summons order and in the absence of her lawyer. The official on the phone had responded that a court verdict will be issued in her absence if she fails to appear. On November 21st, she was once again contacted and asked to refer to the Sari Revolutionary Court. She has repeated that she will not appear in court without a summons order and in the absence of her lawyer. The official on the phone has threatened that her arrest warrant will be issued if she fails to show up. Ranjabar has not committed a crime and an arrest warrant cannot be issued legally. The person on the phone has said that "it looks like you are not aware that you have been accused of anti-regime propaganda." — Source: http://www.rahana.org/en/?p=8090 |
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