The Times has today published an open letter signed by a number of prominent human rights campaigners, academics, lawyers and church leaders calling on the government of Iran
… to allow full and unfettered access to education for all members of the Iranian Baha’i community, and to cease the harassment of Baha’is at any and all centres of learning in Iran.
This call is particularly significant on UN Human Rights Day and the day that marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Access to education – a human right
As the letter points out:
Article 26 of the Declaration reads: “Everyone has the right to education” and “Higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit”.
Baha’i children expelled from school
Baha’is in Iran have been denied access to higher education for many years, but reports are now emerging from Iran that Baha’i school children are being bullied by teachers and school officials just because they are Baha’is. Some of these children have been threatened with expulsion from school – and in some cases they have actually been expelled – yes, just because they are Baha’is.
The Times letter makes it clear that:
Such expulsions are a breach of Iran’s obligations under Article 13 of the Covenant of Economic, Cultural and Social Rights. We believe that this policy is manifestly unjust. It also sits ill at ease with Iran’s history of respect for learning.
Iran’s Baha’i-run schools
Children in Baha’i-run school in Tehran in August 1933
I am most grateful to the letter’s signatories for drawing attention to Iran’s cruelty and hypocrisy. In the early part of the 20th century the Baha’is in Iran were important providers of education in a country where schools were mostly run by the local mullah, provided a very limited curriculum, and did not accommodate girls. This account of Baha’i educational provision reveals the community’s commitment to open and well run schools for all:
As early as the 1880s, small village-level schools were started by Bahá’ís in Iran, and the establishment of major primary and secondary schools in urban centers soon followed.
Around 1900, for example, the Madrissih-yi Tarbiyat-i Banin (the Tarbiyat School for Boys) was founded in Tehran, and by 1911 the ground-breaking Tarbiyat School for Girls had been established. Other Bahá’í schools likewise quickly sprang up in Hamadan, Qazvin, Kashan, and Barfurush.
The schools were open to all, and many children who were not from Bahá’í families enrolled. About half of the students in the schools in Tehran were not Bahá’ís, for example.
By 1920, some 10 percent of the estimated 28,000 primary and secondary school children in Iran were enrolled in Bahá’í-run schools, according to one source.
Although exact figures are hard to come by, it appears that more than 50 schools were founded and operated by Bahá’ís through the first half of the 20th century.
It is a cruel irony that a community that was so dedicated to educating Iran’s children, whether Baha’i or not, is now the victim of a concerted campaign to deny its members the possibility of moral, spiritual and intellectual development and of serving their country. And that’s the self-defeating nature of the anti-Baha’i campaign by the Iranian government. In the end, it is likely to deny Iran the services of talented and highly educated people who want nothing more than the good of their fellow citizens.
Signatories
These are the signatories to the letter:
Lord Parekh of Kingston-upon-Hull
Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws
Deborah Orr
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Professor Stephen Chan, Department of Political and International Studies, SOAS
Professor Geraldine van Bueren, Queen Mary University of London
Professor Peter Finn, Principal, St Mary’s University College, Belfast
Professor Tony Gallagher, School of Education, St Mary’s University College, Belfast
Lord Gifford
Bishop Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
The Right Rev David Lunan, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
Norman Richardson, Stranmillis College, Belfast
Pierrot Ngadi, Co-ordinator, Refugee Wales
Francis Davis, Director, International Young Leaders Network
Patrick Yu, Executive Director, Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities
Professor Colin Sucking, Former Vice Principal, University of Strathclyde
The Most Rev Keith Patrick O’Brien, Cardinal and Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, human rights, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, UN, education
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