Iran's Baha'is Caught Between Apostasy Law and Barriers to Education

Posted: 12 Oct 2008 05:49 PM CDT

Iran continues to deprive Baha'i students of their right to education. A recent article in the Baha'i World News Service states:

Baha'i students attempting to gain admittance to universities and other institutions this fall found that their entrance examination results were frozen and their files listed as “incomplete” on the Web site of the national testing organization.

Baha’is who had successfully enrolled in universities in previous years continue to be expelled.

And those who have sought redress through the courts have been disappointed, their cases rejected.

The website of the Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights, an independent site launched by a group of Muslim youth, has recently published a post about the resentment expressed by Muslim youth of the flagrant violation of the rights of the Baha'is of Iran. In that article, the site published a comic that depicts the students' dilemma. They wrote the following:

Over the past two years a new tactic was employed: namely, denying Baha’i students admission by alleging their files are incomplete. Last year, almost 800 (of over 1,000) students had their dreams shattered this way. But this year, when trying to login to the national university examination website, Baha’i students were redirected to: http://82.99.202.139/karsarasari/87/index.php?msg=error_bah

Whether the Iranian authorities were caught in the folly of their ways, or “error_bah” was intentional is a tough call. But should the authorities want to upgrade their message for the next academic year, we have a fitting suggestion:

Subsequently, the same site published another post with a new comic addressing the apostasy law contemplated by Iran's government. The introduction to the comic is quoted below:

You may have heard about the “Apostasy bill” in Iran, which left many shivering in fear. If passed, it will be considered a “criminal” act to convert to another faith (or to simply be a part of another one.)

The Christian and Baha’i communities of Iran are most likely to be affected by this decision.

This comic was inspired by this news, to show the absurd measures that the IRI is taking to persecute innocent minorities in Iran.