Persecution

The seven Baha'i educators sentenced to prison 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.
New York, 18 October 2011 (Taken from files of BWNS) — A Baha'i educator with a degree from a Canadian university received a four-year prison sentence in Iran while two other Baha'i educators with Canadian university degrees are being held in prison without charge, according to reports received by the Baha'i International Community.

Forty-three distinguished philosophers and theologians have signed an open letter calling upon Iran to cease its persecution of young Bahá’ís seeking access to higher education. Among them are such prominent figures as: (top row, left to right) Cornel West (Princeton, U.S.A.), Graham Ward (Oxford, U.K.), Charles Taylor (McGill, Canada), Leonardo Boff (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil); (bottom row, left to right) Ebrahim Moosa (Duke, U.S.A.), Hilary Putnam (Harvard, U.S.A.), Stanley Hauerwas (Duke, U.S.A.) and Tahir Mahmood (former member, Law Commission, India)..Toronto, 11 October 2011 (CBNS) — Two prominent Canadian philosophers have joined more than 40 of their colleagues around the world in condemning Iran’s attacks on the Baha’i community’s efforts to provide education for Baha’i students who are systematically denied access to higher education.

Senator Mobina Jaffer of British Columbia with Susie Tamas and Geoffrey Cameron of the Baha'i Community's Office of Governmental Relations.Ottawa, Ontario, 24 June 2011 (CBNS) — Senator Mobina Jaffer of British Columbia delivered a 20-minute speech on the situation of the Baha’is in Iran to the Canadian Senate in Ottawa on June 21. This followed a shorter intervention a week earlier on June 14. Senator Jaffer called attention to the continued imprisonment of the seven Baha’i leaders in Iran as well as the recent attacks on the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education.

The following is reprinted from the Full Comment section of the National Post, Friday, 13 May 2011.

Toronto, Ontario, 13 May 2011 (CBNS) — May 14th marks the third anniversary of the imprisonment of seven leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community. After an illegal 30-month detention in Tehran’s Evin Prison, the seven were tried and sentenced in August 2010. They had been members of a group permitted by the government up until their May 2008 arrest to attend to the minimal needs of the Baha’i community.

Toronto, Ontario, 28 April 2011 (CBNS) — When 81-year-old Ashraf Khanjani-the wife of jailed Baha’i leader Jamaloddin Khanjani, 77, was on her deathbed, her last wish was to see her husband, said Nika Khanjani, her niece, a Montreal filmmaker. But Mrs. Khanjani had to content herself with a photograph of her husband, which she kissed shortly before passing away on 10 March 2011.