Right to universal education
Documentary shines a light on Baha’is in Iran who are banned from education.
A Baha’i man from Iran living in Newfoundland uses a dead tree branch as an analogy for his birth country’s ban on post-secondary education for Baha’is.
Fred — not his real name — says universal education is one of the basic principles the Baha’i faith teaches, and without it, people can’t fully contribute to society.
“You have a dead tree sitting outside. It doesn’t bear fruit. So what do you do? Just cut it and use it for the fire. So this is what’s happening in Iran,” he said. “It is their intention to put the Baha’i community in such a constrained situation: either deny the faith or leave the country.”
Fred moved to Newfoundland many years ago, and has since received a post-secondary education. He said he, and other Baha’is across the country, are grateful for that opportunity.
For decades, the Iranian government has been cutting off Baha’is — who form the country’s largest religious minority — by jailing them, denying them basic rights such as education and even killing them. More than 200 Baha’is have been killed in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“It runs very deep, and every once in a while, it gets more serious and actually quite inhumane,” said David Rendell, a member of the Baha’i community in St. John’s.
“In one village recently, the gates to the Baha’i cemetery were welded shut. And family members have had to deal with the fact that their loved ones who’ve passed on were held over two months in the morgue, and they’re not allowed to bury them.”
Fred said it is difficult for him to see the way fellow Baha’is are treated in Iran.
“The feeling is being isolated. It’s not being able to help, not being able to reach out to them,” he said.
While others can visit family members around the world in the blink of an eye, that opportunity doesn’t exist for him.
“It’s hard to judge when you go there what would happen. Because there are many cases that Baha’is, or even non Baha’is, travel to Iran and are captured and being detained.”
Iranian-Canadian journalist and filmmaker Maziar Bahari was imprisoned on a trip to Iran in 2009. There, he met Baha’is who taught him about the ban on education in that country, and about the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, which helps Baha’is access education with international teachers by correspondence.
Bahari’s new documentary about the subject, “To Light A Candle,” is screening for international audiences tonight as part of the global campaign Education is Not a Crime. Fred and Rendell are inviting people to attend the local screening at MUN.
“I encourage many young students to watch this movie, because this movie is not just about the Baha’is who have been denied education in Iran. It is about awareness and appreciation of the others who are outside of the country of Iran, for example in Canada, and benefiting from this privilege and having the freedom to go and get education,” Fred said.
The film will be screened in Room 1046 of MUN’s Arts and Administration Building at 7:30 p.m., followed by a discussion. All are welcome to attend.
Note to readers: As Fred has loved ones in Iran, The Telegram has agreed to omit details that could lead to them being identified.