NEWS RELEASE
SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA'IS
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The Baha’i community of Sault Ste. Marie will join 80 other Canadian cities and towns marking the worldwide Education is Not a Crime campaign beginning on February 28.
“We are eager to join this campaign,” said local member Louisa van Lith, “and pleased that our city has been selected for a special screening of Mr. Bahari’s film”
Iran’s government wants to prevent thousands of non-Muslim citizens from getting an education.
The government forbids members of the Baha’i Faith, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, from studying at universities.
In response Iranian Baha’i professors, fired from their university posts, developed an informal, distance-learning program to try and provide some training in subjects ranging from accounting to biology.
Though degrees are not recognized by the Iranian regime, some Canadian universities have accepted Baha’i students into graduate programs.
The Iranian government has attacked that program providing informal university courses, arresting those involved in trying to provide some university education to Baha’is.
Included among those arrested have been a few with graduate degrees from Canadian universities who have returned to Iran to help provide some university education to Baha’i youth.
The persecution of the Baha’is and the denial of education to Baha’is is the subject of To Light a Candle, a new documentary by Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari.
The Baha’i community of Sault Ste. Marie will offer a screening of the film on Tuesday, March 3, 7 p.m. at Mill Square.
A discussion focusing on the campaign will follow.
For more details about Education is Not a Crime and the film visit: www.educationisnotacrime.me.
“The Iranian government says that education is a crime for Baha’is,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu said. “We can tell the government of Iran, and the world, that banning the Baha’is or any group from higher education is hurting Iran and the Iranian people.”
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