Der Nahost-Korrespondent der britischen Zeitung Daily Telegraph, Adrian Blomfield, nimmt einen Brief von 43 „prominent professors and lecturers in the fields of theology and religious studies“ an die Zeitung zum Anlass, über das derzeit laufende Verfahren gegen Bahá’í vor dem Revolutionsgericht in Teheran zu berichten, die sich für das Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) engagiert hatten.
The suppression of the institute represents just the latest in a series of assaults on Iran’s 300,000 Baha’is by the country’s Islamic government, hundreds of whom have been detained and even tortured in recent years.
The institute was itself the product of persecution, founded in 1987 after Baha’is were shut out of all forms of tertiary education under an edict by Iran’s ayatollahs.
Run by Baha’i volunteers, it offered young members of the faith their solitary option of gaining a university degree – even if many students had to complete their courses through secret correspondence to avoid official harassment.
Blomfield zitiert aus dem Brief der Theologen und Religionswissenschaftler:
„Attacks such as these, against the rights of citizens to organise and be educated in freedom, can no longer be tolerated,“ the academics wrote. „We call upon the Iranian government not only to cease its persecution of the Baha’is, but to provide, and promote, education for all.“
Der Brief kann im vollen Wortlaut hier abgerufen werden.