Am 23. September gab die Internationale Bahá’í-Gemeinde anlässlich der 18. Sitzung des UN-Menschenrechtsrates in Genf vor der internationalen Staatengemeinschaft eine öffentliche Stellungnahme zur Verweigerung des Rechts auf Bildung an den Bahá’í im Iran ab. Wir veröffentlichen hier die Stellungnahme im Wortlaut.
23 September 2011
Geneva
September is the time of year when students in the northern hemisphere get ready for their academic year to begin, holding hopes for a bright future.
Sadly, in Iran so many young people are deprived of this education simply because they hold an opinion or a belief that differs from those of the few men in power. They are student activists; they are members of ethnic minorities; they are Bahá’ís.
For Bahá’í youth, this has been going on for nearly 30 years. The most recent injustice concerns a young woman, Shohreh Rowhani, who obtained a top ranking in the 2011 national university entrance exam, only to be turned away. The pretext was that her file was “incomplete” – a euphemism for being a Bahá’í.
The recent crackdown on the Bahá’í Institute of Higher Education, a grassroots endeavour that stemmed from this injustice and was trying to alleviate the failure of the State to act fairly towards its citizens, is proof – if yet another proof is needed – that, despite all their claims (whether at the Human Rights Council, at UNESCO or on State television), the Iranian government aims at turning the entire Baha’i community of its country into an impoverished and marginalized group.
The Bahá’ís will not allow this to happen. They have not allowed it for the past 30 years – always in a peaceful, law abiding manner.
Today, nearly 100 Bahá’ís are in prison because of their beliefs. Among prisoners of conscience in Iran, the eight longest sentences are being served by Bahá’ís. Scores are detained and interrogated, and the entire Bahá’í community is deprived of all basic rights. None are spared, not even the dead whose resting places are desecrated, not even the little girl, a six year old child, whose hand is burnt in punishment by her ethics teacher, simply because she is a Bahá’í. Despite all this, the Bahá’ís of Iran are relentless in their quest for a better Iran for all Iranians, regardless of sex, age, class, ethnicity and belief.
Bahá’ís hope, as all Iranians do, that the international community will also be relentless in telling the government of Iran that its crimes do not go unnoticed and its lies are now exposed, and in demanding that Iran fulfils its international human rights obligations.
Die Stellungnahme kann hier im Video gesehen werden. Für die BIC ergriff Diane Ala’i das Wort, Sprecherin der BIC am Sitz der Vereinten Nationen in Genf:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z_Ll7Pxv2U&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]