Campaign for the Academic Freedom of the Bahá’ís of Iran and the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education in three UK Universities: Oxford, Leicester and London Oxford University, UK The first e-mails from Bahá’í friends abroad multi-copied to others around the world poured in on October 2nd: “Mass Arrests of Bahá’í Educators in Iran”. The Bahá’í Open University had been closed, 32 lecturers had been arrested and over 500 Bahá’í homes raided in an orchestrated clamp-down ordered by the Iranian Ministry of Information. Within a fortnight, a personal cry for help from the students themselves arrived via email. Anxious to respond, the Oxford community decided to launch a major campaign to inform and mobilise public opinion throughout the university. A Task Force was appointed by the LSA to co-ordinate the combined efforts of the Oxford University Bahá’í Society and the community. However, one of the most gratifying aspects of this whole effort was the degree to which the Bahá’í students and members of the wider community worked together, giving unstintingly of their time and energy, even when in their last year – with finals looming. This universal participation and unity among the community was a source of great enthusiasm, confidence and drive, contributing to the success of the campaign. The campaign had three main goals. First, to inform the generality of Oxford academics and students of the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran and the denial of their educational rights. Second, to organise an open letter to The Times, to be signed by high-ranking academics of the university. And third, to organise a petition and a letter-writing drive in which concerned individuals would protest to the various Iranian authorities. As for informing academics, information packs were prepared to be gi ven in person where possible, primarily through the Bahá’í students of the university. Where this was not possible they were sent via the internal mail system, which involved writing the names and colleges by hand on the envelopes and driving round the city dropping packs off at the 40 or so colleges that make up the university. Overall, around 2,500 information packs were distributed, reaching virtually all of Oxford's academic community; of these, approximately 150 were presented in person. The response of the academics who received these packs personally was invariably one of great interest and concern, with some of the more prominent members of the university going so far as to personally contact the Foreign Office. Students were informed of the situation via articles and/or adverts in all three student papers, a 30-minute slot on Oxygen student radio, personal contacts, and information packs sent to approximately 20 other societies. In at least one case a lecturer invited his class to sign the petition, and at least one student put the petition up on her college notice board which attracted many signatures. Posters advertised the Bahá’í Society website which hosted a variety of background information on the situation in Iran, and invited students and academics to a special reception, the focal point of the campaign. The reception was held at Merton College on February 11 th, chaired by Dr. Seena Fazel, followed by a 35 minute talk by Mr. Payam Akhavan of the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague (and Yale lawyer). Around 50 people attended, 20 of them non-Bahá’ís, including one professor, Dr Sheikholeslami of the Iranian Studies Department of the Oriental Institute, who expressed great sympathy for the predicament of the Bahá’ís, and wrote to the speaker after the event proposing a meeting on his next visit to Oxford. The open letter to The Times was another highly visible aspect of the campaign, with the letter being published in a prominent position on Thursday, February 11th, the morning of the reception. The letter was also mentioned in the “news in brief” section on the back page of the newspaper, as well as being linked to a news article on Iran in thc overseas news section. A leader on Iran WIIS published on the same page as the leiter, ulthough an article on the BIHE closure for the educational page was unfortunately squeezed out to make way for this. The finallist of signatories were: Professor Sir Richard Doll, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) Professor Richard Peto, FRS Professor Keith Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity Professor Richard Gombrich, Boden Professor of Sanskrit, Oriental Institute Professor Richard Pring, Head of the Department of Educational Studies Indeed, Sir Richard Doll and Professor Peto were both in the “100 most Prominent People in Britain” list published by The Sunday Times last year, and both invested considerable time reworking the draft letter originally written by the Bahá’ís. The third major plank of the campaign was the petition drive and letter writing campaign, which resulted in many staff and students writing letters on behalf of the Iranian Bahá’ís. As part of this, the Oxford University Student Union was approached, passing five resolutions condemning the denial of educational rights to the Iranian Bahá’ís, and has written to the relevant government officials to register their protest. The local MP of one of the Oxford Bahá’ís also contacted the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Michael Howard, who wrote to the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, and received a very sympathetic reply. The petition drive collected over 100 signatures. Contributed by Mrs Juliet Doostdar University of Leicester, UK The Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Leicester embarked on this campaign in March 1999 in close collaboration with the Office of External Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the UK. In a nutshell, this campaign aims to inform the academic community of the situation of the Bahá’ís of Iran who are barred from higher education. The academics are also asked to add their names to a petition which was initially endorsed by Professor Patrick Thornberry of Keele University. So far the response has been astounding. At the time of writing this report (21 June 1999), the petition has been endorsed by ten Heads of departments, two Deans of faculties, three highly distinguished Professors (including Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, FRS and Professor K. Pounds, CBE, FRS), the president of the Students' Union as well as a number of other professors and lecturers. Last week, to our great delight, the Vice-Chancellor of the University also endorsed the petition. Clearly, the academic community strongly believes that no one should be denied education because of his/her religious beliefs. An important factor in our success has been the letter of the five highly distinguished academics from Oxford to the Times newspaper which was printed earlier this year. The letter has been instrumental in providing appropriate information on the Faith, its teachings and the current situation of the Bahá’ís of Iran. The efforts of the Oxford friends in this regard has been very significant. Following in the footsteps of the Oxford community, we are now in the process of sending our information pack to all the eight hundred academic staff of the University of Leicester. We have prepared a document detailing all the steps in implementation of this campaign. A copy of this document as well as sample copies of our covering letter can be obtained from the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Leicester <rba@le.ac.uk> or <leicesterbahais@bci.org>. Further information regarding other related activities can be obtained from Carmel Momen, Public Information Officer, Office of External Affairs of the UK National Spiritual Assembly on 020-7584 2566 Report by Dr Ramin Badii-Azandahi University of London, UK In May a campaign was launched in London to enlist the support of academics throughout the University of London against the attempted recent closure by the Iranian government of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). Academics at University College London and the London School of Economics (LSE) were the first colleges to be approached by the LSE Bahá’í Society. BIHE was established in 1987 in response to the systematic exclusion of Bahá’í students and staff from state colleges and universities in Iran. They experienced difficulties from the beginning, however the situation exploded in October 1998 when government security officials carried out orchestrated raids on 500 homes across the country, confiscating educational materials and arresting staff from the Bahá’í Institute of Higher Education (BIHE). Those who were arrested were asked to sign a document declaring that the BIHE had ceased to exist as of 29 September 1998 and that they would no longer co-operate with it. They refused to do so. To enlist support from British academics against this blatant violation of basic human rights, Bahá’í students are encouraging academics to sign a Statement of Protest. In March 1999 London students started to plan a campaign in London. By May we had our covering letter and enclosures ready. We decided to include newspaper articles, a detailed information and the Statement of Protest and return envelope. We had typed in 1400 names into Excel, hence when we merged the letters we were able to personally address each academic as “Dear Professor/Dr X” and we were able to generate labels. Our costs were substantially reduced as we used University of London Intercollegiate Mail. From the planning stages to the actual execution of this effort each member of Camden Bahá’í community was involved – at the final stage we took the envelopes and the enclosures to the Nineteen Day Feast and we spent the social part stuffing envelopes over tea and cakes! It was a truly unified effort. At the time of writing we have received fiftyfour signed Statements of Protest – one academic even sent it from France where his mail had been forwarded to him! The entire community is thrilled at this response and we are hoping to repeat it at other London Colleges. If anyone from any London College would like to get involved please contact me at the e-mail address below. The Oxford Bahá’í Society kindly shared their materials with us and this made it easier and quicker for us to adapt it for use in London. So if anyone else in the country would like a copy of the letter and materials we used we would be happy to pass it on. Report from Neda Azemian e-mail <Neda_Azemian@hotmail.com> The Associate is the newsletter of the Association for Bahá’í Studies (English-Speaking Europe), 27 Rutland Gate, London SW7 1PD, UK. <<PREVIOUS • ASSOCIATE HOME PAGE • CONTENTS • ABS(ESE) HOME PAGE • NEXT >>