Since its premiere in Canada on 20 January 2012, the Education Under Fire campaign has been launched in seventeen universities and communities from Burnaby, British Columbia to Fredericton, New Brunswick. Planning for the campaign is underway in more than twenty other universities and communities.
The Education Under Fire campaign consists of a film, discussion and the planning of actions that can respond to the escalation this past year of the Iranian governments efforts to deny higher education to Baha’is and other minorities.
The Iranian regime, singled out by the UN Secretary General, the UN Human Rights Council and governments and organizations around the world for its violation of human rights, has intensified oppressive measures that now include preventing Baha’is from even making efforts to educate themselves.
Shut out from universities, the Baha’is had organized an initiative, the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, to provide some university courses to students prevented solely because of their religion from registering for university. Officials have arrested dozens of individuals this past year associated with the Baha’i effort to provide education.
Hundreds of people have attended these events and have signed the online petition, including 50 professors and, at least, one university president, who has joined four other university presidents who also wrote personal letters to the government of Iran denouncing the injustice of their treatment of the Baha’i religious minority.
At one university, a student club took the initiative to hold their own screening, in addition to the one the Baha’i club organized. In Vancouver, students from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, produced a powerful promotional video for the campaign prior to several Education Under Fire events in the coming days and weeks.
The video features a number of students who reflect on the importance of education, the roles it plays in the life of an individual, as they call for an end to the denial of education based on religious or ideological reasons in Iran.
You may see the video here.
Of particular significance for students at Carleton University, one of their fellow graduates, Nooshin Khadem, was arrested this past year and is now serving a four year prison term for her involvement with the Baha’i initiative.
The Education Under Fire campaign has engaged thousands of people across North America, relying on new ways of gaining support, raising public awareness and securing collaboration between organizations and associations who have not worked together before. The campaign aims to engage thousands more before it is over. The documentary can be screened anywhere from community town halls, to university classrooms and individual homes.
The approach of the campaign is two-fold: First, to educate people on what is currently happening in Iran to a generation of young people. Second, to empower people to act, to use the knowledge they have received, assess their current opportunities and spread the campaign further through their own networks. It is a campaign meant to reach the minds and hearts of many around the world, requiring the effort of large numbers of individuals to do so.
If you are interested in hosting an event or want to be involved please write to the Office of External Affairs, Baha’i National Centre at externalaffairs@cdnbnc.org.