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Iran: Students from “false religions” won't be admitted to universities

The President of the University Selection Committee declared that Iranian students who belong to "false religions" do not have the right to enter university, reports FCNN.

Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN) reports that Fars News Agency, a media organization with ties to the Islamic Republic establishment, has recently published a report in which the head of the selection committee of Iranian universities has declared that students who belong to "false religions" and unrecognized cults will not be admitted to Iranian universities.

Morteza Noorbakhsh, who presided over the 39th sitting of the deans of admissions of Iranian universities in Kurdestan province, announced that students who belong to cults and unrecognized religions can not pursue postsecondary education in Iran and those who are currently studying at Iranian universities must appear before the selection committees in order to justify and validate their worthiness to remain a student at the university.

FCNN has obtained several documents that clearly indicate that even the religious minorities that have been officially sanctioned in the Iranian constitution face similar degrees of discrimination and bias as groups that have not been recognized as legitimate religious minorities and in some instances have been treated with more harshness and reactionary attitude.

For example, during the early days of January 2010, at one of the campuses of the Free University (Name and details withheld to respect matters of privacy) in which the university president and a number of faculty and staff held a special guidance and security meeting in order to investigate the claims of a student who had become a Christian. The noteworthy matter in this incident is the attendance of not only the president and the staff of the university, but the presence of security representatives and the head of the Islamic Cultural Center at this meeting which are directly related to security apparatus of the government.

"This clearly proves that the Islamic government of Iran is viewing these matters, even if they occur in an educational environment, as issues of national security" commented a knowledgeable source.

During this meeting the above mentioned student was initially threatened with expulsion from the university, but was later encouraged to reconsider his conversion to Christianity and to resume his investigation of Islamic faith and become more familiar with his ancestral faith through the help and the guidance of Islamic experts who were in attendance at the meeting.

This student was not only threatened and, out of fear of expulsion, agreed to cooperate and reconsider his previous faith and study Islam under the watchful guidance of those appointed to "assist him", but the university president was also in danger of being accused of allowing such unauthorized activities. This is why he had rushed to create a program that would facilitate the return of this and other students in similar situation back to Islamic faith.

The written recommendations of the university president clearly shows the pressures and mistreatment students from other religions and minorities constantly face which is nothing but explicit violations of international human right conventions. This is a small example of what is happening on a large scale in the educational institutions all across Iran.

FCNN has obtained a copy of this inhumane and restrictive document that was presented at the above mentioned meeting. Some of the points are as follows:

The student named in this document has no right to speak anywhere on the campus, residence dormitory, and in the urban center where the university is located. Failure to comply with this order will have severe consequences (the punishment is unclear).

The student in question is not allowed to carry and display any Christian symbols such as the cross on the campus, residence, and in the town where the city if located. It is unclear why and how the university president is acting as a judge and is issuing an order that clearly goes beyond his jurisdiction (banning the student from any activities in the city is clearly beyond his jurisdiction to govern).

The student in question can not share any residence with any other person and must remain alone in his room (similar to solitary confinement!)

The student in question must regularly attend special guidance classes that will be arranged by Islamic experts in order for him to be stirred back to his faith in Islam.

The student in question furthermore commits not to express any views and opinion regarding Christianity anywhere on the campus of the university, his residence dormitory, and in the city where the university if located.

This document clearly demonstrates the tragic inability of the Islamic Republic in governing its institutions of higher learning and it's very discriminatory and strong bias against minority religions and non-Shiite Muslims. When the term "false religions" is used, one need to ask what constitutes a false religion? The leaders of Islamic Republic often use such vague and misleading terms to divert people's attention from the truth. There is no question that in Iran there is an intentional, and yet unspoken campaign, to discriminate against those who hold other religious views, particularly Christians, in order to pressure them to revert back to their original faith.

If we take time and read the above 5 points, extracted from the document that was presented to the un-named student earlier this year, we will see how utterly inhuman this edict has been and how the most natural and basic rights of every human being, which is their freedom of thought and choice of religious faith, has been consistently violated by this government.

The documents obtained by FCNN can not be published along with this report due to the sensitive nature of its content and the harm it may cause the people in question.

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TAGS: Iran university false religions Iranian universities discrimination Islamic Cultural Center

[07/13/2010]

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