User talk:Goldasht kelardasht

Muslim students protest Baha’i expelled from Iranian university

26 Muslim students at Goldasht College in Kelardasht, Mazandaran, refused to take their first-term final examinations in protest of the expulsion of a fellow classmate because he is a Baha’i.

The following is an account demonstrating welcome support by Iranian, Muslim citizens for a fellow Baha’i citizen:

Mr. Ameed Saadat, an Iranian Baha’i, participated in Iran’s 2008 national university entrance examination and was accepted to study hotel management at Goldasht College in Kelardasht, Mazandaran, which is affiliated with the University of Applied Science and Technology in Tehran. He was able to begin studies, notwithstanding he had identified himself as a Baha’i on the college registration forms, which request ed the student’s religion. In the following weeks, he was told several times to change the information regarding his religion, which he declined to do. The day before his first-term final examinations were to begin, Mr. Saadat was informed by the director of the college that he was being expelled and would therefore not be permitted to sit for the examinations.

When Mr. Saadat’s fellow students asked why he had not been assigned a seat for the tests, they were told by a college official that Mr. Saadat had been dismissed on account of morality issues. However, when Mr. Saadat asked the official what precisely was his “moral problem,” the official responded by raising the issue of his religion and asked whether Mr. Saadat wanted the other students to be informed that his expulsion was to be on account of his adherence to the Baha’i Faith.

Mr. Saadat agreed, and when the announcement was made to his class of some 50 students, most of them objected, asking, “What does religion have to do with education?” The following day, 26 students refused to take the examination in protest against Mr. Saadat’s expulsion. Three of these students were then summoned by the Ministry of Information and questioned as to who had instigated the strike. They reported that they had informed the Information Ministry agents that the decision to protest had been of their own personal choices and that Mr. Saadat had in fact asked them not to take this action.

In his final contact with the college, Mr. Saadat was told by officials, “Your education has been terminated, and you can come and get your records. That is, your education has been nullified.”

“Iranian society rightfully places a high value on education, and the government’s debarring of Baha’is from universities clearly aims not only to diminish the future prospects of these young people but also to demoralize them and their families” said Ms. Kit Bigelow, Director of External Affairs for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S. “It is therefore extremely encouraging to the Baha’is when, in incidents such as the one outlined above, their compatriots–often at considerable risk to themselves–take a firm stand against the deplorable behavior of the authorities.” http://iran.bahai.us/2008/12/01/muslim-students-protest-baha’i-expelled-from-iranian-university/