Sixty-six scholars and academic specialists in the fields of Middle Eastern and Iranian studies, most of them from the United States and Canada, have signed a petition calling on the Islamic Republic of Iran to put an end to human rights abuses against Baha’is in Iran and give the Baha’is their “full civil rights and freedoms” as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other agreements “to which Iran is a signatory.”

The petition notes that abuses “have been greatly escalating in recent months” and cites arbitrary arrests, attacks on Baha’i homes, denial of access to education, campaigns of intimidation, economic strangulation of the Baha’i community, and desecration of Baha’i cemeteries.

Persian-language media have printed it, and the BBC has published an article on its Persian-language Web site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2009/03/090311_op_bahais_scholars.shtml.