Madame Special Rapporteur, 

Imagine living in a country where a teenager, with all the hopes and anticipation of a youth is told you cannot go to university because of your beliefs. 

This is exactly what happens in Iran. 

Baha’is, the largest religious minority in the country, are banned from university because of their faith. Their history and teachings are grotesquely distorted in school textbooks, students are punished if they speak up in defense of their faith.  

Last year, Iran even forced Baha’is to sign a mandatory declaration form, making them choose between the principles of their faith and going to university. In 2020, a government policy document asked that Baha’is be “rigorously controlled” and that “efforts be made to identify Baha’i students”. Two other documents in 1991 and 2006 still set the Iran’s policy on the Baha’is, explicitly stating that “Baha’is should be expelled from university.”

In February, agents raided a home where a group of young Baha’is had gathered to informally study together, beating the youth and arresting them. 

Madame Special Rapporteur, 

Is this not cultural apartheid, indeed cultural cleansing against an entire population only for their beliefs? This repugnant policy that excludes Iran’s young citizens from higher education because of their faith, preventing them from following their dreams and aspirations, should be rescinded. 

We ask you to strongly condemn Iran’s blatant abuses of human rights and request that Baha’i youth be allowed to enter university immediately.