Dismay over imprisonment of parents promoting higher education

Dismayed at the treatment meted by the Iranian authorities to her good friend in Iran, Zhinous Poorekhorsandi of Auckland is at a loss to understand how education can be considered a crime. As part of an outrageous effort to block Baha’i youth from higher education, Iranian authorities imprisoned 35 year old Azita Rafizadeh of Karaj for supporting the operations of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education. Internationally respected, BIHE is an informal, volunteer effort developed to meet the educational needs of young Baha'is who have been systematically denied access to higher education by the Iranian government.

“As a mother of two young children, it's hard to imagine the agony that Azita went through. She is a mother herself with a six year old son, Bashir, and she faced a really tough decision. Azita could have easily relinquished her involvement in BIHE and not been jailed. But she truly believes in the right to education for all and stood by her beliefs despite knowing the risk.”

On 25 October, Azita Rafizadeh was called to begin a five-year imprisonment for the 'crime' of supporting an informal initiative to provide young Iranian Baha’is deprived of higher education with the opportunity to study. Mrs. Rafizadeh’s husband, Payman Koushk-Baghi, also wrongly convicted on a similar charge, is currently awaiting imprisonment.

“If and when Payman is summoned, it will deprive Bashir of his parents. It's very disturbing as it's done solely because of my friends' religious beliefs. All they did was try to educate Baha'i youth who were banned from university.” Members of the Baha'i Faith, Iran's largest religious minority, the couple is supported in their stance by international human rights law, which makes it a crime to deprive students of access to higher education, not a crime to provide it.

In May 2014, they were both summoned to appear in court. Mr. Koushk-Baghi was sentenced to five years and Mrs. Rafizadeh to four years imprisonment.

“My biggest hope is that the Iranian government will not summon Payman and that they will release Azita,” says Mrs Poorekhorsandi, who, together with her husband Samir came to New Zealand in 2008 seeking a better life for their family, “One where our children have right to an education.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media