Despite passing the nationwide university entrance exam known as Konkour, the Education Ministry of Islamic republic of Iran has reportedly banned 45 Baha'is to study in universities across the country.
“After announcing the result of the exam, though my friends and I passed, we were not allowed to choose our field of study because it was written on the website that our documents are not completed,” a Baha’i student told Avatoday on condition of anonymity, adding that the number of Baha'i students banned from university this year reached 45 people.
The source said that when they visited The National Organization for Higher-Education Tests, they were told to convert to Islam first, in order to get the permission to study.
“when we visited the organization in Karaj one of the officials, who was more like an interrogator than an education employee, asked us to fill out a form that indicates we will not obey our Baha’i leader,” the student said.
Bahaism is the second-largest religion in Iran which they are not included as a religious minority in the Iranian constitution.
He added that all the Baha'i students were “promised to be allowed in universities if they sign the commitment.”
“After we refused to sign the letter, the organization told us that ‘you are Baha'is and no Baha’i can study in university.”
Kian, also a Baha’i student who has been banned to study in university wrote in his Twitter account that all the members of his family have been deprived from studying in universities in the past years.
“My father was banned from studying medicine, my mother banned from studying dentistry, and I was not allowed to study civil engineering because we are Baha’is,” Kian said. “And now they banned my younger sister and brother.”
Baha’is are oppressed systematically by the Shia regime of Islamic Republic since they took power in 1979.
