Akriti Jain, who writes for Imprint Online, the official student newspaper of Waterloo students in Canada, shares an op-ed about the case of Baha’is within Iran:

Excerpts:

The lecture, given by Gerald Filson, director of external affairs of the Baha’is of Canada, was about the denial of education to people of the Baha’i faith in Iran. It was a short talk — more like an information session, that highlighted the plight of the Iranian Baha’is.

[…]

While listening to the lecture, many things went through my mind. The Baha’is form the largest minority group in Iran with a population of 300,000. In Canadian terms it would mean the population of several cities put together. Over the four-year course of the Iraq war, roughly 400,000 people have died, in addition to the millions who have been displaced.The death toll is even more obscene when you take a look at the genocide in Sudan. Zimbabwe is facing a staggering economic crisis that, to put it mildly, has ruined the lives of many many Zimbabweans. India, my very own homeland, a country of 1 billion, has over 20 per cent of its population — 220 million people living — below the international poverty line. Apply Canadian poverty standards to India and the figures would be purely grotesque. If only 300,000 people were faced with societal and governmental oppression leading to unnatural deaths, it would be a remarkably good year.

So why shouldn’t I do something about one of those bigger and seemingly more important issues. But what can I alone do?

We all can do something about this issue and we all should. As the article concludes:

Well, it turns out I can write a letter. According to Mr. Gerald Filson a letter is all it takes, postcards will also do. He argues that even though there has been blatant and unjust oppression of the Baha’is, it could have been worse. Over the past 25 years, the concern expressed by the UN and the news media has been the only armour of the Iranian Baha’is.

[…]

So write a letter to the Iranian government or somebody you think will be able to do something about this, pass a resolution during student council meetings condemning these acts or get ‘Baha’is ROCK’ tattooed on your foreheads — because every small action makes a difference.

Great article for a great cause.