The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights » Comics

Our comic for Baha’i rights in Egypt featured in Arab Women’s Magazine

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:46:48 +0000

Al Hansaa magazine, a monthly Arabic magazine targeting modern Arab women, conducted an interview where our work on BahaiRights.org has been featured. They have also published our cartoon concerning the Baha’i minority in Egypt:

Iranian authorities to Baha’i students: Scrap your dreams

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:57:38 +0000

Every year, millions of students worldwide prepare excitedly for a new academic year - a journey that will equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to become active and productive citizens. But instead of worrying about homework, pop-up quizzes and detention, Baha’i students in Iran worry about being admitted to academic institutions in the first place.

Iranian authorities constantly deny that they discriminate against Baha’i students, citing a recent policy change that allowed students to enrol in universities for the first time in almost 3 decades. Although students were no longer forced to declare their religious affiliation when applying for the national university entrance examination, a memo revealed last year exposed their hypocrisy. The memo, sent from Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, instructed all institutions to expel any student discovered to be a Baha’i.

Over the past two years a new tactic was employed: namely, denying Baha’i students admission by alleging their files are incomplete. Last year, almost 800 (of over 1,000) students had their dreams shattered this way. But this year, when trying to login to the national university examination website, Baha’i students were redirected to: http://82.99.202.139/karsarasari/87/index.php?msg=error_bah

Whether the Iranian authorities were caught in the folly of their ways, or “error_bah” was intentional is a tough call. But should the authorities want to upgrade their message for the next academic year, we have a fitting suggestion:

We have a handy response for them to use, should they run out of excuses: “How can we be accused of denying Baha’is access to education when we do not recognize their existence? The accusations are baseless!”

Re-defining “Official”

Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:03:04 +0000

Several days ago, “Egyptian Baha’i” brought the world’s attention to the distressing story of Noor and Hannah, two little girls who were denied their right to an education for no other reason than their being Baha’is. While reporting on the story, we were struck by not only the Egyptian government’s reluctance to abide by its own law and guarantee all its citizens are treated equally regardless of gender, race or religious affiliation.

What struck us was the sheer absurdity of what the government considers to be an “Official Document”.

Click for larger image.