Witness Statement of Sina

May 5, 2022

10 minutes read

Name: Sina*

Place of Birth: Tehran, Iran

Date of Birth: 1991

Occupation: Architect

Interviewing Organization: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC)

Date of Interview: September 4, 2021

Interviewer: IHRDC Staff

This statement was prepared pursuant to an interview through Skype with Mr. Sina. It was approved by Mr. Sina on February 21, 2022. There are 32 paragraphs in the statement.

The views and opinions of the witness expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.

*Pseudonym assigned to protect the witness’s identity.

Statement

Introduction

My Name is Sina.[1] I was born in Tehran in 1991. I was a student [in Iran] and I continued my education in the United States.

School

I was born into a Bahai family. During elementary school, the parvareshi[2] instructor took the students to the mosque for prayers. The mosque was close to our school. My mom learned of this and spoke to [school] administrators and told them that we were not Muslims, and if possible, I should be excused [from going to congregational prayer]. There was an argument over this. The parvareshi instructor tried to get me to go to the mosque any way he could. He said [to my mom] that it was alright if I did not want to pray, but I could go and sit in the mosque and watch the other students as they prayed! He thought that he could encourage me to become a Muslim. He was worried about other students finding out [that I was a Bahai]. During that session I hid myself somewhere so that other students would not realize [that I was not attending the prayer], and this caused me stress.

During high school we had a religious instruction teacher who had spoken with a number of students who were influenced by religious concepts and went to Shia mourning rituals. He had told them that Bahais are najis[3], and that if their hands touched Bahais they should wash their hands and get rid of the ritual uncleanliness. Another teacher had made anti-Bahai remarks in a class in which there was a Bahai student. There were 8 or 9 of us [Bahais] in the school.

During February 11 [celebrations for the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution] some students had made wall posters and put them up on the walls of school corridors. One of the wall posters had anti-Bahai content. It included accusations that appeared offensive to us, the Bahai students in that school. We complained to the vice principal and told him that the contents of the wall poster were incorrect and anti-Bahai, and that if that poster was allowed to remain on the wall, we should also be allowed to post our response and publish our own account. We later learned that the vice principal had ordered that wall poster to be removed. This was a very encouraging development for us.

We tried to take religious holidays and [school officials] were very cooperative. Although there were several of us in the school, the vice principal was always very kind.

University

Bahai students are in a state of hopelessness in the period before the university entrance examination, and particularly during the pre-college year. Most who take the entrance examination are faced with the “incomplete file” problem and their ranks are not released. Therefore, they are deprived of higher education. This is very discouraging for a person who is studying at pre-college.

There are very few students whose ranks are released. I was not sure whether this would happen for me or not. After the entrance examination I was among the few who received their ranks. I was able to select my field of study, and I was admitted to a university in Tabriz.

On registration day, there were four options in the university [registration form] one of which we could use: Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian. I think there was also an empty space, which was for the “other” option. I did not write anything.

Non-Issuance of Student IDs

There was another Bahai student in my university. He was in the same field as I was. They used to issue student ID cards in the first semester. They were issuing the cards on a particular day and the students were supposed to get their cards from the office [issuing them]. When my Bahai friend and I went there they told us that our cards were not ready! It was strange. We insisted, and [the person working there] said that maybe the card has not been pressed and readied, or that it was left in the printing house, and that we should not be worried because it would arrive later that day or the day after. This was alarming to us. Hundreds of students had received their ID cards, and only the cards of the two Bahai students were not ready!

The first semester ended, and the ID cards did not arrive. We took the exams and we passed. The second semester started, and we faced some problems because we did not have student ID cards. One problem was that the guard would not let us into university grounds. We did not have student ID cards, and we had to talk to other students so that they would intervene and [have the guard] let us in. The second problem was that our access to our course website had been limited because the site was accessible by the student ID number on the cards. Therefore, all the grades were on the site, and we could not access them. Third, since we did not have student ID numbers, we did not have assigned seats for the exams. They told us to sit on other seats and take the exams, but then our exams would not be graded because we did not have student ID numbers. Even if they were graded, we did not have access to the website. [This was done] without them telling us anything or giving us a letter. This is how the process of our elimination started.

We spoke with the [university’s undergraduate office]. They told us to speak with the university president. This was in the spring semester of 2010 and [the country was embroiled in the] post-election unrest. The university president was under pressure due to his political leanings, and I believe eventually he had to leave the university.

The two of us got an appointment [from the university president] and spoke with him. First, he was not straightforward with us and said that this was due to administrative issues, and it would be solved. We said that there were Bahai students at the university and had been expelled, and that we faced the same possibility. [We said that] we did not have student IDs or student ID numbers, we could not take exams, and that there was no accountability. [We added that] we had nevertheless not been expelled.

We said that we had not received any letter indicating that we had been expelled and could not continue our education, and that this meant that they were depriving us of education without an official process. When we said that, [the university president] said that he was deeply sorry, and that the students that we had mentioned were among the top students at the university. [He said] that he liked them very much, but that unfortunately there was not anything he could do. [He added that] if he wanted to stand against the process, he would be dismissed and replaced by another university president, and [the new president] would expel us. Therefore, [he added,] there was not anything he could do. This made it clear to us that we could not do anything.

For the reasons I mentioned, we [could not take] our exams and we did not receive our grades. Our grades and our GPA came down. We were completely disappointed. Continuing our education was practically becoming impossible, particularly because we did not have access to the educational website. As a result, I had to abandon my studies.

Starting My Education at the Bahai University

I was studying at the underground Bahai university at the same time. I entered both [universities] in the fall of 2009 because I considered the possibility that I could be expelled. At the end of the second semester when I saw what was going on I did not return to university and pursued [studying] at the Bahai university.

One of the students who was a year ahead of us and had been previously expelled, was imprisoned, probably because of his remarks and interviews with news agencies. Since I was concerned about implications for my security, I did not even try to pursue it. I preferred to study at the Bahai university.

My friend was not studying another major simultaneously, and he was hoping to continue his education [at the public university]. He pursued it for a long time, and he even gave interviews to human rights news agencies.

They told him that they would stop him from entering university grounds, and they did. The guard no longer let him get close to university buildings. I do not think they ever gave him any document indicating that he was expelled. This was in 2010.

After [the events after the election of] 2009, there were a lot of arrests. A number of [Bahai] students were arrested after giving interviews, so I decided not to pursue it.

Restrictions on the Bahai University

In 2011 a large number of professors at the Bahai university were arrested. This disrupted our studies. [Security forces] raided and sealed [Bahai university] buildings. After that we had to study at students’ homes. No class was without stress, and this was true for the entirety of our program.

We were deprived of the most basic university privileges. For instance, in my field of study, we were not authorized to take pictures of public places or visit them, because we did not have official student IDs. We could not access any library. As a result, we had severe limitations with respect to [academic] resources.

Our academic course site was constantly filtered. Some of our professors did not teach due to security concerns, and we had a shortage of professors. Due to the shortage of professors and resources, it took two to three years for a course to become available. We could not take that course, and we could not graduate. For an undergraduate degree that should take four to five years, it could take seven to eight years to finish.

There were all these problems. On the other hand, there was a lot of sacrifice, both from our own professors as well as non-Bahai professors who dedicated time to us. I recall that a number of our professors were arrested. It was very saddening for us to see someone being detained just for dedicating time to help us, as we were deprived of education.

During that period, we used to form good discussion groups. There was a lot of concern among Bahai students. We used to consult about what we had to do. We thought about how we could compensate, and how that system could work. There was [a lot of concern] during that time. Gradually some of the professors retuned, and the university’s structure changed. Security measures increased, and a new website was designed. The situation was normalized a bit, and we were able to continue [our studies].

Graduation

I was about to graduate, and I was waiting for my thesis project. A number of years prior to that I had applied to immigration to the United States through religious asylum via Austria. It was our turn to travel to Austria. University regulations allowed us to finish up to nine credit hours outside Iran and conclude [our program]. I used this provision and sent my thesis from the US and graduated.
Using my transcript from my Bahai university degree I applied to several universities. I came to the East Coast of the United States. Eventually I got admission from a university in 2017 and started my studies.

I immigrated because it was impossible for me to study and work in a free society.

Grandfather’s Imprisonment

My grandfather was among the three-person administrative body in charge of running the Bahai community. He was arrested because of his activity in early years after the revolution.

My grandfather suffered a lot of psychological torture. On several occasions they had falsely told him that he was sentenced to death! At the same time that he was in prison, his brother was imprisoned in another city. [The agents] repeatedly [lied] to my grandfather [and his brother] that they had executed their brother!

His brother who was imprisoned [in another city] had cancer. His situation worsened, and he died in prison. My grandfather was in prison [at the same time]. He was in solitary confinement for a prolonged period, but he spent two years, which was most of his sentence, in the general ward.

The Society’s Reaction

Although our neighbors were religious and traditional, we lived in harmony and with friendship. We did not have any issues with our neighbors.

Over the years and in all my dealings with various people, including friends, acquaintances, neighbors, officials in school and university, and the rest, I have never had a bad personal experience. In fact, that all individuals who I met were good people, but it seems that the problem was with the system. It appears that there is a discriminatory system that is putting pressure on us, and these people turn into agents of this system from time to time, like that university professor with whom I spoke. [He] does not have a problem with me, does not dislike me, and does not consider me a stranger. He even had good memories and spoke highly of the other Bahai students who had been there. He said they were like his kids. But when this very same person is placed into that system, he becomes a tool for implementing discrimination. And Bahais are not the only ones who are deprived [of their rights] by this system.

[1] Pseudonym assigned to protect the identity of the witness.

[2] The term parvareshi refers to a particular program in Iranian schools that focused on ideological indoctrination of students The parvareshi teacher is distinct from the traditional religious instruction teacher, who primarily teaches religious concepts and Islamic law.

[3] The term najis, often translated to “impure” or “ritually unclean,” refers to certain items and persons that are considered to be contaminated under Islamic law. Examples include blood, urine, dogs, pigs, and non-believers.