At the same time as nationwide entrance exam candidates logged into the website of the National Organization for Educational Testing to view their scores and select their majors, hundreds of Baha’i students encountered a “disqualification” message and were prevented from choosing their fields of study. According to officials, this decision was enforced by order of the Ministry of Intelligence.
On Wednesday, September 10, Amirkabir Newsletter reported that officials of the National Organization for Educational Testing, in response to protests by Baha’i citizens, denied responsibility and said the decision had been made by the Ministry of Intelligence and communicated to them.
This professional association described the Ministry of Intelligence as the body that considers Baha’i education a “threat to national security.”
Officials of the testing organization said that, as in the past, the Ministry of Intelligence believes Baha’i access to universities endangers national security.
The structural exclusion of Baha’is from higher education has persisted since the clerical regime came to power. A 2024 Human Rights Watch report labeled this repression a “crime against humanity through persecution and harassment” and detailed systematic prevention of university entry, expulsions of Baha’i students, and administrative discrimination.
UN human rights rapporteurs on Iran have repeatedly condemned the Iranian regime’s persecution of Baha’is, especially its denial of education to Baha’i students, calling these actions a clear example of Tehran’s disregard for international human rights treaties.
The state-run Amirkabir Newsletter added that this deprivation has been imposed despite Article 30 of the constitution, which obligates the government to provide free education until the end of high school and to expand free higher education for everyone. However, it wrote that for Baha’i citizens this guarantee has been “reduced to nothing more than words on paper.”
The association added that while Baha’is pay taxes like other citizens, they are deprived of fundamental rights such as education, employment in many professions, and even the right to bury their dead in public cemeteries.
The Amirkabir Newsletter concluded by stressing that depriving Baha’is of education is not an “exception” or an isolated error but rather part of the Iranian regime’s “structural policy of discrimination” against this community.
Since 2006, Baha’is in Iran have faced a recurring scheme after the release of entrance exam results: labels such as “incomplete file” or “lack of general qualifications” have been used as tools to block them from continuing higher education.
The Baha’is, the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran, have faced systematic repression since the 1979 revolution. Over the past year, pressure from security and judicial institutions on them has intensified.
According to unofficial sources, Iran’s Baha’i population is estimated at over 300,000. However, the Iranian regime’s constitution only recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism as official religions.
