Despite passing the 2019 university admission test, 16 female Baha’i students have been banned from higher education due to their faith.
The Evaluation Organization claims to have detected deficiencies in the records of Baha’i students to ban them from continuing their education, an excuse used since 2006 to deprive Baha’i students from college education.
The names of 16 female Baha’i students have been so far announced. These female Baha’i students have passed the university admission test, some with distinguished grades, but they cannot register in Iranian universities to study in majors of their choice. The 16 female Baha’i students are: Tara Ehsan, Mahsa Forouhari, Shileen Aghili, and Rojin Kassiri from Karaj; Shamim Ildekhani from Ardabil; Mahtab Khadem from Tehran; Armaghan Enayati from Semnan; Negar Ighani and Tarannom Kamali from Shiraz; Rojan Ehsani from Kashan; Ghazal Allahverdi Gorji from Sari; Dorsa Mostafavi from Tehran; Nouriyeh Ferdowsian from Isfahan; Negin Foroughi; Sholeh Movaffaghi from Sari, a Math and Physics major; and Aylar Roshan Nahar who passed the exam ranking 107.
A large number of Baha’i students, including female students, were also deprived last year from continuing their education because of their faith, despite passing the test and some with top ranks. The NCRI Women’s Committee compiled and announced the names of more than 50 young Baha’i women.
According to the information compiled by the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, at least 23 Baha’i women were deprived of pursuing higher studies in 2017. The actual numbers are much higher.
In another development, a Baha’i woman residing in Ahvaz, capital of the southwestern Khuzestan Province, has been sentenced to one year in jail by the Revision Court of Khuzestan Province. The woman identified as Mitra Badrnejad had been arrested on March 3, 2018, and temporarily released on bail. She was subsequently sentenced to five years in 2018.