The secret distance-learning university of Iran

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FREE Documentary – Discussion – Food – Live Music

The Baha’is of Iran are forbidden to study or teach at universities. They responded by organizing a secret distance-learning university.  Some of its students now attend grad school in Canada and the US.

Come and watch with us To Light A Candle a fascinating documentary by the independent Iranian-Canadian journalist and documentary filmmaker Maziar Bahari.

Bahari was working for Newsweek during Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution, when he was arrested and jailed 118 days. To Light a Candle emerged from his exposure to the circumstances of the Baha’i community under the Iranian regime.

Friday, 27 February, 2015

  • 4:30  Live music and refreshments (music provided my Dr. Mora and moi)
  • 5:00  Film
  • 6:00  Discussion with Dr. Monica Sanchez-Flores
  • 6:30  Closing

  • At TRU’s IB 1020

The Iranian regime prevents the Baha’is, the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, from studying and teaching at universities. Professors, fired from their posts, responded by establishing an informal, distance-learning program. Though these degrees are not recognized in Iran, some Canadian universities have accepted students into graduate programs.

As part of its systematic persecution of the Baha’is, the regime has also attacked the educational program, arresting those involved.

Through interviews, secret footage shot by citizen journalists, and rare archival material To Light a Candle shows how a small minority has responded to systematic persecution through non-violent resistance and educating their youth.

Sponsored by TRUFA’s Human Rights Committee, Kamloops Immigrant Society, Baha’i Community of Kamloops

More information on the film and campaign: www.educationisnotacrime.me