Iran stops Baha’is from teaching and studying at universities. But they do teach. And they do study. To learn more about persecution and commitment to learning, come to the Holbrook Public Library to view the free film To Light a Candle at 7 o’clock tonight (Feb. 27).
To Light a Candle chronicles the lives of Baha’is in Iran, who have triumphed against unbelievable hardships and persecution. The Baha’is are a religious minority that are systematically imprisoned, tortured and killed by the Iranian government.
The Islamic regime bans the Baha’is from studying or teaching in Iranian universities. In 1987 the Baha’is started the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education, an underground university with hundreds of students in Iran, and dozens of teachers in Iran and around the world. Through powerful interviews, exclusive secret footage shot by citizen journalists, rare archival materials and letters written by a Baha’i prisoner currently in jail in Iran, To Light a Candle shows how a small minority has defied the brutal systematic religious persecution through non-violent resistance and by educating their youth.
The film is part of an international campaign, Education Is Not a Crime. During this week, the film will be shown around the world. Maziar Bahari is an Iranian Canadian journalist and filmmaker. He has produced a number of documentaries and news reports for BBC, Channel4, HBO Discovery, Canal+ and NHK, and was a reporter for Newsweek from 1998 to 2011. During the 2009 Iranian election protests he was arrested without charge and detained in Evin prison for 118 days. For more information, visit http://educationisnotacrime.me.
