September 25. On this date in 2011, the NSA of the US was "pleased to announce the launching of a new nationwide initiative aimed at furthering the defense of Iran’s Bahá'ís, with a particular focus on the embattled Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education."

 

September 25. On this date in 2011, the NSA of the US was "pleased to announce the launching of a new nationwide initiative aimed at furthering the defense of Iran’s Bahá'ís, with a particular focus on the embattled Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education."

September 25, 2011

To the American Bahá'í community

Dearly loved Friends,

The National Spiritual Assembly is pleased to announce the launching of a new nationwide initiative aimed at furthering the defense of Iran’s Bahá'ís, with a particular focus on the embattled Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education.

Entitled "Education Under Fire," the initiative will include a striking 30-minute documentary to be copresented with Amnesty International; an open letter to the international academic community coauthored by Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jose Ramos Horta, President of East Timor, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and a campaign to take—to campuses and communities across the country—a series of meetings combining a screening of the documentary with conversation.

The well-known online journal The Huffington Post will feature a front-page story on the initiative and “exclusive release” of the Nobel laureates’ open letter on Monday, September 26. The letter will then reside —together with various supplementary campaign materials—on a website of its own (at www.educationunderfire.com). A premiere screening of the documentary at Columbia University in New York has been scheduled for late October, with major screenings to follow in Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Additional screenings of the documentary across the country will be organized thereafter; meanwhile, both a trailer for the film and other promotional tools are available on the website.

We ask that you share this news at the upcoming Feast of Mashíyyat, and that the friends do all they can to bring the article in The Huffington Post and the new website to the attention of their friends, neighbors, coworkers, and contacts. Let us once again show—to a superlative degree—our solidarity with our greatly wronged sisters and brothers in the Cradle of the Faith.

With loving Bahá'í greetings,

Kenneth E. Bowers

Secretary

National Spiritual Assembly of the

Bahá'ís of the United States