Saturday September 15, 2012

BRATTLEBORO -- The International Day of Peace, also known as World Peace Day, is a global initiative to promote awareness of how individuals and groups can work for peace. Originally established by the United Nations in 1981, it was permanently adopted as an annual celebration on Sept. 21, 2002.

Brattleboro area Baha’is, along with other groups around the globe, will gather to celebrate The International Day of Peace on Friday, Sept. 21. The Brattleboro Baha’i Center, at 148 Elliot St., will be open from noon to 1 p.m. People are invited to join with them to pray for peace and human rights, environmental sustainability, disarmament, unity, economic justice, universal education, health care for all, and gender equality. The International Day of Peace is also an opportunity to make peace in one’s personal relationships.

Baha’is are especially concerned about violations of human rights in Iran where minority religious groups are subject to systematic discrimination and active persecution. Baha’is, in particular, are denied the right to engage in peaceful assembly, to pursue higher education, and even to have their marriages recognized. Their cemeteries are desecrated. They, and especially their leaders, are subject to long prison sentences on trumped up charges.

At 7 p.m. there will be a screening of the short film, "Education Under Fire." This film describes the denial of higher education to

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Baha’i students in Iran. It illustrates how the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education, an alternative educational program operated by Baha’i educators, responded to provide this education. In 2011, after constant hardship and threat, and after repeated raids and harassment, the Iranian government shut the BIHE down. All materials and equipment were confiscated, and volunteer teachers were imprisoned. This egregious policy of religious discrimination, cynically designed to destroy the futures of Baha’i students and the capacity of the Iranian Baha’i community, illustrates one kind of roadblock toward achieving a peaceful world Because education is a right, not a crime, Baha’is are asking, as world citizens, for all to join them in their prayers for peace, and to support efforts to reestablish Iranian Baha’i students’ right to higher education.

The program is sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Brattleboro. For more information about the Baha’i Faith, visit the national website at www.bahai.us or call 802-254-2115.