Refugee Naeim Sobhani moved to Utah to attend college because he thought he would be thrown out of school in Iran as some of his friends were because of their Baha’i religion.
“They were trying to find any reason to kick us out of school or class,” said Sobhani, a sophomore in electrical engineering.
Sobhani was raised in Tehran, Iran, until he was 14. He moved with his parents six years ago and spent one-and-a-half years in Turkey, before coming to the United States. In Iran, he was a witness to discrimination against Baha’i members in school and remembers the administration trying to find reasons to expel students who belonged to the religious group.
The Baha’i religion follows the teachings of Baha’u’llah, a man who claimed to be the most recent messenger sent to earth by God. He taught that Abraham, Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad were also messengers from God. The religion is practiced by millions of people around the world.
According to the Baha’i World News Service website, a letter was found in 2006 from Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology that instructed schools to expel Iranian students who were Baha’i.
“In the (United States), refugees have more freedom and are more open to take classes,” Sobhani said.
He relates newfound experiences in America with members of the U’s Baha’i Campus Association that includes three Iranian-born refugees and about five others who have refugee parents, said Lazarina Topuzova, president of the group and doctoral student in social work.
The group helps the refugees explore options they have in the United States, which they might not have had in Iran.
“When most of them come here, their English is not so great and they feel like they need to do a lot more before they go to school, and often — because of their experience in Iran — they don’t know the opportunities they have here,” Topuzova said. “Usually when Baha’i refugees leave Iran, Turkey is the closest country where they have a commission on refugees.”
One of the major ways the Iranian refugees are included in the campus group is through a gathering called the Dawnbreaker Movement, which takes place every Saturday at Westminster College. The meetings include discussion groups and study circles often involving Baha’i writings.
The U and Westminster used to have a combined Baha’i group, but now that more Baha’i students are attending the college, a new group has formed at Westminster.
Both groups participate in the Dawnbreaker Movement.
“We’re trying to create religious tolerance and understanding on campus,” Topuzova said.
Interfaith devotional meetings are held by the group in addition to service projects for the community. The major difference between Baha’i in Iran and in Utah is that they can more openly express their faith in the United States, Sobhani said.
“I’ve traveled a lot and I find that wherever I go in the world and look up Baha’i communities there are a lot of similarities,” she said.
Topuzova, originally from Bulgaria, studied peace and conflict resolution in Europe before coming to Utah. While attending a summer school in Sweden, she met an Iranian Baha’i who had been imprisoned because of his religion.
“I had never met a person who had actually been tortured, and I knew a lot of the history of the faith and persecution going on in Iran,” she said. “He was just thankful to be alive and was still working to build peace and unity and that was really amazing.”
Sobhani’s extended family still lives in Iran. Despite persecution, he isn’t afraid for his family because the country is not in an extreme situation where fatalities would occur, he said.
His family often relays information to him regarding the situation of Baha’i in Iran. He would like to go back to visit, but knows his mother would not be willing to send him because of the current attitude towards Baha’i members in Iran, Sobhani said.
“Hopefully it won’t get worse,” he said.
Teresa GettenElectrical engineering sophomore Naeim Sobhani, an Iranian refugee of the Baha’i faith, left Iran with his family four years ago to study at the U.