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    Growing up with discrimination as a Baha’i in Iran

    GROSSMONT COLLEGE–My faith is Baha’i, a minority religion in Iran. Because of my religion, most of my teachers in Iran singled me out, and treated me differently and unkindly

    The exceptional teachers just came and taught, unconcerned with my religion. But most of my teachers went out of their way to scrutinize me with a social- and educational-magnifying-glass, trying to find reasons to remove me from class and send me to the school’s office to be reprimanded.

    Once, in my second year of high school, my classmates told my teacher that I was cheating on a test. The teacher did not even let me say anything; she just yelled at me, called me names, and said, “You are Baha’i, and I don’t want to listen to you,” and, “you Baha’i people are liars,” and, “your religion is a lie!

    The teacher often made a spectacle out of me. Once, she ordered me to stand up in the front corner of the room. According to her, I had been “disrespectful,” and was, “acting bored,” because I had rested my chin on my hand. My punishment was the same as if I had broken a rule or was getting bad grades. Kids laughed and I felt unhappy for the rest of the class, and the rest of the day.

    When I was 9-years-old, in Tehran, most of my classmates did not know that I was Bahai. I told one classmate, then she told her mom, then her mom came to school and demanded that I not talk to her daughter.

    After that, the principal of my school told me that I cannot mention my religion to anyone at school, and that I have to keep it a secret. But after the one girl’s mother knew, then the entire school knew. As far as I knew, I was the only Baha’i person in the school.

    After my father moved our family to a new city for a new job, I went to a new school. I was 11-years-old. There, my Muslim classmates did not know that I was Baha’i; one time, they gossiped together, with me present, saying how Baha’i people have “crooked legs” and are “untouchable.”

    For the first two years after my family moved to the new city, many kids and adults would spit in my path, as I walked–this happened before, during and after school, and throughout my city. After a while, my family gained the respect of most of our neighbors, enough to at least not have them spit at us as we walked, many were even nice to us.

    A big improvement from my life in Iran to my life in the United States is that, now, I have religious freedom, and am treated with more respect generally. Also, I can go to college! (In Iran, only Muslims can go to University.)

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    Born in Iran’s capital city of Tehran, Badiei is a Grossmont student, aimed at a career in medicine. Following is a translation of this story into Farsi, the author’s native language.

    *

    Badiei is a student at Grossmont College who contributes articles to the GC Summit

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