denied professions in the public sector due to the requirements that stemmed from the gozinesh.14 15 Members of the Baha’i faith have been reportedly barred from employment in the public sector.16 The official policy of the Iranian government against Bahá’í citizens is summarized in a government memorandum17 obtained in 1993 by the UN Special Representative on the Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Produced in 1991 by Iran’s Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and approved by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, this document, entitled ‘The Bahá’í Question’, sets forth specific guidelines for dealing with the Bahá’ís. It states that “[t]he government’s dealings with [Bahá’ís] must be in such a way that their progress and development are blocked”. It outlines a series of measures that effectively restrict the educational, economic, and cultural opportunities for Iranian Bahá’ís. Although the Government affirmed that the Baha’is had not been singled out for discrimination,18 the document remains in force today. On 29 August 1983, the Iranian Attorney General announced a legal ban on all Bahá’í administrative and community activities in Iran, making membership of Bahá’í administrative institutions a criminal offence. 19 On 26 March 2018, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued, via his website, a new religious decree (fatwa) concerning “association and dealing with Baha’ís”. He stated that, “[y]ou should avoid any association and dealings with this perverse and misguided sect.”20 During its last Universal Periodic Review session, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran affirmed that minorities were free to choose their schools.21 However, following a new initiative by the Ministry of Education entitled Project Mehr, the Minister of Education Mohsen Haji-Mirzaei announced on September 11th, 2019 that “If students say that they follow a faith other than the country’s official religions and this is seen as proselytising, they cannot continue attending school”.22 The project would give schools increased authority to deny education to students who belong to religious minorities. In July 2020, a school reportedly expelled a secondary school student after the student mentioned that he was a member of the Baha’i faith.23 14 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 18 July 2019, https://undocs.org/A/74/188 15 Center for Human Rights in Iran, www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/05/most-yarsani-religious-minority-candidates-disqualifiedfrom-irans-2017-councils-elections/ 16 Baha’i International Community, Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Iran, 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/WG.6/34/IRN/3 17 HRANA: <https://www.en-hrana.org/category/religious-minorities > 18 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 18 July 2019, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N19/222/62/PDF/N1922262.pdf?OpenElement 19 Bahá’í International Community: <https://www.bic.org/sites/default/files/pdf/iran/the_bahais_of_iran__a_persecuted_community.pdf > 20 Baha’i International Community, https://www.bic.org/sites/default/files/pdf/iran/the_bahais_of_iran__a_persecuted_community.pdf 21 Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review Islamic Republic of Iran, 27 December 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/43/12 22 Iran Wire, 2019, https://iranwire.com/en/features/6303 23 Center for Human Rights in Iran, 2020, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2020/07/bahai-youth-expelled-from-secondaryschool-for-gifted-students-solely-due-to-his-faith/ 3