Members of Carleton’s Bahá’í group gathered for a bite after a full day of fasting ( Photo Provided )
Beginning March 2, Bahá’í followers worldwide are fasting, in a lead-up to the Bahá’í New Year on March 21.
Among these followers are university students, many of whom are involved with campus Bahá’í associations.
“Bahá’í is the youngest of the world’s independent religions,” explained Negar Honarmandan from the external affairs department of the Bahai National Centre. Followers believe in one God who progressively reveals his will to humanity and believe the most recent of God’s messengers is Bahá’u’lláh, who was born in 1817.
Individuals of various races and ethnicities practice the religion in over 200 countries. There are about 30,000 followers in Canada and most Canadian universities have a student association devoted to the faith.
Honarmandan said followers must rely on their own initiative to follow the faith. “Nobody’s there to check up on . . . we don’t have clergy or priests. There’s no such thing as confession because it’s your own relationship with God – it’s in your own conscience.”
This makes Bahá’í student associations so important because it brings Bahá’í students together and offers them a supportive community.
Fourth-year environmental sciences student Samuel Benoit is external secretary of Carleton’s Association for Baha’i Studies, a group that teaches about the Bahá’í religion by sponsoring activities such as lectures, conferences and informal gatherings and distributing literature on the Bahá’í faith.
“I can’t say that it’s very difficult at all [to practice Bahá’í while in university],” Benoit said. “Bahá’ís place a very, very high value on higher education so I think many of us are just grateful to be at university and to be engaging in dialogue and studying arts and sciences.”
“Bahá’u’lláh described education as being a process of mining gems,” Benoit explained. “We see education as uncovering what’s already there, so by imparting skills and knowledge it gives people the capacity to fill their potential.”
Once Bahá’ís reach the age of 15, they are required to perform an obligatory prayer each day. Although there is no place on the Carleton campus reserved for this, Benoit does not have a problem pulling out his compass, facing northeast (towards where Bahá’u’lláh is buried) and saying a quiet prayer on campus.
Benoit said there are three types of obligatory prayers: long, medium and short. The long prayer involves motions similar to a Muslim prayer whereas the short prayer simply involves reciting a short verse.
“Frankly, I just do the short prayer,” Benoit said. “There’s no hierarchy. There’s no concept of one being better than the other.”
Bahá’í followers acknowledge a handful of holy days throughout the year during which they are not permitted to work or go to school. These dates are recognized by Carleton’s equity services and Benoit finds the professors very accommodating.
Besides teaching the Bahá’í faith, the Association of Bahá’í Studies is currently working to raise awareness of the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.
“We’re particularly interested, as an association, in the denial of access to higher education,” Benoit said. “For more than 30 years, pretty much since the Islamic revolution, the community there has been denied access to higher education and that has had a devastating effect.”
Apart from raising awareness of the issue, the association is encouraging people to write letters of protest to organizations such as the United Nations.