Rafsanjani: Iran Election Fallout 'A Tangled Mess'
BALDWIN: A Muslim doctoral student at Georgia State University said she was discriminated against for wearing a head scarf and then punished for speaking up. But now, she wants justice from a court in Georgia along with the college professor who, by the way, is also the head of the Middle East Institute. She actually quit her job over this whole issue.</s>SELMA SHELBAYAH, FMR. GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I feel like they're very angry at me.</s>BALDWIN (on camera): Because why?</s>SHELBAYAH: Because I complained and stood up for myself.</s>BALDWIN: Ever since she was 16, Selma Shelbayah has worn her hijab, a symbol of modesty in Islam. Not once, she says, has anyone ever discriminated against her appearance until this school year, when she says, her communications professor made a comment about her head scarf.</s>SHELBAYAH: She turns back to me and looks at my scarf, and I kind of had it back, maybe a little further back so you could see my bun, this is my hair, and she, you know, points to it and she said, "What is that a bomb?"</s>BALDWIN: According to the doctoral student, that was first of several comments Dr. Mary Stuckey made. Other comments she alleges in the complaint she filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission include, "What you have under there, bombs?" "Are you carrying any bombs on you today?" "By the way, don't worry that's the headdress not a bomb."</s>SHELBAYAH: So much of my work was given to Georgia State. It hurts that they didn't think twice before retaliated against me.</s>BALDWIN: Shelbayah says her professor did eventually apologize, but then -- as she calls it -- the retaliation began. She was told she could not continue on at GSU as both a doctoral student and a visiting instructor. And she was stripped of her title as director of a study abroad program.</s>DONA STEWART, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Total, total shock.</s>BALDWIN: Dona Stewart was the director of Georgia State's Middle East Institute until this week, and these allegations of discrimination.</s>STEWART: The way in which the college retaliated in the aftermath has sent a very clear signal around the university that if you're a faculty member or if you're in a position of power, it's OK to discriminate. For me, this is not necessarily a Muslim issue. It's a civil rights issue.</s>BALDWIN: In an e-mail to CNN, Dr. Mary Stuckey, said, quote, "I have to refer all inquiries to the university." The university released this statement, quote, "The student's complaint against Professor Stuckey was addressed using university procedure and appropriate action was taken in September of 2008. It was Dona Stewart's decision to resign as director of Middle East Institute. While she has resigned as director, Dr. Stewart is still an employee of Georgia State University, and was recently promoted to full professor with the dean's support. In no way was retaliation taken against Professor Stewart nor the student as a result of the complaint." As for Shelbayah, she says she is seeking justice. Right now, she finds comfort in family, colleagues and student support.</s>SHELBAYAH: We love you and are behind you.</s>BALDWIN: Someone told me she has just recently decided to leave Georgia State.</s>HOLMES: And we got some new development on Iran to tell you about this morning. Josh Levs is going to checking on -- out things at our international desk this morning. Good morning to you, Josh.</s>JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hey, good morning to you, guys. We have some news. It's a critical statement now by an agency that is the backbone of Iran's religious establishment. We also have news from Britain on whether its embassy employees are being released.</s>HOLMES: And we got a statement this morning from an influential religious group in Iran, disputing the election results.</s>BALDWIN: Josh Levs on top of that story. Josh, what do you have?</s>LEVS: Yes, it's really interesting. Let me actually just go straight to the quote. This is by a very -- as you said -- very influential religious agency inside Iran. Keep in mind, we're talking about an Islamic republic and this is Qom. And this agency, you can see there, Association of Teachers and Researchers at the Qom Seminary School. It's thought of as really the backbone of religious establishment in Iran and they are slamming election results. This is part of their quote. "It's astonishing that an election, in plain sight of all, extensively used public funds in order to promote one of the candidates and employed government power to bring in votes." And I got another quote for you here where they talked about government actions since the election. They say, "In a militarized security environment, they dragged the voice of people through violence, who were only demanding their rights, peacefully." Now, the Iranian government, including the Guardian Council, has insisted that the elections were legitimate, that they checked on it. But this agency, including these religious authorities, have now come out in the opposite side, that will certainly have repercussions throughout the country, guys.</s>BALDWIN: Josh, what about, you know, there were the two British embassy employees detained ...</s>LEVS: Right.</s>BALDWIN: ... by Iranian authorities. There's news about one of them this morning.</s>LEVS: That's right. We do have some new news about one of them this morning. As you know, there's originally a group of them, several of them have been released and now, there's been some conversations about what's going to happen with the two. Well, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was on a program on the BBC and he said this.</s>DAVID MILIBAND, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: I spoke to our ambassador on a daily call last night and the good news is that he was told by the deputy foreign minister that the eighth person would indeed be released today, and that the papers have been signed, that there would not be a court process or charges. That leaves one more in custody and all of our efforts are now directed towards getting that person out.</s>LEVS: He also went on to say -- and I'm going to use his quote -- "There will be consequences if Iran mistreats the one who remains in custody." So, there are still some questions ahead about whether there will be a trial or will not be a trial, what will happen to all those who have been arrested. Clearly, a lot of people focusing on that. And you can get that latest details right here. It's on Iran election fallout page. All you got to do is click on Iran at the very top of CNN.com. We have the latest information about everything going on inside Iran right there for you. There you go, guys.</s>HOLMES: All right, Josh, we appreciate you this morning. Thank you so much.</s>BALDWIN: Thank you.</s>HOLMES: Also, to our viewers, we're keeping an eye on a major story this morning breaking out of Orlando, Disneyworld, where at least one person has been killed in a monorail accident. That one person, we understand, how Disney phrases it is a cast member. But that person was driving, was the operator of one of those monorails. No word yet on just how many people on board on those monorails when they collided. And also, no word on any other injuries to guests their at Disneyworld. But this is one of the first pictures we are getting in coming to us from one of our iReporters. We are on top of this story, getting the latest for you. Stay with us here on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING.