Are Iranian scientists that different from European scientists?
by Stan van Seggelen
For many Europeans, Iran is quite an elusive country with quite some stereotypes. It is burdened by sanctions from a number of neighboring countries as well as the USA and the EU. This is due to a past in war and their nuclear program. All of this combined, led to a general distrust of a number of governments and companies in the intents of Iranian scientists who travel abroad.
Azin Khodaei is one of these scientists. She came to the Netherlands as a guest PhD and is currently a senior researcher at the UMCU. Fortunately for her, it was not difficult to travel to the Netherlands and work as a researcher since she could arrange everything through the Dutch embassy in Tehran.
However, she explained that it was not that easy everywhere. Azin and a number of her peers tried to obtain a position at an Australian university as well. However, after very lengthy procedures, none of them were able to obtain a visa. Similarly, traveling to the USA proved to be quite difficult. Even though she could not confirm whether this was the case due to their nationality, it is clear that traveling abroad for your studies is not always as easy for Iranian students. In addition, it is near impossible for Iranian scientists to get hired by a number of companies. Likely, because they are afraid that these students will leak sensitive information to the Iranian government.
Culturally we are all different, but also good friends.
Even though the politics may influence the Europeans’ view on Iran, Azin explains that the differences between the people may be a lot smaller than we think. Unfortunately, a lot of good scientists from Iran will have a hard time entering quite some countries. However, Azin is planning on staying in Europe to continue working in academia to help people and collaborating with many others across the world. ‘Culturally we are all different, but also good friends.’ Perhaps she, and other good Iranian scientists can inspire hesitant governments to embrace their knowledge and experience to help improve our lives.