Nature:We Are All Iranians

**nobodynoone** · 02-07-09, 05:50

We are all Iranians

Iran’s endogenous civil-rights movement needs international solidarity, not political meddling.Academics, universities and non-governmental organizations can help.

“Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb-bomb, Iran,” sang John McCain to
the tune of The Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann at a US presidential
campaign event in 2007. McCain, a Republican senator for
Arizona, later insisted he was joking. Yet the spur-of-the-moment
instinct behind the ‘joke’ sums up aptly the tendency of some politicians
both in the West and in Iran to demonize each other’s peoples
as a faceless enemy.
But that kind of demonization has become passé over the past few
weeks, as images of mass protests against Iran’s allegedly fraudulent
presidential election on 12 June have allowed many in the West to see
faces of ordinary Iranians who are far from the crude stereotype. And
many Iranians, although suspicious of the reactions of foreign governments,
have been struck by the worldwide outpouring of empathy for
their quest for fundamental civil liberties and self-determination.
In the past, unfortunately, Western governments and research
organizations have bought into former US president George W. Bush’s
‘axis of evil’ rhetoric by discriminating against Iranian researchers,
denying or delaying visa applications, subjecting them to disproportionate
vetting and showing lacklustre interest in collaborating.
Moreover, the international scientific community has been laggard
and passive in responding to the current situation. But Iranian scientists
say that the solidarity of the international academic and scientific
community is needed now more than ever.
They are quick to caution that the last thing the civil-rights movement
needs is overt or covert support from Western governments. That
would simply play into the Iranian regime’s portrayal of the homegrown
uprising as a foreign-inspired velvet revolution. The consensus
among Iranian researchers is that the only steps that foreign governments
should take are to refuse to recognize Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
as president, and to condemn human-rights violations such as denying
Iranians their constitutional right to freedom of peaceful assembly.
Much more useful, they say, is broader pressure from Western academics,
their institutions and other non-governmental organizations,
which can impartially yet forcefully endorse Iranians’ human rights,
and condemn attacks on Iran’s universities and the detention of Iranian
academics (see Nature doi:10.1038/news.2009.597; 2009).
Non-governmental assistance
Research bodies and universities — and perhaps a few Nobel laureates
— need to speak out louder. They should encourage, rather
than discourage, collaboration, and replace past discrimination by
welcoming Iranian researchers and students.
With the continuing Iranian crackdown on academics, for example,
an exodus of young researchers can be expected. They will need the
kind of assistance being provided by organizations such as the Scholars
at Risk Network based in New York, an international network of
universities and colleges that helps to find work for researchers seeking
political asylum anywhere in the world.

Read the whole article here:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...df/460011a.pdf

**nobodynoone** · 02-07-09, 05:53

Nature is one of the most prominent journals in the field of science.This is quite amazing they include an editorial article regarding a political issue in their recent edition.

02-07-09, 05:50	#1 (permalink)
nobodynoone Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,286 Credits: 129,948 Thanks: 4,018 Thanked 7,789 Times in 2,840 Posts	Nature:We Are All Iranians We are all Iranians *Iran’s endogenous civil-rights movement needs international solidarity, not political meddling.Academics, universities and non-governmental organizations can help.* “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb-bomb, Iran,” sang John McCain to the tune of The Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann at a US presidential campaign event in 2007. McCain, a Republican senator for Arizona, later insisted he was joking. Yet the spur-of-the-moment instinct behind the ‘joke’ sums up aptly the tendency of some politicians both in the West and in Iran to demonize each other’s peoples as a faceless enemy. But that kind of demonization has become passé over the past few weeks, as images of mass protests against Iran’s allegedly fraudulent presidential election on 12 June have allowed many in the West to see faces of ordinary Iranians who are far from the crude stereotype. And many Iranians, although suspicious of the reactions of foreign governments, have been struck by the worldwide outpouring of empathy for their quest for fundamental civil liberties and self-determination. In the past, unfortunately, Western governments and research organizations have bought into former US president George W. Bush’s ‘axis of evil’ rhetoric by discriminating against Iranian researchers, denying or delaying visa applications, subjecting them to disproportionate vetting and showing lacklustre interest in collaborating. Moreover, the international scientific community has been laggard and passive in responding to the current situation. But Iranian scientists say that the solidarity of the international academic and scientific community is needed now more than ever. They are quick to caution that the last thing the civil-rights movement needs is overt or covert support from Western governments. That would simply play into the Iranian regime’s portrayal of the homegrown uprising as a foreign-inspired velvet revolution. The consensus among Iranian researchers is that the only steps that foreign governments should take are to refuse to recognize Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, and to condemn human-rights violations such as denying Iranians their constitutional right to freedom of peaceful assembly. Much more useful, they say, is broader pressure from Western academics, their institutions and other non-governmental organizations, which can impartially yet forcefully endorse Iranians’ human rights, and condemn attacks on Iran’s universities and the detention of Iranian academics (see Nature doi:10.1038/news.2009.597; 2009). Non-governmental assistance Research bodies and universities — and perhaps a few Nobel laureates — need to speak out louder. They should encourage, rather than discourage, collaboration, and replace past discrimination by welcoming Iranian researchers and students. With the continuing Iranian crackdown on academics, for example, an exodus of young researchers can be expected. They will need the kind of assistance being provided by organizations such as the Scholars at Risk Network based in New York, an international network of universities and colleges that helps to find work for researchers seeking political asylum anywhere in the world. Read the whole article here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...df/460011a.pdf

02-07-09, 05:53	#2 (permalink)
nobodynoone Staff Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,286 Credits: 129,948 Thanks: 4,018 Thanked 7,789 Times in 2,840 Posts	Nature is one of the most prominent journals in the field of science.This is quite amazing they include an editorial article regarding a political issue in their recent edition. __________________

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