Друзья, буду благодарен вам за репост моего письма. У человечества нет будущего, если оно позволит богатым и сильным "вычёркивать" целые страны.
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ABOUT IRAN AND ATTEMPTS TO ISOLATE IT
There is probably no country more misunderstood than Iran. The typical image painted by mainstream media - that of an aggressive and underdeveloped country full of uneducated religious fanatics, - falls apart at the first encounter with Iran or Iranians. By this article I appeal to the international scientific community to be maximally inclusive of Iranian scientists and not to support the international bullying of a country with one of the highest levels of education and ancient and deep culture.
I have been blessed by having a number of students from Iran – first, when I was a Professor in the US (at Stony Brook) and then in Russia (at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology). All of these students had excellent education from various universities in Iran and excelled in their research. History being my hobby, I always wanted to travel to Iran – before it is bombed and looted in the name of democracy as Iraq, Syria and to some extent Egypt were. I managed to make two trips there (in one of which I brought my whole family and co-organized a workshop). I gave lectures at several universities and travelled through half of that large country. Preparing for these trips, I read several books about Iran. Let me share some sketches that stay vividly in my memory.
Picture a workshop where more than half of the audience are women, and you quickly realize their very high level of education. Some of them are PhD students, some are professors. Statistics say that 30% of professors in Iran are women – by virtue of culture of equality, without enforcing any quotas or affirmative action. There are women ministers in the government, too. Looking at Iranian law, one gets the impression of very strong women’s rights – I know that many people will be infuriated by this statement, but I invite them to read Iranian law. It is True that women, including non-Muslim, are forced by law to wear headdress – and the recent case of one woman being killed for not wearing a hijab is truly appalling (but think of George Floyd killed by US police before judging).
Picture a table where three excellent physics professors sit and talk politics, while having lunch. One is strongly against the government. One is strongly pro-government. One is apolitical. Their discussion is very gentle and friendly. They are in fact friends. Have you seen such level of free and yet friendly discussions in your academic community – in US, Russia or Europe? I remember two of my US colleagues who were afraid to speak openly that they support Republican party. One confessed to me that he supports republicans at a dinner, after becoming very drunk – when sober, he said he is pro-Democrat. The other colleague, when I asked: “How come that Trump won elections, while everyone tells me that they voted against him?”, told me that he voted for Trump – but he said it whispering. Here in Russia, we also have people with differing political views – usually they do not whisper, but rather shout their views. At each other.
Another picture. I am in Iran with my whole family, including a 4.5-year old son, in the middle of recent protests. Many people told me that it is dangerous to come to Iran, that protests can go violent – but I ignored this. I sit in my hotel room and read US news, which say that beautiful revolution in Iran is winning, the whole country is burning, and even the home town of Khomeini is literally burning. I read all of this with enormous amazement, after very peaceful 12 days during which we extensively travelled through Iran. Who writes such news and why? “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, once said Einstein. But he would be surprised to see this principle applied by journalists so creatively.
Another snapshot. I talk to a colleague and he confesses to me that their university cannot spend 5000 EUR to buy an important software. They just don’t have the money – Western sanctions made the country poor. Some professors told me that their salaries are too low to have reasonable quality of life. Why are they punished? Is it moral to destroy a life of a person just because he is a citizen of a certain country? Would you like your life and work to be ruined because of your citizenship and some misdeeds of your government? Or perhaps your government has no misdeeds?
Final image. We are leaving Iran, it’s very emotional – Iranian students cry. During 5 days of the workshop they befriended my students, who worked as tutors at the workshop. They exchanged contacts and I hope will stay in touch. In these tears I see not only their kindness, but also despair of young scientists almost completely isolated from the international scientific community. Isolated by the West.
Two and a half thousand years ago Cyrus the Great, the first king of Persia, wrote the first declaration of human rights (now it is for obvious reasons in the British museum). It’s not fashionable anymore to talk about the Bible, but Cyrus was one of very few people described as God’s man in the Bible. Iran’s ancient religion, Zoroastrianism, was the first monotheistic state religion, which gave much to modern civilization. Iran’s contribution to mathematics (al-Khwarizmi) and medicine (Avicenna) are undeniable. It may surprise a foreigner, but one of the main pillars of modern Iranian culture is… poetry. I have never seen such respect for and knowledge of poetry as in Iran. Great poets are buried as kings – or actually better. There is a peculiar Iranian saying: “Every Iranian family has two books – poems of Hafez and Quran. One of these is opened every day, the other – never”. Great culture is not a thing of the past, but is very much alive in Iran today. And don’t you think we all have great debt to this culture?
My appeal is very simple. The world will be a much better place if we all leave politics behind and view the world as one organism. And remember that anyone trying to dismember this organism and starve any of its parts is a criminal, and we should not participate in this. I appeal to the US and European scientific communities to embrace the Iranian scientific community.
