Sanctions against Iranian scientists

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Scientific sanctions against Iranians include all actions taken to directly or indirectly suppress Iranian scientific community. United States and several other western countries, their scientific communities and companies have been actively involved in suppression of Iranian scientific community and the development of science and technology in Iran.

This page mainly covers those scientific suppressions that target Iranian nationals. The actions have generated huge body of concerns over ethics and human rights.

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[edit] Central government sponsored scientific suppressions

In February 2004, the US Department of the Treasury has ruled that editing or publishing scientific manuscripts from Iran violates the trade embargo on this country. US publishers and scientific societies were divided over how to respond. IEEE, American Nuclear Society, the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Microbiology followed the policy.

At a meeting in Washington on 9 February, David Mills, the treasury official in charge of implementing the policy, told representatives of 30 publishers that anyone wanting to publish papers from Iran should seek a licence from the treasury department. He also suggested that US scientists collaborating with Iranians could be prosecuted.[1]

[edit] Florida State sanction Iranian scientists

In June 2006, Florida State's parliament passed a new law to suppress Iranian scientists. The new law will stop all of Florida's research in Iran by making it illegal for scientists at state-funded institutes to travel to Iran. No Florida’s scientists are allowed to carry out collaborative projects with Iranian colleagues or have any contact with Iran.[2]

[edit] IEEE and suppression of Iranian scientists

IEEE publishes 30% of the world's literature on computing, electronics, and electrical engineering and has 380,000 members in 150 nations. In January 2002, IEEE stripped members in Iran of certain benefits, including the use of the IEEE logo to promote activities, electronic access to publications, and access to job listings.[3]

With 1700 IEEE members, Iran by far suffered the most. According to Fredun Hojabri, president of Sharif University of Technology Association, a nonprofit that represents alumni, faculty, and students of Iran's premier engineering university, the saga began when IEEE officials determined that they would violate OFAC sanctions if they proceeded with a conference in Iran. In a 14 January 2002 letter to IEEE members at the University of Tehran, then-president Joel Snyder wrote that "the IEEE can no longer offer full membership privileges or support activities" in Iran. Then, without notice, IEEE blocked Iranian members from accessing their e-mail accounts through IEEE.org, asserts Hojabri, a chemist.[4]

Months of protest letters from Iran's engineering community have failed to sway IEEE. The institute declined to respond to questions from Science.[5]

[edit] Sharif University alumni denied entry into the US

More than 80 of those who were recently granted visas specifically to attend the 4th International Reunion and Conference of Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) in Santa Clara, CA were denied entry into the US and were subjected to inhumane and harsh treatment, including incarceration and chaining of them and their family members.[6]

On August 14, 2006, Zahed Sheikholeslami, president of SUTA, wrote a letter to Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, complaining about the unnecessarily harsh and humiliating treatment of Iranian professionals upon their recent attempt to legally enter the United States. [7]

[edit] SESAME project incident

Egyptian government refused to grant visa to 35 Iranian scientists who were invited to attend a gathering on the Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) project, held in Alexandria (2006). The invited Iranian scientists say they never heard from the Egyptian embassy in Tehran after submitting their visa applications at least 6 weeks beforehand. "If this is not hostile treatment, I don't know what is," says Reza Mansouri, a physicist at Sharif University in Tehran and one of two Iranian representatives on the SESAME council. Iranian contingents have attended four previous user meetings held elsewhere in the region.[8]

[edit] Criticisms

A spokesperson for the American Geophysical Union, which has a dozen members in Iran, says AGU does not consider publishing to be a trade issue and "accepts paper submissions from anywhere in the world." The American Society of Mechanical Engineers echoes that view, as does AAAS, Science's publisher. "We do not put any restrictions on submission or publication of papers based on economic or other sanctions," says Monica Bradford, executive editor of Science.[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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