The Physics Today news story “Iranian scientists persevere under renewed sanctions” by Toni Feder (January 2019, page 22) blames the US embargo for hardships that Iranian scientists encounter as they pursue international collaborations. Only two sentences in the four-page report mention Iran’s recent actions against numerous scientists in the country who have Western connections, and no mention is made of the long prison terms or death sentences they have received “for collaborating with a hostile government.”
Omid Kokabee, a physics doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, was sentenced to 10 years on a “collaboration” charge and spent 2011–16 in an Iranian prison; he was released only after he developed kidney cancer (see “Physicist imprisoned in Iran is granted medical furlough after surgery,” Physics Today online, 25 May 2016). Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish resident and a principal investigator on two European research projects in disaster medicine, was arrested in 2016 after he was invited to a scientific workshop in Tehran. In 2017 he was sentenced to death for his refusal to spy for Iran’s military.1
Xiyue Wang, a doctoral student in history at Princeton University, was sentenced in 2017 to 10 years in prison when his studies of ancient documents in Tehran were interpreted as espionage.2 Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, an Australian citizen and fertility expert, was detained on her research trip to Iran last December on charges of trying to “infiltrate” Iranian institutions.3
In 2018 several Iranian environmental scientists were rounded up on suspicion that their studies of wildlife might have revealed information about Iranian military sites. One of them, Kavous Seyed-Emami, a Canadian citizen and professor at Imam Sadiq University in Tehran, died in prison after intense interrogations.4 Four others have been accused of “sowing corruption on Earth,” a charge that can carry a death sentence.
The above-mentioned cases represent the tip of the iceberg. Anyone who has dual citizenship or is a doctoral student residing or studying in another country is taking serious chances when returning to Iran for a professional or family visit. Although the US sanctions contribute to the hardships experienced by our Iranian colleagues, the actions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are largely responsible for making the lives of the Iranian scientists miserable.
