The Iranian-Canadian community was in utter shock with the announcement in June 2003 that Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian photojournalist, was dead after three weeks in custody in Iran. She had been arrested for allegedly taking pictures outside a prison in the capital city of Tehran. Two years later, Ramin Jahanbegloo, a philosopher and professor at the University of Toronto, was also arrested in Tehran’s Mehrabad airport after being labelled an anti-government political activist by Iranian officials on flimsy pretences. He was held for 125 days in Evin prison, the same jail where Kazemi was beaten to death. Despite the diplomatic storm between Canada and Iran that followed Kazemi’s death, it appears that the Iranian government still has no commitment to protecting the rights, and ultimately the lives, of visiting Canadians.
Both Kazemi and Jahanbegloo were arrested because of their academic pursuits. Kazemi was in Tehran to photograph protests against the Iranian government, Jahanbegloo suspected for his academic papers criticizing the Tehran regime’s Holocaust denial. It is unacceptable that Canadians or anyone else should be subjected to imprisonment simply for participating in academic or artistic life.
Unfortunately, unexpected incarceration and harsh treatment is not reserved for visitors in Iran. The local population is subject to all manners of abuse by its officials. But we have a special responsibility to protect our citizens. We are risking the loss of brave, bright minds, and we must initiate change before it is too late.
The development of an international contract that shields professionals from abuse, incarceration and torture would protect citizens, especially those searching for information to further Western understanding of other countries. Travelling professionals must be protected under a contract from any further abuse. Even after crossing the border, you’re still a citizen, and professionals should not be discouraged from discovery. Unless visitors can be safeguarded from falling into the same harsh misconduct that was inflicted upon Kazemi and Jahanbegloo, we are breeding an ethnocentric future in research.
Inhumane detainment, torture, and death is a price no one engaged in academic pursuits should have to pay for their work. It’s time for Canadian government officials to propose an international treaty guaranteeing the safety of foreign academic research before even more intellectual writers, researchers, and journalists are discouraged from travelling abroad to study.
