Tehran, YJC. Dr. Sirous says Iran must regard Afghan refugees as great chance for scientific advance.
Dr. Hashem Sirous is a US-based Iranian researcher. In interview with Tasnim he said that rather than denying Afghan refugees educational opportunities, Iran must tap into them as potential sources of great scientific achievements.
He said "In the Iran of Ferdowsi’s time, Afghanistan and the other Iranian provinces were not separate. They are our Iranian friends, human and Muslim. We Iranians who left homeland for Europe and MS
the Americas; the first thing that came out as important to us was our children’s education. I will rather speak of the US and UK experience. Nowhere in the US did there arise the question of birth certificate and nationality when we would go to schools to sign up our children. They would do the registration right away and education would begin.”
He added "This is the case also with refugees from other countries. I must say that there are many technicians, physicians, and scholars from these very Iranians who went to school without a birth certificate; their careers leading many scientific projects in these countries. Let me say this as an example; one of these very Afghan girls who graduated without a birth certificate has managed to mass-produce a drug for MS which many countries, including ours, have to get for exorbitant prices.”
Dr. Sirous added "Now I think must not the Iranian government use this opportunity to sign up at school and educate and turn into assets these refugees who have flooded to our country? It is painful to hear on the news that the Afghan refugees who lack birth certificates are deprived of education to lead their lives astray while our country is an Islamic country and the first revelation in Islam was ‘Eqra’’ which means reading and education.”
"The Afghan are our fellow nationals which colonization and arrogance have cut away from us,” he asserted.
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