{"id":50152,"date":"2018-09-25T16:43:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T20:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=50152"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:59:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:59:57","slug":"celebrating-our-scholars-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/celebrating-our-scholars-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Our Scholars at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Celebrating Our Scholars at Risk\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In some parts of the world, no matter the content of their research and teachings, academics in all disciplines are systematically silenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 19, 2018, Carleton University hosted an enlightening talk with Yemeni nuclear physicist Mustafa Bahran and Iranian Kurd linguist Rahim Surkhi as the two scholars at risk shared their personal histories of work and displacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the situation for Kurds and other ethnicities in Iran is very bad right now,\u201d said Surkhi, who has been hosted by the University of Ottawa\u2019s Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute<\/a> and Carleton\u2019s School of Linguistics and Language Studies<\/a> since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surkhi explained how Iran\u2019s many ethnic and language minorities are denied citizen\u2019s rights and the government suppresses activists, environmentalists and journalists. Human Rights Watch reported in early September that several human rights lawyers and women\u2019s rights activists were arrested under charges of public disturbance and publishing lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen years ago, Surkhi was forced to flee Iran to Iraqi Kurdistan following threats to his life for his support of Kurdish rights. He was denied official papers in Iraq while he taught at Salahaddin University-Erbil and received regular threats from Iranian forces.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Long Tradition of Supporting Threatened Academics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Through the Scholars at Risk<\/a> (SAR) Network and supported by the Institute of International Education\u2019s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF)<\/a>, Carleton invited Surkhi for a year-long fellowship last year. This summer, Surkhi renewed his collaboration with Carleton for another year of teaching and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bahran, another SRF fellow, was invited to join Carleton\u2019s Department of Physics after completing a year as a visiting professor at the University of Oklahoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cannot start to say anything without thanking the Institute of International Education\u2019s Scholar Rescue Fund . . .  for actually rescuing me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his native Yemen, Bahran was a distinguished nuclear physicist and public servant. He lectured at Sana’a University and established the university\u2019s nuclear and particle physics lab. He also served as a government adviser on science and technology, and as minister of electricity and energy. Throughout his career, Bahran promoted responsible and peaceful use of nuclear energy for medicine, ran a scientific conference and published Yemen\u2019s first science journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Carleton
Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of these are destroyed and gone,\u201d he said. He asked the audience to \u201cimagine 25 years of your life is destroyed . . . You [have] start all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Scholar Rescue Fund was established in 2002 as a culmination of the IIE\u2019s long tradition of supporting threatened academics. Founded in 1919, the New York-based Institute first supported scholars who fled the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Nazi Germany and the South African apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bahran fled his own catastrophe in 2015 as two opposing factions of the Yemeni government sparked a civil war that still churns today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this environment, scientific research has all but stopped and many academics report facing targeted threats for refusing to align with any particular group in the war,\u201d said Emily Borzcik, senior program officer at the SRF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was very unsafe to stay,\u201d said Bahran. \u201cI would not side with either of the warring parties because these hands will not be tainted with my countrymen\u2019s blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In three and a half years, the war has devolved into a humanitarian crisis. More than two million people have been displaced, and 22 million people, three quarters of the population, are without regular food, water or basic medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this continues, we have a generation lost,\u201d said Bahran.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Providing a Safe Place for Scholars Facing Violence, Arrest, or Censorship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The SRF receives applications from scholars facing violence, arrest, or censorship anywhere in the world. It has supported nearly 800 scholars from 59 different countries since 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, more scholars have been displaced by conflict or threatened by authoritarianism and extremism than ever before,\u201d SRF Assistant Director James R. King wrote in a 2017 report. The demand from scholars for IIE\u2019s assistance has increased by 50 per cent since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe SRF recognizes the critical need to preserve the knowledge, voices and lives of individuals so critical to the dissemination of science and learning around the world,\u201d said Borzcik, who moderated the evening panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton, in partnership with the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA), joined the SAR Network in 2013. In 2014, the University of Ottawa joined and made it a joint initiative. The following year, the institutions hosted their first scholar at risk, Iranian lawyer Hossein Raeesi and, in 2017, they hosted Turkish communications scholar H. Simten Co\u015far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo welcome scholars at risk means protecting and enhancing the diversity of ideas,\u201d said Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon. \u201cIt\u2019s also an opportunity to bring these ideas to our campus for the benefit of our students. These scholars have enriched Carleton through their teaching and their research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many regions of the world, academic freedom is met with resistance from autocrats who perceive critical thought as a danger to their rule. Both visiting professors emphasized the beneficial role that research would play in improving the Middle East\u2019s education, justice and social systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe central goal of education is to develop independent and free thinkers,\u201d said Bahran. \u201cNot lawyers, engineers, and doctors \u2014 independent and free thinkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFreedom of thinking is essential for any future to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In some parts of the world, no matter the content of their research and teachings, academics in all disciplines are systematically silenced. On Sept. 19, 2018, Carleton University hosted an enlightening talk with Yemeni nuclear physicist Mustafa Bahran and Iranian Kurd linguist Rahim Surkhi as the two scholars at risk shared their personal histories of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":50154,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13],"cu_story_tag":[1920,1926,1929],"class_list":["post-50152","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-arts-and-social-sciences","cu_story_tag-international","cu_story_tag-president"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/50152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/50152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98442,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/50152\/revisions\/98442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=50152"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=50152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}