- Once Dr. Hossein Beik-baghban, a renowned Iranian professor
of Oriental Studies at the University of Strasbourg, while addressing a
gathering in our university, digressed to explain a bitterly interesting
memory from his first years as an Iranian scholar in France: "I was
standing in a queue in a large shopping mall in Alsace, waiting for my
turn to hand the goods over to the salesman and get the receipt, when a
rustic old German woman appeared before and started talking to me immediately.
We talked for some 10 minutes on different topics, and eventually, it came
to nationality. I asked her first and she replied that she is German. Correspondingly,
she began guessing about me, before I told her myself, and all of her guesses,
one after another, were wrong: Lebanese, Turkish, Azeri, Arab and Russian.
I told her that I'm Iranian. She remained silent and somewhat in shock
for a few seconds, and suddenly yelled with excitement: Oh! So, you are
a terrorist!"
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- For me, as the member of a developing society, and the
citizen of a part of the so-called "Axis of Evil", it would be
more than probably a delightful experience to travel to the proximity of
the "Beacon of Freedom", and witness what I may never envision
or even think of. When I first received the acceptance letter, telling
me that my paper had been selected to be presented in an international
conference in Calgary, Canada, I instantaneously began to imagine myself
in a British Airways flight from Tehran to London, and to Calgary thereafter,
wearing a navy-blue suit, addressing a large public of young people and
students from all around the world, sharing a series of informative data
and figures on energy crises and global warming and so on; however, I could
never imagine that such a dream would be in vain within less than 3 weeks.
-
- When I first submitted my forms for the visa application
and the relevant travel documentations to the Canadian Embassy in Tehran,
I never on earth was aware of the fact that "over 61 percent of Iranian
applicants' visa applications had been rejected by the Canadian Embassy
in 2007 and 2008," according to Vincent Valai, the member of the Quebec
Law Society.
-
- The standoff between Tehran and Ottawa started in mid-2003
on the grounds of the suspicious death of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian
photographer and freelance journalist who was allegedly "murdered"
while she was in the custody of Iranian officials in the Evin Prison of
Tehran.
-
- In late 2007 and following the escalation of mutual tensions
over the frequent complaints of Ottawa against the "negative human
rights record" of Iran, Tehran ordered the Canadian Ambassador John
Mundy to leave the country and expelled him to degrade the representation
of Canada in Iran to the level of Charge d'Affaires.
-
- Canada's then Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier
described the act as "retaliatory and entirely unjustifiable"
while casting doubts and concerns and expressing that "we stand behind
our ambassador, who has performed his diplomatic duties with professionalism
and dedication."
-
- Mutually, under the pretext of the possibility of having
links with the radical students of the 1970s who subsequently engaged in
the U.S. embassy hostage-taking in 1980 in Tehran, Canada refused to accept
several candidates who were proposed by Iran for ambassadorship in Ottawa
and now, it's the third year that the bilateral presence of the two countries
is limited to the level of Charge d'Affaires.
-
- Poor, terrorist Iranians
-
- Following the emergence of new tensions between Iran
and Canada and after Michel de Salaberry, the former Canadian Ambassador
to Egypt and Jordan, took office as the Charge d'Affaires, confusion and
haphazardness culminated to its pinnacle in the Canadian Embassy in Tehran.
-
- According to the Canadian Department of Citizenship and
Immigration, 32 percent of Iranians' applications in 2006 were rejected
by the Embassy, while it aggravated to 51 percent in 2007 and hit the record
in 2008 of 61 percent.
-
- Netherlands-based Persian-language Radio Zamaneh reported
in February 2009 that "200 Iranians apply for temporary residence
visas at the Canadian Embassy daily, and the Embassy receives 60 dollars
per each applicant regularly. Altogether, the total income of the Embassy
exceeds $360,000 per month and amounts to $4,320,000 annually and this
accounts for approximately 12% of Canada's yearly imports from Iran!"
-
- Nevertheless, this is not the whole story. Aside from
the unreasonable and questionable rejections of visa applications, the
mechanism of the Embassy's interaction with applicants is thoroughly unfair
and discriminatory.
-
- Daily Star reported in May 2009 that "leading dissidents
from Iran were insulted and humiliated by visa officers at the Canadian
Embassy in Tehran before two were barred entry to Canada for a conference
at York University." Mistreatment and humiliation have long become
a routine practice of the Embassy staff who don't even permit the applicants
to enter the Embassy and speak to the high-ranking officials.
-
- It has not been precisely identified what objectives
the Canadian Embassy pursues by taking such approaches; however, there
are some allegations and suspicions which would require an elaborate investigation.
In a brief and unbelievable conversation with a middle-age woman who was
seeking a temporary visa to meet her sons in Quebec, I figured out that
she had paid an extra $200 to the embassy staff and they facilitated the
issuance of her visa under 5 days; something which is almost unprecedented
and impossible in most cases.
-
- Clearly, the Embassy now considers the procedure of visa
issuance a lucrative source of business for itself, though the deterioration
of bilateral ties has contributed to the inequitable hostility against
Iranian applicants.
-
- After 18 days of submitting my materials to the Embassy,
they handed me a piece of paper, explaining that my visa will be issued
"possibly" on June 9, and the conference which I was going to
attend was slated for June 7. I'll be deprived of attending the conference
for which I dedicated 2 months of research, more than probably because
"I'm a terrorist".
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- kziabari@gmail.com
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