Changes to Iranian Student Visa Validity press statement by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Farsi subtitled version below



You can read Secretary Clinton's comments here.


More on this development via the following US Dept. of State media note: "Changes to Visa Validity for Iranian Student Applicants in F, J, and M visa categories"

Support Generation Y Diplomacy

In her article on The Huffington Post entitled “Dear President Ahmadinejad and President Obama: Support Generation Y Diplomacy”, Negar Razavi advocates for exchanges of young people between Iran and the United. Razavi states that “allowing us space to come together, you are making a relatively inexpensive investment in the long-term security of our countries.” Razavi supports the creation of both academic and citizen exchanges between these two countries. You can access her article here.

See my previous post discussing the first U.S. National Academies and the Iranian Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Science joint workshop on the topic "Science as a Gateway to Understanding" that was held in Tehran in October 2007.

Science as a Gateway to Understanding: International Workshop Proceedings, Tehran, Iran (2008)

A new book entitled Science as a Gateway to Understanding: International Workshop Proceedings, Tehran, Iran (2008) has just been published by the National Academies Press. Here is a link to this publication on the National Academies Press website (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12539) where you can download in PDF format if you complete a free and brief registration. Following is a description of this international workshop that I copied and pasted form the National Academies Press website:

“In October 2007, the U.S. National Academies and the Iranian Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Science organized the first of a series of planned U.S.-Iranian workshops on the topic "Science as a Gateway to Understanding." This new workshop series is a component of the broader effort of the National Academies to support bilateral workshops and exchange visits in a variety of fields with a number of Iranian institutions that began in 2000.

This book includes papers that were presented at the workshop and summaries of the discussions that followed some of the presentations. At the conclusion of the workshop there was general agreement that the presentations on many aspects of science and scientific cooperation that have a bearing on mutual understanding were an important first step. Several participants underscored that the next workshop should emphasize how scientific cooperation can lead in concrete terms to improved understanding among both academic and political leaders from the two countries.”

Arrest of U.S. Graduate Student in Iran

On Oct. 15th, Esha Momeni, a California State University at Northridge Master’s student, was arrested and is being detained in Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison. Momeni was in Iran researching the women’s movement in Iran and was conducting video interviews with people involved in the “One Million Signatures” campaign which aims to end discrimination against women in Iran.

You can read more here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/10/24/iran