PhD student B.R. who, alongside the other researchers, requested anonymity, says that she was preparing research material on the night of the first attack, for which she collaborated with a former classmate in Iran. “After the attack, I sent him a message and he hasn’t responded to me yet. I’m worried about him since I really don’t know what happened.” B.R. says she has been very stressed, had to cancel meetings and could not get much work done since the start of the war.
Hamed, a guest researcher who has been at VU for half a decade, says he and his wife were in shock for a few days when the war broke out. After that, they started obsessively following the news. The soft-spoken researcher says he has been concerned about his family, and especially his wife’s family living in Tehran. “We checked the news every minute to see if something was happening in the area they live.” He says he has gotten an average of four hours of sleep since the attacks.
Lack of empathy
Their story resonates with PhD student F.Z., who also had a lot of difficulty focusing on her work. Aside from being surprised by the war, she was also taken aback by the lack of empathy and interest she encountered at the university, both from regular staff and the university’s leadership. “They were all silent”, she says. “The least that they could do is ask about our family or friends.”
On June 26, NEWConnective organized an informal gathering for people to ‘share space regarding the attack on Iran’ in the Mindful Library on the 12th floor of the main building. They offered tea, sweets and a space to share concerns. Only a few people came, but the organizers say they were glad to receive positive feedback, including from people who didn’t or couldn’t attend. Sharing space
B.R. is also disappointed in the lack of emotional support or solidarity from the people that she’s in contact with on a daily basis. “I felt completely alone here. It’s as if no one cares, no one wants to know anything about it or for some reason doesn’t want to get involved.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamed witnessed how supportive the Dutch government and VU were of Ukrainian people, “and that is a good thing”, he adds. “But we didn’t see a fraction of that support.” He says this experience is shared by many Iranians in the Netherlands, who, for instance, are connected via Telegram groups. In the end, it was especially fellow Iranians who provided the researchers with much-needed support.
Double standards
F.Z. points out that the politics of the conflict appear to be a touchy subject which even many internationals seem to avoid. As for their own views on the outbreak of war, B.R. calls it an “unprovoked and illegal aggression”, which she would like to see condemned by the university in the same way if it happened to any European country. She says that double standards are often applied to Israeli actions.
“Even if they cannot or don’t want to condemn Israel, they could at least say they hope the war ends soon and that they stand with the affected students and staff”, Hamed adds.
Weapons research
Of course these Iranian researchers are not the only ones wishing for condemnation of Israel by their university at the moment. Pro Palestine activists have long wanted the university to condemn Israel’s destruction of Gaza and most of all, they have demanded that VU reveals and cuts its ties with Israeli institutions.
The three researchers already agreed with the goals of the protests, and one of them joined a couple of demonstrations in the past. “When we ask for cutting ties with Israeli universities and research institutions, that means we want to stop helping them make weapons. That’s not a big thing to ask a university in a civilized world”, says Hamed. The researchers feel even more strongly about cutting such ties now.
Hamed points out that what happened in Iran does not compare to the destruction of Gaza, but he is concerned about Israel repeating the same playbook in Iran, using various excuses to legitimize the killing of civilians. He is particularly unconvinced by Israel’s claims that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and sees it as an excuse to attack.
“When I look back, I feel that I should have done more with my voice and speak up”, says F.Z. “If Israel can commit any kind of crime without any consequences, then this will continue to spread to other countries in the region”, B.R. states.
Cancelled collaboration
After the interview with the researchers, VU announced on June 30 that a research collaboration that involves an Israeli government institution will be stopped. For a different project, risk mitigation measures will be taken.
Assassinations
While the recent outbreak of a more direct kind of warfare is a major escalation, Iranians have long experienced targeted strikes and their country has been confronted with severe international sanctions.
Hamed remembers walking to class at Shahid Beheshti University and encountering a group of girls crying. Shortly after, he found out that two scientists of the nuclear faculty were targeted, with one of them being killed. “Those girls were his students.” The other scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, survived a car bomb, but was killed in Israel’s recent attacks.
Knowledge security checks
Because the major university at which he studied was sanctioned, Hamed says he is prevented from applying to certain jobs. And he says that a friend of his who studied at the same university had to jump through a lot of hoops to be able to work for VU in 2022.
The Iranian researchers all face scrutiny related to knowledge security. F.Z. says she is not particularly worried as her research is not even remotely sensitive, but she still felt a bit uneasy when she was notified that she would be checked due to knowledge security measures.
B.R recalls applying to another Dutch university where the application form mentioned that citizens of certain countries – including Iran – will be checked for security reasons. After her application was rejected, it felt ambiguous to her whether it had anything to do with the security check. “It’s funny that at the bottom of these job openings, they write that they do not discriminate based on nationality, ethnicity and so on.”