Friends
in Turkey
Heather Rossiter
To all Wisenet Readers,
With the world apparently dividing between Islamic and non-Islamic countries, some bridge-building might be our contribution to world peace. Our professional sisters in the Middle East may have a marginally different slant on the profession of science, their experience being centred in societies different from ours, and contact between us could be valuable.
Last year I was tempted to try to make contact with some women in Iran to talk about their science, but was glad afterwards that I had not pressed the issue. On the day before I left Tehran several journals and one newspaper were shut down, their editors arrested, and six academics were expelled from Tehran university for ‘pro-American activities’, the standard euphemism for not adhering to the fundamentalist line on any topic. Other academics bravely protested, making the point that such official actions (this being only the latest in a persistent program) were having a negative impact on the intellectual life of Iran and causing a brain-drain much to the country’s detriment. In that atmosphere, talking to me might have been compromising.
Against this, wherever I went in Iran
outside of Tehran, I was overwhelmed by schoolgirls and sometimes schoolboys
wanting to talk to me, if only to practice their English, but they were also
curious about Australia.
In May 2002 I will be in Turkey, visiting Ankara and with perhaps a
little free time in Istanbul.
If any Wisenet members/ readers have a professional contact in Turkey who might be willing to talk to me (as a representative of the WISENET Journal) I would be happy to try to arrange a meeting.
As you know, Turkey has a freer, more
secular society, and so direct contact with a western scientist should not be
endangering. Please let me know as soon as possible if you have any
suggestions.
hrossiter@optusnet.com.au