A friend just forwarded me the following:

Dear friends:

With the increased tension with Iran, the Iranian people, especially the academic community, is the target of most sanctions and discriminatory policies. By trying to be "more catholic than the Pope', the Dutch Government is asking its universities for 'guarantees' that the Iranian students will have no access to the technical data of university, as precondition for accepting the Iranian graduate students.

While large universities in Netherlands will probably provide this guarantee, small universities are not in a position to do so, and will stop accepting Iranian students. The Technical University of Twente has already done so:

http://intoffice.utwente.nl/news/importantinfoiraniannationals/ [1]

A petition has been prepared, and signed by 50 professors of major universities in Netherlands in opposition of this discriminatory policy of the Dutch Government.

I urge you to access the site and sign this petition!

http://www.iraansestudenten.nl/?English [2]


Thanks,

Fredun Hojabri