By: Marjan A. Dorbayani, PhD
Human Rights number 15: The Right to a Nationality. Really?!
It has been over three decades that Iranians have lost the meaning of the right to a nationality. Not only many are not welcomed to Iran but also are treated unfairly in other countries. In the list of nationalities requiring entry visa to other countries with harsh scrutiny, Iran is at the bottom of the list, or to be precise, the one before last, last being Afghanistan.
Thirty years ago, before the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iranian passport holders were welcomed all over the globe, but today, they are simply unrecognized or unacceptable, due to many, many politically justifiable reasons. Then this question always comes to mind that why Iranians in and outside Iran should take the burden? In retrospect, from the start of the Persian Empire, this land has always been of great interest or shall we say envious desires of leaders of other nations. Many invaded this land, stole its wealth and scratched its identity. The people were brutally enslaved, their beliefs criticized and other beliefs forcefully imposed.
This good nation’s initial belief and motto of “Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds” has not only been disregarded but forcefully replaced by foreign ideologies, which have roots back in the 6th century in remote deserts of Saudi Arabia.
“Where are you from?” is the question most Iranians detest and avoid, because as soon as they say they are Iranian, their basic rights of being is under question and denied. Iranians’ being is now associated with the present occupiers of their country, who have very little respect for freedom of thought and a ruling government that has no vision of tolerance and cares nothing but forcing their ideology at all cost.
Yes, the right to a nationality is denied to many Iranians and what’s left for them to say is: “I am Earthian!”
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