»With the arrival of the Taliban, discrimination has increased«(Professor from Kabul)
Women and members of ethnic minorities such as Hazaras and Tajiks also report persecution. They say they were fired without a valid reason and do not feel safe in the current work environment. Many have chosen to leave. They were already discriminated against under the previous government, but “this discrimination increased with the arrival of the Taliban,” says the former professor from Kabul.
“Research is no longer a priority,” says a doctor in Tehran who researches public health. Rather, the people in their Afghan hometown of Mazar-i-Sharif are plagued by hunger, frequent explosions and psychological problems. She herself recently completed her master’s degree in Tehran and was subsequently selected for a position as a research associate at a US institution. She is currently still waiting for her visa.
Getting jobs abroad is a challenge
Thousands of scientists and researchers have fled to neighboring Iran and Pakistan in recent months and applied to organizations that help academics find jobs in other countries. But less than ten percent of them have been successful so far. That’s according to data collected by three of those organizations — Scholars at Risk (SAR), the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, and the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara) — and made available to Nature.
Even fewer have managed to reach their host institutions. They are struggling to obtain the relevant documents, including passports and visas, for themselves and their family members. “Visa waiting times continue to be a challenge for a number of Afghan scientists,” says Rose Anderson, director at SAR in New York City.
Many universities are willing to accept Afghan researchers, but: “The crisis in Ukraine is putting additional strain on our already limited resources and capacities,” says James King, director of the Scholar Rescue Fund in New York City.
»People in this situation are hopeless«(Zainab Nazari, physicist)
Stephen Wordsworth, managing director of Cara in London, counters that many institutions are creating new places for Ukrainian scientists rather than redirecting existing commitments. “The fact that the two crises are so close together has stimulated the higher education and research sectors even more,” he says.