First Female Muslim Astronaut Could Help Bridge U.S.-Iran Gap

New America Media, Commentary, Behrouz Saba Posted: Sep 20, 2006

Editor's Note: Iranian-American space traveler Anousheh Ansari rocketed into space on Sept. 18. With both Iran and the United States claiming her as their own, could she strengthen ties between the two countries and help reverse one of the most tragic brain drains in modern history? Behrouz Saba is a Los Angeles-based writer and a native of Iran. He earned a Ph.D. in film history and criticism from USC.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.--Anousheh Ansari, the first Muslim woman to become a space traveler, is a naturalized American citizen born in Mashad, Iran. She makes Iranians proud of her at home and abroad. Even the Islamic Republic's state-controlled media, which are not necessarily benign toward Iranian-Americans, have given her success full and mostly favorable coverage.

Yet this is largely a hollow pride for Iran, since her achievements -- as well as the achievements of thousands more talented expatriate Iranians worldwide -- neither significantly improve conditions inside Iran nor enhance the country's standing in the community of nations.

Ansari, 40, is an extremely successful entrepreneur who lives with her family in Plano, Texas. Having traveled aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft as a primary crewmember to the International Space Station, she is at once a classic success story as an immigrant to America as well as a glaring example of Iran's brain drain, which is one of the largest and most tragic in modern history.

When she came to this country in 1984 she could barely speak English, reportedly due to her complete concentration on her scientific studies. Yet she went on to receive degrees from George Washington University and George Mason University. After a stint at MCI, she struck out on her own along with her Iranian-American husband to make hundreds of millions in development and sales of software for telephone switching systems.

The family's current company, Prodea, is working closely with the Russian space program to develop viable suborbital spacecraft for commercial applications. Even though Ansari has paid $20 million or more for her space flight, her long interest in space exploration and the fact that she is in space as a working scientist, put her in a category of her own rather than a mere "space tourist" as she has been widely characterized in the press.

And she is by no means the only Iranian-American with the vision, courage and entrepreneurial spirit to define new horizons in advanced technology. Pierre (Parviz) Omidyar, born of Iranian parents in France, founded eBay. Kamran Elahian and Farid Dibachi are also well-recognized high technology innovators and venture capitalists. Add to them many other Iranians who teach mathematics, medicine and other sciences in almost every university across this country, some involved in cutting-edge research.

These are the Americans of Iranian origin who can become credible emissaries of hope, progress and prosperity to Iran in a campaign of public diplomacy to include scientific and cultural exchanges.

According to latest estimates, nearly 700,000 Iranians live in the United States, comprising a disproportionately wealthy and educated population. Settling principally in Southern California (residents of Beverly Hills are 20 percent Iranian), they live within close-knit families that emphasize higher education as well as home and business ownership.

While some Iranians began to migrate to the United States shortly after World War II, the first significant wave came during the mid-1960s as university students. Just before the 1978-79 revolution, they numbered 47,000. Many among them --the best and the brightest Iran had to offer -- decided to stay on, soon to be joined by a deluge of Iranians who were fleeing the new Islamic regime. Today the most competitive of graduates from Iranian universities often head for the United States, attracted by endless enticements of a vast academic and research apparatus.

All Iranian-Americans nevertheless remain fiercely proud of their roots, deeply aware of their country's brilliant history of arts and sciences, which have inspired and nurtured them. They are profoundly humiliated to see the name of Iran become synonymous with terror, backwardness and intolerance. Many of them, if given a chance, would go to any length to pay their debts of gratitude to a beloved native land.

But it is crucial to point out that educated expatriate Iranians of goodwill can be of service to their native land, and the cause of advancing global peace, only if they look at the Iranian reality as it is today rather than the country that many left behind 30 or 40 years ago.

Tellingly, according to reports on the Web, Ansari wanted to wear a pre-revolutionary Iranian flag on her spacesuit along with the U.S. flag. She was told by American and Russian authorities alike to wear no Iranian flag at all. Instead she had to opt for a ribbon of Iran's green, white and red national colors.

Nostalgia for the pre-revolutionary Iran, and idealized notions about the country that it could be, blind many Iranian expatriates to the current reality of their native land.

Since the revolution Iran has gone through a devastating war with Iraq and has survived other severe turmoil in the region to gain resilience and confidence. It is no longer the obedient "client country" it used to be. It has also held regular elections to introduce a modicum of democratic traditions in a country where there were none. In the interim, Westernized Iranians in Iran have learned how to live with an Islamic regime to the point where it would be inconceivable to return to the censorious days right after the revolution. The on-going dialogue between secular and religious Iranians can constitute a meaningful basis for the larger dialogue among civilizations.

Should Iranian-American leaders use their increasing financial and political clout to initiate a genuine and positive engagement with Iran, there are many among their brethren in the country -- even some who may be considered unyielding conservatives -- who would reach out to them and encourage the process. All people in Iran know that they cannot move forward, attract foreign capital and obliterate their image as a pariah nation without the help of their best minds.




Page 1 of 1

Printable Version Return to Normal Version Send Page to Friend Subscribe to NAM Newsletters