As the first in her family to attend university, Dr. Encieh Erfani was drawn to the stars. Her interest led her to physics and cosmology, examining the origin of the universe – a rare subject in Iran at the time. 

Dr. Erfani was traveling outside of Iran in September 2022 when the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement began, sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. In solidarity, Dr. Erfani stepped down from her academic position in Iran. Her resignation email quickly went viral on social media and she has not been able to return since, knowing she would risk imprisonment by Iranian authorities. “As a scientist, you have never trained to be a social activist or political activist, but in some countries, your actions can be considered a political act,” she says. “A simple resignation can lead to exile.”’

In response, Dr. Erfani co-founded the International Community of Iranian Academics (ICOIA), a group providing community and support to academics of Iranian heritage around the world. Now at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, she continues her work as a researcher and staunch advocate for displaced academics worldwide. 

Learn more about Dr. Erfani’s work: https://sites.google.com/view/eerfani/home

Learn more about the International Community of Iranian Academics (ICOIA): https://icoia.org/

This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Fragile Freedom podcast, a joint-initiative of the German science communications agency con gressa and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of Science Year 2024 Freedom. See the Fragile Freedom podcast here: https://fragile-freedom.podigee.io/

Omar Mohammed first gained international prominence in 2014 as the anonymous blogger “Mosul Eye”, risking his life to document daily existence in the occupied city of Mosul, Iraq. His blog was considered one of the few reliable, real-time sources of information on life under the Islamic State (aka ISIS or Daesh in Arabic), and proved to be a critical source of information for journalists, policy-makers, and scholars.

Mosul was liberated from ISIS in 2017 but only after an extended, months-long battle that left much of the city badly damaged. Omar, now based in France, remains deeply connected to Mosul, having launched numerous social initiatives to rebuild the city and document the stories of its inhabitants. “The moment you are labeled as a scholar, and the moment you are free, then you have to give back to the society,” he says. “It’s a must.”

Free to Think speaks with Dr. Khoo Ying Hooi, an Associate Professor at the University of Malaya and 2022-23 Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellow, on academic freedom and coalition building in Southeast Asia. 

Ying Hooi discusses her research and shares how building an academic freedom coalition across Southeast Asia – a region that spans 11 countries and represents a range of universities – can help academics and higher education institutions support one another. She emphasizes that academic freedom matters for all, and identifies the need for increased dialogue on related issues, particularly in states most at risk of repression. “It is really important that we embrace and understand why academic freedom is important for the future of countries,” she says. “Without being able to talk freely and write freely and express ourselves freely and learn freely, I think there will be a major obstacle for us to advance as a country.”

Free to Think speaks with three university students who express the profound impact of joining the SAR student advocacy community. “Being involved in the amplification of the voice of somebody who's marginalized doesn't just affect the person who's marginalized,” says Samkele Shange, a SAR Student Advocacy Seminar participant at the University of South Eastern Norway. “It also affects you, the person who lifts your voice.”

Samkele Shange describes how she and her peers advocated on behalf of GN Saibaba – an activist and formerly wrongfully imprisoned scholar of English literature at Delhi University. Laia Simó Garriga and Truc Hanh Vu share how interviewing scholars from Ethiopia through their SAR Legal Clinic, and compiling a UPR report for the United Nations Human Rights Council, shaped their understanding of academic freedom – and the power of their voices. 

This episode is guest hosted by Clare Robinson, Advocacy Director at Scholars at Risk.

Free to Think speaks with academic, policy analyst and human rights activist Mubashar Hasan. He describes how in Bangladesh certain research topics are off-limits, particularly those that threaten the power of the ruling class, and speaks from first-hand experience — Hasan survived 44 days of “enforced disappearance” in Bangladesh in 2017.

Now based in Sydney, Australia, Hasan describes the ‘mental prison’ Bangladeshi colleagues navigate when trying to balance doing their work with the risks they face daily: “I had to negotiate with myself, ‘Should I be silent? Or should I express myself?’ 

Hasan is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at Oslo University, Norway and an adjunct research fellow at the Humanitarian and Development Initiative at Western Sydney University, Australia. Learn more about Hasan’s work at: mubasharhasan.com

Free to Think speaks with Katrin Kinzelbach and Lars Lott, researchers behind the Academic Freedom Index (AFI) which assesses levels of academic freedom in 179 countries and territories from 1900 to the present.

Recent headlines suggest academic freedom is in retreat everywhere, but is it true? Katrin Kinzelbach and Lars Lott discuss the latest data from the AFI and how academic freedom may fit into wider trends of increasing political polarization worldwide. They describe how they collect data for and structure the report, and how researchers can get involved. The AFI is a collaboration between FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and the V-Dem Institute. Now in its fifth edition, the AFI is a valuable tool for academics and policymakers. With it, Kinzelbach says, “we can have an independent measure, updated on an annual basis, to hold states to account.”

Free to Think speaks with Achiro P. Olwoch, an award-winning writer, playwright, and filmmaker from Northern Uganda, and current scholar-at-risk and Weiss International Fellow at Barnard College in New York City. Achiro describes her recent play ‘The Survival,’ the impact of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Uganda, and how living in New York has made her a “bolder artist.” She also offers advice to fellow artists-in-exile: “It takes time. Allow yourself to learn, allow yourself to make mistakes, allow yourself to mourn, allow yourself to grow.” 

This episode is guest hosted by Leona Binz, a Program Officer on Scholars at Risk’s Protection team, who has worked closely with Achiro since 2022 through SAR’s Practitioners at-Risk program. 

Watch Achiro’s play ‘The Survival’ at the Criminal Queerness Festival at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York this June 2024.

In February 2022, Artem Nazarko was in Odesa, Ukraine with his family, coming to terms with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “It was huge traffic jams everywhere, empty shops, panic and confusion” he says. “No food, no petrol. It was tough times, and dark days.”

Two years later, Artem is a PhD candidate and MSCA4Ukraine fellow at the University of Bergen in Norway. He is working in international criminal and humanitarian law, focusing on war crime prosecutions in Ukraine, during the current Russo-Ukrainian war. Artem describes his decision to apply to MSCA4Ukraine, his research, and the impact of staying connected with Ukrainian research communities while living abroad. 

The MSCA4Ukraine scheme provides fellowships and other support to displaced researchers from Ukraine, and is funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. You can learn more about MSCA4Ukraine and its partners on the SAR Europe website.

Emma Hartley and Jonathan Gelfond, undergraduates at UC Santa Barbara in California, weren’t sure if elected officials in Washington DC would agree to speak with them. They were advocating on behalf of Patrick Zaki – a University of Bologna graduate student formerly detained for two years, in apparent retaliation for his human rights research in Egypt. Though released in 2021, authorities continue to postpone Zaki’s trial, and he faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

To Hartley and Gelfond’s surprise, they got four meetings on Capitol Hill. “We were focusing on issues that might not be these representatives or senators' first priority,” Gelfond says. “It was really empowering.” They join Free to Think along with their SAR Student Advocacy Seminar professor, Claudio Fogu, to describe campaigning on behalf of Zaki, using art as a tool for advocacy on campus, and the impact of engaging in human rights work. “No matter how daunting it may seem at first,” Hartley says, “our voices are important and they do make a difference.”

Learn about setting up a Student Advocacy Seminar on campus here: scholarsatrisk.org/actions/student-advocacy-seminars/

Free to Think speaks with Shai Reshef, President of the University of the People,  the first non-profit, tuition-free, American, accredited, online university whose mission is to help students worldwide overcome financial, geographic, political, and personal obstacles to higher education.

Since August 2021, University of the People has received increasing numbers of applications from women in Afghanistan seeking a way to continue their studies. After the Taliban reimposed a ban on women attending universities, University of the People provided 2000 scholarships for Afghan women. “They want to expand their knowledge, to learn to enrich themselves, but also to feel part of the world,” says Reshef. “Studying… is exactly what they need in order to keep them alive and hoping for a better future.”