BW: How has your research influenced your activism?
MAM: I think there are several ways my research has helped my work as a human rights defender. It’s so important to document and to be able to debate your position as a human rights defender. It’s important to be critical of the source, but also being a neuroscientist, the daily work is so different, but both of them are equally important. As scientists, we create new knowledge and most of the time it eventually helps mankind, regardless of who you are — what political view you have, what kind of ethnicity. In science, we don’t have any boundaries. I believe that when you do science, you also have more tolerance for other people.
I don’t look at my human rights work as a separate job — I look at it as part of being a human being. When you see something that you think is wrong, you have to do something about it, and I think you can do something about it. Being a scientist, you are privileged in that way. I don’t think I’d have any other job than one that allows for discovery and the responsibility of making the quality of life better.
BW: How have different political climates affected your research?
MAM: Now I’m based in Norway and our government policies normally don’t affect research because we have academic freedom. The government cannot tell us what to do, because then much of the point would be lost. If you want to be creative, you need to have academic freedom. But in other climates, issues of policy are important for funding — in today’s world, without funding, it is very difficult to do high-quality research. I’ve been in contact with researchers in other parts of the world, where other considerations have to be made — who you know, that you must be loyal to the authorities, and if you want to make progress, you must be politically correct.
My colleagues in Iran have a different situation and probably in many other countries. For example, at the head of universities there are politically appointed people, and in my view, that’s terrible. That’s the beginning of the end for making progress. At universities and research institutions, the main mission must be education, promoting science and knowledge, but if power centers of society are controlling the universities, sometimes the most qualified people aren’t appointed to the right jobs, and research is misused.
BW: What is the mission of the NGO Iran Human Rights?
MAM: The long-term mission is about abolishing the death penalty, because in Iran an average of one to two people are executed every day. Still. We just published our annual report. Last year at this time was one of the better years over the last six or seven years, 530 people were executed. That’s a high number if you think that these are killings that happen according to the law, and it is one of the highest in the world if you look at the population of Iran. In general, the mission is to promote all human rights values and also contribute in building a strong civil society where ordinary people are more engaged in their own destiny.
That’s one of the reasons that I focused on Iran. Ordinary people who, regardless of political affiliation, didn’t have so many groups who supported basic human rights. After the revolution, they started denying the rights of those who belonged to the former government, the Shah, but very soon, it affected the people who belonged to religious authorities, and then women, and people who belonged to other political parties. In a country where you have the strong civil society to protect basic human rights for everyone, I think we would have been able to stop at a much earlier stage. In civil society, all people are engaged in protecting these rights. That is my long-term dream.
BW: What advice would you have for people aspiring to practice medicine?
MAM: I strongly recommend it. Like many other jobs, it’s lots of hard work, but the few times you make a discovery, you feel as though you moved the field ahead. It’s worth all the sleepless hours and it’s something which is needed. In today’s world, I see many young people who go after jobs that pay more, but I think once you are in science, you see what is more important, what really matters. They may not like what I am saying now, but I strongly recommend it to anyone who considers it. Through being a scientist, I have met and I have become friends with people all over the world, from almost everywhere in the world, because we speak the same language, we have the same way of thinking and we have due respect for each other’s work — and so the other boundaries disappear in time.
BW: What advice would you have for people concerned about the future, seeking to become politically active?
MAM: My advice would be to never underestimate what you as an individual can do. We have much more power than we think. In today’s world, with the technology available, the communication tools that are available, you can actually do much more than what was possible let’s say 20 or 30 years ago. If you see something you believe is wrong, do something about it! You can start from your neighborhood. I don’t say think about changing the world right away, but the movement of changing the world into a better place starts where you are right now. I know from my own experience, we can accomplish much more than what people believe.
Before I started working in a more organized manner, back in 2004, I read about a girl who was sentenced to death in Iran at the age of 16. She was then 18 and going to be executed. She was born into a family that was very poor and they had basically sold her as a prostitute. At 14, she married a much older man who again used her the same way. The police arrested her and she was accused of running a brothel, then sentenced to death. According to a psychologist who had met with her, she had a mental age of 8. She was like a little girl.
This story was so strong, and at that time I had received the King’s golden medal at the University of Oslo for my doctorate in medicine, and had already been in the media a little bit, so I started using my contacts to get her story into the media. Within a few weeks, the story became so huge that every day, people were talking about it — in the media, the politicians. The Norwegian prime minister wrote a personal letter to the Iranian president, and eventually the death sentence was stopped and later she was released. Then we used our contacts to collect money just so she could have a better life. The moment I first heard this news, I really didn’t believe we were going to be able to save her, but we managed.
Since then, we have had many such stories. Of course this is saving one person, and we think that doesn’t matter very much, but actually it does. It’s not only about this person, but doing something with dignity. By this one thing, I encouraged many other people to become active. There are thousands who believe they have contributed to helping this girl, whose name is Laila. All this happened by calling Iran. I think it took me like one week to get a journalist to write an article about her. It doesn’t need to be a matter of life or death. Anything you see which is wrong, you can do something about it — just by talking about it and believing that you are able to make a change.
This article was originally published in the Summer 2017 issue of Brain World Magazine.
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