BY MICHELE MOGHTADER<\/p>\n
Nasim Sabounchi, a 21year-old Iranian was ecstatic when she received her acceptance letter to Virginia Tech\u2019s PhD program in 2002. Nasim\u2019s excitement soon turned to worry as she thought of how she had to be away from all she knew for the duration of her studies. \u201cI really had to ask myself, \u2018Is this something I want to do?\u2019 I had the funding, I\u2019d been accepted, but in a way, I felt like I was coming to prison for five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Like the many Iranians who come to the US to further their studies, Nasim knew she would receive a single-entry visa. If she left the US, she would have to apply for a visa again. This process is unpredictable at best\u2014it can take up to a week or three months, a risk most students are not willing to take. As a result, most Iranian students that come to the United States accept the fact that they will not be able to go home during the entire duration of their study.<\/p>\n
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With the support of her friends and family, she decided to attend Virginia Tech and is now in her fourth year of studies. \u201cI know so many people who weren\u2019t able to see their mothers and fathers before they died because of this policy and I just keep thinking to myself, \u2018God, I hope this doesn\u2019t happen to me.\u2019 Sometimes, you just want your family right next to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Nasim is one of the Iranian students studying in the US that has taken matters into her own hands. Perhaps becoming more American that she thought, she along with several other students organized a small group and received a statement of support from their Virginia Tech\u2019s graduate school calling for the change in policy. Not knowing how to take the issue further than they school they turned to the DC-based advocacy group, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).<\/p>\n
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NIAC advocates for Iranian Americans on Capitol Hill. One of the ways it does so is by conducting civic participation workshops tailored for the Iranian-American community. \u201cSince our civic participation workshop with NIAC, we\u2019ve developed a lot,\u201d said Nasim. The students tried to contact their Congressional Representative, Rick Boucher numerous times and representative went frequently to his Town Hall meetings. However, he never answered their calls. Like the many Democrats unseated in the 2010 elections, Boucher lost his bid for reelection last year and the group is now trying to contact their new Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith.<\/p>\n
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With the backing of students like Nasim and the close to 3,700 students in the \u201cMultiple Entry US Visa for Iranian Students Group\u201d, NIAC tried to lobby Congress to change the law. Jamal Abdi, policy director at NIAC, said they worked with the Senate and tried to insert language into the Defense Authorization bill, which would have \u201crequired the White House to evaluate and report how the U.S. can increase educational exchanges with Iranian students and expand the number and types of visas available for Iranians to study in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In the midst of a legislative frenzy that included repealing Don\u2019t Ask Don\u2019t Tell, the Dream Act, which failed to pass, \u00a0and a tight deadline to pass the Defense Authorization bill, the section which was entitled \u201cIran Engagement Report\u201d did not receive enough support in Congress. \u201cThe supporters who were in the Arms Services Committee said that they ran out of time,\u201d said Abdi. \u00a0Another reason for its failure could just be pure politics, the bill was entitled the \u201cIran Engagement Report.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cNothing is going to come out of Congress,\u201d admits Abdi. \u201cSo we are looking to the administration to ease some of the burdens.\u201d<\/p>\n
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