I know at least two Iranian women who came to Canada on education Visa's in the last decade and have refused to go back, even to visit their families. I worked

I know at least two Iranian women who came to Canada on education Visa's in the last decade and have refused to go back, even to visit their families. I worked with one of them from when she first arrived. Initially she wore a head-scarf and was extremely nervous working with and even just talking to men. She gradually became more relaxed and one day the scarf went in the bin. The other considered her relatives "dead to her" from the moment I met her. Not surprisingly, she was not from Tehran. Studying abroad is an important thing for Iranian students, but this presents some huge problems for a theocracy where sexual discrimination is so firmly entrenched. For every student that leaves and never returns, there are probably several who go home and try to change things for the better. The fact that Iran allows students, especially female students, to study abroad suggests that things are not as dire there as one would expect from consuming U.S. media. The U.S.'s policy of confrontation with Iran's leaders is, strangely enough, probably one of the few things keeping them afloat. Fear of foreign powers is a powerful tool, as anyone in the U.S. should now know. The best course of action over the next few years may be to reduce the level of confrontation with Iran's leaders and let the Iranian people, who are increasingly at odds with their country's policies, take care of their leaders on their own.