More and more Iranian graduate students making their way to Canada for study

From an article here last week that I neglected to mention until now. In the University of Alberta for example the largest group of students is traditionally those from China, but those from Iran increased by 60 percent over last year to become the largest group there. At McGill they've gone from 14th in 2003 to 8th in 2008. It's hard to say how much of this is for political reasons and how much comes from word of mouth, but it's safe to say that those currently studying in Canada and thinking about returning home now may be advised by their parents to perhaps wait a bit longer before doing so.

It's always a dilemma over whether an Iranian can effect political change better at home where direct protest and contact with others is possible, or from the outside where more money can be made and no political restrictions exist but collaboration is much harder. If done well though, influence from the outside can be quite effective as Mohsen Sazegara has shown. Of course, he really didn't have the option to stay within Iran since he had been imprisoned during his time there. Here's one of his daily videos (this one's from yesterday) in Persian:



And an interview in English with CNN a month ago.