Pedestrian

Long ago, before I was a student, there was a horror story called the TOEFL for every Iranian student wishing to make their way abroad (United States).

Before they got their admission, before they made that famed horror trip to the Cypriot or Turkish American embassies for visa, they had to make another trip abroad, to take the TOEFL – Test of English as a Foreign Language. There was no place in Tehran to take the test and it is an absolute must for the admission process so students had no choice but to travel … Yes, all for a stupid test.

The costs added up to inifinity. Aside from the application fees (roughly $100 per university), with each student wanting to apply to as many places as possible, there was one trip to Turkey for the TOEFL. Then another for visa application … If daddy wasn’t going to be paying the bills, it was a financially excruciating process.

Although that should tell you a lot: even that didn’t stop thousands of students from applying to the United States every year. I always wondered: the world is a huge place, why not try other options instead?

But aside from the price tag, the other obstacle Iranian students always face is lack of a credit card – necessary for every fee and transaction. Those without close relatives in the West have to resort to all sorts of bizarre techniques. There are actually now pseudo “companies” in Tehran that charge you a fee and apply for you, using their own credit cards.

And then, one magic day - I’m sure we all remember where we were when it happened - it was announced that the TOEFL would be held in Tehran 4 times a week.

The heavens rejoiced.

But last week, Sanjesh, the body responsible for holding the tests in Tehran announced that ETS would no longer be holding the TOEFL in Tehran … due to the new round of sanctions on Iranian banks.*

Yes, I’m sure that will kill off the Iranian nuclear program in cold blood.

Of course that’s the least of the troubles the sanctions will cause the average Iranian. In fact, with all the other options Iranian students have (taking the IELTS instead, opting to go anywhere but the United States, etc) this doesn’t really add up to anything at all. But it’s just one more reminder of where these sanctions are really going and who they are really hurting: ordinary students, businessmen, manufacturers, etc, etc.

There is only one point to these sanctions that I see cleary: Remember when Ahmadinejad revealed the 16 year old girl who enriches uranium in her basement to help Iran’s nuclear program? Think of all the potentialIranian nuclear scientists, who will only manage to become mediocre basement-uranium-enrichers. I’m absolutely certain that the world is now a much safer place.

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Sanjesh has since announced that it will continue to host ETS in Tehran although a schedule has not been released.