Persecuted scholars speak about their experiences at recent event
Scholars Farai Gonzo and Baktybek Beshimov described the discrimination they faced in two very different countries: Gonzo is from Zimbabwe and Beshimov from Kyrgyzstan.
But both cited their families’ influence and the difficult living conditions in their home countries as their motivation to continue speaking out.
“My father taught me to question if what I was doing was right,” said Baktybek Behimov, who served as a university president and the leader of the opposition party of Kyrgyzstan. “How could I be part of the dogma, of a policy of manipulation, that leaves children in poverty and out of school?”
Gonzo said she also felt called to challenge the status quo. She was a journalist and media executive in Zimbabwe. “I remember my teachers had hardly enough money to buy clothing. Children in rural areas had no birth certificates, which prevented them from going to secondary school. I started to ask the (government officials) questions about that.”
Both Gonzo and Beshimov are now working at Western institutions as visiting scholars as part of the Scholars at Risk (SAR) program. SAR is a network of colleges and universities that have agreed to protect threatened scholars by providing sanctuary at institutions within the network. Gonzo is teaching at Centennial College in Toronto and Beshimov is at Northeastern University in Boston.
The two scholars spoke as part of the launch of a Scholars At Risk (SAR) program that will be jointly run by Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Carleton Law Professor Melanie Adrian organized the Ottawa effort and said Carleton and the University of Ottawa have agreed to co-host a scholar for a one-year term.
“These are scholars who are harassed, threatened, imprisoned, or tortured for what they write,” said Adrian. “Many of our academic units in FPA are interested in working with us. The university community has taken to it in a really positive way, so I’m very happy about that.”
The two universities will announce the name of the visiting scholar who will be sheltered in Ottawa in the near future.
