Your passport an open door to opportunity or a lifetime lockout

august 6

2012 i was living in this tiny village

in the green rural mountains of lebanon

watching on our small tv screen at home

the curiosity rover landing

and the faces of everyone in mission

control

lighting up i saw dr charles lashy

a lebanese-american legend directing and

leading the whole endeavor

at nasa jet propulsion laboratory i knew

i wanted to pursue this i wanted to make

my mark

in space and almost 9 years

and 3 mit degrees later my dream has

come true

here i am currently doing my phd work

on nasa’s most recent mars rover

perseverance

my research focuses on one of the

rover’s instruments

called moxie moxie helps prepare for

future human exploration on mars

by creating oxygen from the martian

atmosphere

instead of carrying that with us from

earth

this oxygen is critical for future

astronauts

to breathe on mars and to be able to

have the rocket propellant to come back

home

since the moment i decided to step

outside of lebanon however

i knew that my passport was not going to

be a good companion

working in the space sector in the u.s

while being from the middle east

with all the stereotypes that this

carries was clearly

not the best idea and for years at mit

i was the only woman foreign national

from the middle east in any of my

airspace classes

a minority of a minority

of a minority

year after year i started to realize how

much someone’s nationality

is an incredibly powerful inherent

privilege

i started to realize how much the place

and time you are born in

have an impact in every step of the way

in what you do

how much power a passport has

a document that none of us has any say

or choice about

they get signed posted on us from the

moment we take our

very first breath yet

it defines every step of our way

where we can go what opportunities we

can access

how much income we make and how many

additional barriers

we have to overcome to achieve a certain

dream

for some of you this passport is a pride

but for many many others it’s just a

recipe

of challenges and discrimination

this is not new it’s an issue that

extends

years back in history in our territorial

problems they’re held over

from whole different eras of colonialism

world war one and before

it is human nature to seek power

and the urge to be part of the stronger

group

today however geography is even less

important

and the main concern is on the national

security threats

but if we’re going to send people to

mars or solve the climate change crisis

or tackle any of the difficult questions

that affect all of us on a global scale

we need more people from more

backgrounds

to be in the same room and we don’t have

a second to race

in a year of a pandemic that hit all of

us

around the globe did you hear the

successful immigration stories

like that of the husband and wife team

who emigrated from turkey

to now lead the efforts behind a vaccine

that saved

all of us in an environment where

immigrants are portrayed as threats

we have to put more visibility for

success stories

and for contributions that immigrants

have in society

because immigrants we get the job done

but let’s talk about space now if you’ve

seen the movie hidden figures

you’d recall the story of gender and

race

in the space race and the absurd

hostility and challenges

that katherine johnson and many other

incredible women

had to conquer while being the brains

behind the missions

today i will give you a current parallel

to these challenges

but rather dictated by the journey of

passports and nationalities

this was my very first internship at

nasa jet propulsion laboratory

probably one of the proudest moments of

my life

to finally have my dream of somehow

working at nasa

come true i was exactly where i always

dreamt to be

it took tons of paperwork challenges and

workarounds

to make it happen but soon after

my dream gradually started turning into

a nightmare

i cannot access any of these nasa

centers anymore

the truth is i cannot access the

majority

of space companies whether commercial or

governmental in the u.s

not even for a tour swept by a whole mix

of crises and political instabilities

lebanon officially made it few years ago

to the list of designated

and restricted countries under sanctions

and embargo from the u.s

a heart crushing reality they have no

responsibility

for nor any power to change

yet it pretty much defines any decision

i make

or any opportunity i can access

and that’s the thing about national

security and expert control regulations

some concerns are valid

there’s a certain nuance to them that no

one can deny

and it’s not a simple challenge

but sweeping the entire population of

countries

and entire fields of work with the same

brush

is a merely dangerous lazy way of

putting

everyone in the same bucket instead of

thinking

through the proper solution these

regulations

present major hurdles especially with

their intentional ambiguity

high licensing cost and efficiency

and serious liability on institutions

february 18 2021 was the day that i saw

our moxie research project land on the

surface of mars

and few weeks ago we produced our very

first oxygen

it was nerve-wracking but incredibly

exciting

there was in my hands the data proving

our first step

that paves the way to send humans to

mars

however i still find it crazy

that we’re talking about going

interplanetary

but still struggle with going

international

between countries in my own research

every day is a struggle

the number of meetings i can’t attend

documents i can’t read hardware

i can’t touch places i need to be

escorted in

even when you have access to a project

through your qualifications

you are always flagged as a suspicious

entity

someone to keep an eye on someone whose

dream

ought to be lived as a nightmare

almost a year ago it was so ironic for

me

to be on nasa calls preparing our moxie

instrument for launch

and to be on the exact same day

on calls with student activists about

announced regulations

that had over one million of us

as international students in the u.s on

the verge of getting deported

the space sector is a notoriously

unrepresentative field

lacking diversity and inclusion on so

many

different levels however space

is just a minor example of the bigger

problem of nationality-based

discrimination

and opportunities around the world we

like to think of space endeavors as ones

that bring humanity together

and reflection about our place in the

universe

that pale blue dot the astronauts see

from space

erasing the mental lines dividing our

planet into different countries

but current policy sadly makes space

just another example of the red taping

of opportunities based on birth rights

perseverance is not just the story of

the rover

it is the story of the thousands of

women and immigrants

who persevered and broke barriers to

make this happen

no one chooses their nationality

a dream knows no nationality

technology and pushing the boundaries of

our human exploration

with talent and ambition knows no

nationality

the oxygen we produce on mars knows no

nationality

i don’t necessarily have a clear

solution for this problem

but i live the struggle every day of my

life and i know

i’m not the only one there are over

1 million international students in the

united states alone

and i want you all to know about this

today more than ever we need to address

this topic

that we don’t talk about as often the

opportunities that come with

nationalities

we need to not only acknowledge but

actively

fight this type of discrimination on a

personal

and systematic level and we need to

start

somewhere for those of you listening to

this talk

whether you are academics engineers

scientists policymakers artists

journalists students or employers

raise awareness to this topic focus

on diversity discussions make

immigrants feel welcome and

put the extra effort to navigate

the paperwork of a foreign national

i’m an example of someone who is

fortunate enough

to be getting an education on some of

the best

cutting-edge technology in my field

and yet i’m still denied full access

due to my passport i have been given the

instructions

but no access to the tools i need to

utilize these instructions

to my highest potential

after a year of unending crises

that had all of us on a global scale

we need to start realizing the value

of uniting efforts from around the globe

that in order to tackle any of our big

global problems we need to change our

mentality

not to be about where a person comes

from but rather about what they have to

offer

no one chooses their nationality and no

one

should be penalized for it i’m

dedicating this talk

to everyone who has been denied an

opportunity

because of his passports to all my

foreign national friends

who share in the struggle

we should work together on all the

angles that highlight this problem

and help out people affected by it

especially

in the more restricted fields like the

space sector

because space is and should always be

a space for everyone thank you