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