The refugee organic chemist

A mere six months ago, Abdul* was in a desperate situation. He had fled his native Afghanistan for Iran with his family when he was a small child and went on to become one of first Afghans to study chemistry at a top Iranian university, but after returning to Afghanistan as an adult and publicly engaging in human rights activism there, he once again needed to escape and about nine years ago he was able to procure visas for himself, his wife and children to return to Iran by entering an organic chemistry PhD programme there. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago his PhD programme was ending, which would force them all to return to Afghanistan where they wouldn’t be safe, and it had been a year since he was last paid by the university. Abdul was unable to support his family in Iran and was facing the prospect of deportation back home to face persecution as a Hazara ethnic minority. But just when all hope had faded, his luck finally changed.