Bread, Scholarships… and Children? How the Islamic Republic’s Exported-Revolution Package Comes with an Unlisted Clause
Bread, Scholarships… and Children? How the Islamic Republic’s Exported-Revolution Package Comes with an Unlisted Clause Lead paragraph: Tehran’s educational diplomacy—offering free tuition, boarding and scholarships to students from Africa and the developing world—has become a lesser-noticed conduit for ideological export. But another dimension of the scheme is now surfacing: children born to foreign students and clerics, whose legal status and recognition often remain unresolved. Body: The Islamic Republic has long sought “strategic depth” in Africa and the wider global south, building networks of foreign students, clerics and educational institutions. One international religious university affiliated with its institutions claims tens of thousands of foreign enrolments, with many students arriving from less-developed countries. In Africa and elsewhere, the pattern is familiar: offer a scholarship, lodging, perhaps cultural integration—then send someone home or into the fiel...
