There has been a disturbing and increasing trend in employment discrimination against Iranians in US recently. Iranians have become prey of choice as of late and the predators usually get away with total impunity. Most of the victims of such discrimination remain silent and never file a complaint. However recently such incidents have become so rampant that few of the cases have been even reported in media with limited exposure. Just in past couple of weeks two cases of employment discrimination involving Iranian employees surfaced in the media:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=340656
Another case involved Merill Lynch company that was caught firing two Iranian employees in two separate incidents for the sole reason that they were Persian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill_Lynch#Violation_of_Civil_Rights_of_Iranian-Muslim_employees
http://www.dealbreaker.com/2007/07/post_364.php
Merrill Lynch was forced to pay a penalty of $1.6 million in one case while the US Government file a law suit against the company
on behalf of the Iranian employee in the second case.
Despite of efforts by some Iranian organizations to address this disturbing trend Iranian-American society has remained oblivious to this issue for most part. While racial slurs and bigoted comments addressed toward other groups and minorities have been condemned and deemed inappropriate when it comes to Iranians it’s still open season.
Iranian community has to confront this trend by educating the public, persuading the congress to pass legislation condemning bigotry toward Iranians and perhaps with other punitive measures like boycotting the companies that condone such practices.
