Dr. Alireza Chizari, President of the Association for the Supply and Export of Medical and Pharmaceutical Equipment, stated in an interview with Rian on the sidelines of the 25th IranPharma Exhibition:
“There is no brain drain of Iranian elites! Perhaps some highly educated individuals leave, but they are not true talents. A real elite is someone who, despite harsh conditions, sanctions, self-imposed restrictions, and countless regulatory obstacles, stays, builds, and develops. They remain themselves, and their family remains with them.
It is not someone who only takes personal gain and sends the rest—their children and family—to foreign lands like Scandinavia or the New World. Someone who spends six months of the year in ‘Beverly Hills Iran’ and the other six months alongside foreigners, and prays excessively just for show—these people are not elites. They only have knowledge and a fear of change or disrupting the status quo.
A true elite is Avicenna. Al-Biruni. Zakariya Razi. Dr. Gharib. Martyr Chamran. Martyr Admiral Mohammad Ali Safa.
Otherwise, taking a handful of Iranian soil as a keepsake and weeping in the absence of the homeland is not elitism—it is weakness. True elites are those colleagues of ours in the pharmaceutical supply sector at this exhibition, who stand firm every day and serve despite a thousand challenges.
There is no brain drain… a true elite does not flee… they stay…”