An organization of Canadian doctors with roots in Iran is denouncing a Montreal-based organization’s plan to honor a Tehran doctor they accuse of spreading incorrect information about COVID-19 and maintaining the regime’s sexist attitudes.
The International Society of Urology invited Dr. Nasser Simforoosh to Montreal and earned a Distinguished Service Award on November 10.
“He’s the embodiment of everything Canada doesn’t stand for,” said Dr. Mahyar Etminan, an eye epidemiologist at the University of British Columbia.
Simforoosh, who studied in the United States, heads the urology branch at Shahid Labbafinejad Medical Center in Tehran, a hospital and primary training.
In early 2021, Simforoosh signed an open letter urging the Iranian regime to ban the import of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, arguing that the Western generation is below standard, claiming that the U. S. is not yet the norm. The U. S. government had poor motives for offering the vaccines and echoing refuted claims about gene editing.
The regime banned the injections a short time later, a move Canadian doctors say has contributed to Iran’s highest COVID-19 death rates.
Etminan said the letter signed through Simforoosh amounted to “preventing life-saving treatment at a time when other people were dying, adding many of his own colleagues in Iran. “
Meanwhile, those who studied with Simforoosh said he did his best to separate patients’ interactions by gender.
Doctors say that while nutrition separates men and women in situations, medical education regularly exposes both, so doctors working in remote spaces can treat both sexes.
“It’s a double standard; if someone like Dr. Simforoosh worked in Canada, he would have been fired from all the communities and professional medical organizations,” said Dr. Katayoun Rahnavardi, a doctor with the circle of relatives in Vancouver.
“Now we give him a prize; It doesn’t seem fair to us. “
Simforoosh responded to an email request for comment.
The International Society of Urology declined to say whether Simforoosh would go to Montreal, or how it selects the winners.
“The SIU has won several emails and communications with allegations about Dr. Simforoosh. While those allegations are baseless, the SIU takes them seriously,” an unattributed email read.
The organization said it had publicly announced this year’s winners, but chose Simforoosh “based on his medical achievements” and can simply say whether the allegations were true.
“Our organization is conducting relevant investigations,” he said.
However, six doctors who contacted the SIU and an online petition say the SIU never approached to verify their claims, and an October letter to Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly went unanswered.
“I feel like they didn’t take us seriously, they didn’t take the time to look at what we say,” Rahnavardi said.
Joly’s office and Global Affairs Canada provided no comment Friday on whether the SIU will award the award.
The Immigration Department said it can only comment on express cases, such as whether Simforoosh was granted a visa.
Dr. Hamidreza Abdi, Professor of Urology at Western University in London, Ontario. reported through Simforoosh and said that he was a good doctor who had retrograde views.
“I fled Iran for other people like him,” Abdi said.
During her residency at the hospital, Abdi recalled coming to Simforoosh to distract him while her classmates attended male surgeries so they could learn.
“This is the right time to award the prize to this guy when Iranian women are on the streets fighting for the same values he opposed. “
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