U.S. immigration officials demanded that seven Iranian women delegates to the United Nations Beijing +5 Conference be fingerprinted before their entry into the country Monday. The United Nations invited the women, representing three non-governmental organizations, to the conference. Rather than consenting to be fingerprinted, the women returned home to Iran in protest. “We were taken by cars used to transport convicts at the airport. We were treated as if we were criminals,” said Sediqeh Hejazi. According to Hejazi, the official Iranian delegation to the conference was admitted into the United States without being fingerprinted. U.S. federal law requires visitors from four countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan — to be photographed and fingerprinted on arrival to the U.S.
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