How US sanctions are targeting Iranian education

In the last week of August, I received several messages from Iran , all bewildered, about the English language proficiency exams having been cancelled. "Students like me are very surprised and shocked," one of them said, "because it is unaffordable to take the exam abroad." Since the 12-day war of June 2025 , and then the US war that began in February 2026, students have travelled to Turkey or Armenia to sit the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), a journey that requires planning and money at a time when the war has disrupted the first and sanctions have devoured the second.