Ali Sharifi Zarachi, the Dismissed Professor of Sharif University, Returns to the Classroom

Ali Sharifi Zarachi, a professor of artificial intelligence and bioinformatics at Sharif University of Technology, who was banned from teaching at universities and dismissed from Sharif University on September 4 last year, announced on September 5 this year that he would return to the classroom. This university professor, who supported student protests in 2022 and was interrogated by government forces, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday: "My return to Sharif University has been confirmed, and after a year-long hiatus, I will teach in the fall semester." He added in his post: "I thank God for serving the dear people of Iran. I am grateful for the support of the academic community, especially my colleagues at Sharif and dear students across Iran, and I will pursue the return of my other colleagues." While this professor announces his return to the classroom, the Islamic Association of Students at Sharif University had previously sent a letter to Hossein Simayi Sarraf, the new Minister of Science, on Tuesday, requesting the return of dismissed professors from this university. This association described the dismissal of professors from universities during Ebrahim Raisi's presidency as a "purification project" and warned about the "trend of the country being emptied of specialists," adding: "The result of such behavior towards professors is the creation of hopelessness and frustration among academics." Last September, while the wave of protests against the dismissal of protesting professors from Iranian universities continued, the president of Sharif University claimed that the "termination of cooperation" with faculty members of this university was "legal, is legal, and will be legal." The newspaper Etemad reported on September 13, 2023, that at least 110 professors had been dismissed or suspended from universities across the country, noting that these professors were either opponents of Ebrahim Raisi's election or had supported the protests in 2022 in Iran. The Islamic Association of Students at Sharif University demanded the return of dismissed professors amidst the wave of protests against the dismissals; the president of Sharif University claimed this was a "legal" action. Claims from a media outlet in Iran stated that a "famous" cleric became a professor at Tehran University. Reactions to the wave of dismissals of university professors included comments from Salehi, stating: "This is no longer a university." One professor from Sharif University described the covert recruitment of fifteen thousand professors aligned with the government as a "disaster."