Continued Pressure on Professors Supporting Protesters; Mostafa Azarakhshi, Theology Professor at Beheshti University, Dismissed

Mostafa Azarakhshi, a suspended faculty member of the Faculty of Theology at Beheshti University in Tehran, announced his dismissal. This assistant professor, who supported the protesters, wrote in a note on his Instagram page: "They told me to come and hand over my office at the university. I went and saw that before I arrived, my name had been removed from the door of my office." Mostafa Azarakhshi was suspended from teaching at Beheshti University in October of last year during the nationwide protests of 1401 following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police. According to HRANA, the news agency of human rights activists, he is among a hundred professors who signed a statement calling for the release of detained protesting students last year. In recent months, several professors supporting the protesters, including Hassan Bagherinia, a former professor of psychology and educational sciences at Hakim Sabzevari University, and Alireza Azad, a theology professor at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, have faced forced retirement or dismissal. Following the nationwide protests last year, which began with the central slogan "Women, Life, Freedom," many students joined the protesters, and several university professors supported them. In response, the Islamic Republic government has not only suppressed the protesters and students but has also dismissed many professors who do not align with its policies and figures supporting the protests from universities. In mid-September of this year, the Jam-e Jam newspaper, the press organ of the Islamic Republic's broadcasting organization, referred to universities as "a breeding ground for opposition" and called on the government of Ebrahim Raisi to more decisively dismiss "deviant" professors. Previously, dozens of academic figures outside Iran protested the dismissal of professors, considering this action by the Islamic Republic as a continuation of four decades of pressure and repression in Iran's educational environments. The Etemad newspaper had previously reported that following the dismissal of tens of thousands of professors from Azad University in the new academic year, "first or second semester doctoral students" have replaced them. Hassan Bagherinia, the dismissed professor, after being summoned to the prosecutor's office, stated: this is the "decline of the university in the sacred Islamic system." The theology professor at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad was dismissed for "supporting students' rights." Akbar Jafari, a physics professor at Sharif University, resigned following his "summons" and interrogation. The security atmosphere in educational environments has intensified; 18,000 "revolutionary" students have replaced "contractual" professors.